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Yosemite and the Eyestrain

M

mcr834

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 29, 2014
10
0
I installed Yosemite-Beta today and I am very happy with the overall look except that I think that the new design is really bad for the eyes. The reason I think this is that the white color is so flashy and bright so you really need to concentrate hard to see the other elements.

For example the menu bar, you can hardly distinguish if your WiFi is connected or not because black color of the bars is just "drowned" through the whiteness of the bar.

I would love to be able to add the poll to see what you think about it but I don't see that option here (maybe admin could add it)
 
Would the dark theme help?

I was wondering this very thing when they showed off Mavericks at WWDC
 
maflynn said:
Would the dark theme help?

I was wondering this very thing when they showed off Mavericks at WWDC
Click to expand...

Actually I had the same thought but it doesn't! That makes it even worse because you have very dark black in the menu bar and flashy white in the main window.

I really don't care about the design of the system if it will make my eyes hurt after using it for some time because I use computer for work...
 
certainly needs a retina screen.. the air screen and helvetica don't mix (but bearable). dark theme helps.
 
MCAsan said:
Indeed the lack of contrast is very bad design....especially for us old timers. ;)
Click to expand...

I saw something in another thread that there is an increase contrast setting under Accessibility. From the screenshots in that thread it looked like it helped quite a bit. Might work for you.
 
Weaselboy said:
I saw something in another thread that there is an increase contrast setting under Accessibility. From the screenshots in that thread it looked like it helped quite a bit. Might work for you.
Click to expand...

^^This.

And the option to reduce transparency is also worth a try. It especially helps with menu bar readability issues.
 
I totally agree with the OP on this matter. But since I am now using the 'enhanced contrast' option under Accessibility things got a lot better for me. The buttons now feel like actual buttons, textfields also stand out clearly and together with disabling the transparency you will get a much better experience. I am also using the f.lux app (https://justgetflux.com) which helps by reducing the white point of the display and making it yellowish (you can customize the degree of 'yellow', of course), which is really really good for the eyes. Worth giving it a try!

I posted under the 'Yosemite screenshots' section some pics which show this new 'Contrast' mode, I will put up the link here as well: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gwrmyye9z38esl4/AAC7qqDw5y9S-C6wZvBvH-CMa
 
eklisiarh said:
I installed Yosemite-Beta today and I am very happy with the overall look except that I think that the new design is really bad for the eyes. The reason I think this is that the white color is so flashy and bright so you really need to concentrate hard to see the other elements.

For example the menu bar, you can hardly distinguish if your WiFi is connected or not because black color of the bars is just "drowned" through the whiteness of the bar.

I would love to be able to add the poll to see what you think about it but I don't see that option here (maybe admin could add it)
Click to expand...

I don't think the problem is the white, the problem is the thinness of the icons. The wifi icon is probably the worst of the bunch, when I have five bars I have to double take as it appears that they might be grayed out. It is even worse on non-retina displays.
 
Certain things like Safari bookmarks are just too thin.

Also, certain menu bar items like the "Time Remaining" in the battery icon are just too hard to read.
 
I have this eye strain, visual blurry with yosemite (27" imac) after 10-15 mins of browsing.

I have backup of my Maverick OS, reboot, and none of this weird visual blurry happens. I think the Yosemite is too FLAT in lacks of better terms. It has no depth what-so-ever.

Now I re-installed Maverick to second partition in main HD. Still using Yosemite but not for browsing purpose but for some music/audio apps.
 
This is an interesting thread as I have just recently entered Mac world and bought the 27" Retina model.

Since doing so I'm getting eye strain and headaches. It just isn't comfortable to use.

I have the screen brightness down to about 25% but this doesn't stop the headaches and shouldn't be the answer I guess.

Any suggestions?
 
Bazza01 said:
Thanks Jessica.

Excuse my ignorance but where do I find this and how do I install?
Click to expand...

The one I have is over here: https://github.com/schreiberstein/lucidagrandeyosemite

There's a few other versions too.

