New feature: Instant Dark/Light Mode

Mark Barnes (Logos)
Mark Barnes (Logos) Administrator, Logos Employee Posts: 1,888
edited November 21 in English Forum

Instant Dark/Light Mode allows switching between light and dark mode on desktop without requiring you to restart Logos. Logos has been the leading Bible study software for more than thirty years, and modernizing it to support light and dark mode switching across all of its features took many weeks of effort from our team of developers.

This oft-requested improvement is available to some users today via our early access to Logos Pro subscription. It will be more widely available later in the year. It's available on Mac and Windows.

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Comments

  • Fabian
    Fabian Member Posts: 1,009 ✭✭✭

    This as a Pro feature with subscription is totally BS. 

    Do you have to pay for an AI for this? I guess NO. 

    Χριστὸς ἐν ὑμῖν, ἡ ἐλπὶς τῆς δόξης· 

  • Mark
    Mark Member Posts: 2,636 ✭✭✭

    I am glad that it is now possible to switch without restarting.  But I agree that this should not be part of a subscription. I also am disappointed that the only choice is between dark and light mode and it is not possible to switch to other color modes such as various shades of gray.

  • Mark Barnes (Logos)
    Mark Barnes (Logos) Administrator, Logos Employee Posts: 1,888

    In a normal launch year, you'd have to wait until the launch of L11 to get access to this feature, just like dark mode itself was originally only available to Logos 9 customers, not Logos 8 customers. But this year, people who subscribe are getting early access to features that would normally only be available in the fall.

    We are not saying that this feature will forever be locked behind a subscription. A subscription is just the only way to get early access to this feature.

  • Mark
    Mark Member Posts: 2,636 ✭✭✭

    Thanks, Mark.  You are doing a good job communicating!  Very much appreciated. 

  • DMB
    DMB Member Posts: 13,413 ✭✭✭

    We are not saying that this feature will forever be locked behind a subscription ...

    I don't use dark/light ... never have. But the reason you had to restart was Faithlife short-cutting the feature design.  Then saying well, you need to pay for us to fix our design?

    Right.  

    Mark, for goodness sakes, why put egg on FL's face ... how valuable could the revenue be for D/L changing??  Now, the AI functionality, well sure.  It just seems you're ruining the great news you worked so hard on.

    "If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.

  • Sean
    Sean Member Posts: 1,761 ✭✭✭
  • Yasmin Stephen
    Yasmin Stephen Member Posts: 1,476 ✭✭✭

    I don't use dark/light ... never have. But the reason you had to restart was Faithlife short-cutting the feature design.  Then saying well, you need to pay for us to fix our design?

    That's how I feel about it as well, Logos now fixing something they didn't get right in the first place. This is not my fight; I'm always in dark mode due to light sensitivity, but I can't shake how really put off I feel about the ability to switch modes "without requiring you to restart Logos" presented