They seem to have reduced transparency on by default now... (I did a reinstall yesterday). It helps to have that on, and then have a desktop background that is darker at the top so it's not too white.

It's pretty lame that you're having the same problems on a retina display of that size. I blame my problems mostly because I'm using a crappy TV as my monitor.
 
Jessica Lares said:
The one I have is over here: https://github.com/schreiberstein/lucidagrandeyosemite

There's a few other versions too.

They seem to have reduced transparency on by default now... (I did a reinstall yesterday). It helps to have that on, and then have a desktop background that is darker at the top so it's not too white.

It's pretty lame that you're having the same problems on a retina display of that size. I blame my problems mostly because I'm using a crappy TV as my monitor.
Click to expand...

Many thanks.

I'll give it a try.
 
Jessica Lares said:
The one I have is over here: https://github.com/schreiberstein/lucidagrandeyosemite

There's a few other versions too.

They seem to have reduced transparency on by default now... (I did a reinstall yesterday). It helps to have that on, and then have a desktop background that is darker at the top so it's not too white.

It's pretty lame that you're having the same problems on a retina display of that size. I blame my problems mostly because I'm using a crappy TV as my monitor.
Click to expand...

OMG, Yosemite looks so much better using the old font. I had gotten used to the sterile, austere look of Helvetica Nue; the old one is much more pleasing to the eye.
 
For what it's worth, I tried upgrading to Yosemite recently on a computer that is supposedly designed for it (a 13" Retina MBP). I already use F.Lux, which is great and solves eyestrain problems for me with Mavericks

I actually like Yosemite aesthetically. However, I ended up downgrading to Mavericks from my Time Machine Backup, since eyestrain was a big problem again--even with the reduce transparency/increase contrast settings (the increase contrast settings make the OS look ugly, but that's a minor issue).

Not sure what it is--I think my middle-aged eyes didn't respond well to the brightness of the grays, the lack of color differentiation, and the slim fonts. There are lots of people with worse eyes than me, so I'm guessing it's a problem for others. I'm going to try to wait out Yosemite and hope the next version of OSX is better in this regard.

In the meantime, I'd recommend using F.Lux and downgrading to Mavericks for anyone with eyestrain problems. There's nothing actually wrong with Mavericks if you don't need new features, and it should be supported for quite a while.
 
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Sorry for activating 1 year old thread. But I have same experience when moving from Mavericks to El Capitan last month until finally I gave up yesterday due to eye strain.
Are you still using Mavericks or is there any workaround to this issue?

Thanks a lot.

marivaux said:
For what it's worth, I tried upgrading to Yosemite recently on a computer that is supposedly designed for it (a 13" Retina MBP). I already use F.Lux, which is great and solves eyestrain problems for me with Mavericks

I actually like Yosemite aesthetically. However, I ended up downgrading to Mavericks from my Time Machine Backup, since eyestrain was a big problem again--even with the reduce transparency/increase contrast settings (the increase contrast settings make the OS look ugly, but that's a minor issue).

Not sure what it is--I think my middle-aged eyes didn't respond well to the brightness of the grays, the lack of color differentiation, and the slim fonts. There are lots of people with worse eyes than me, so I'm guessing it's a problem for others. I'm going to try to wait out Yosemite and hope the next version of OSX is better in this regard.

In the meantime, I'd recommend using F.Lux and downgrading to Mavericks for anyone with eyestrain problems. There's nothing actually wrong with Mavericks if you don't need new features, and it should be supported for quite a while.
Click to expand...
 
Isamilis said:
Sorry for activating 1 year old thread. But I have same experience when moving from Mavericks to El Capitan last month until finally I gave up yesterday due to eye strain.
Are you still using Mavericks or is there any workaround to this issue?

Thanks a lot.
Click to expand...

I posted on this thread some months back when I first bought my Mac and experienced eye strain using Yosemitie.

I persisted with it and I don't have the same issues any longer.

I put my experience down to using a new OS on a new system that my eyes were completely unused to as I came from a Windows 7 PC of which the screen resolution wasn't as great as the Mac Retina I now have.
 
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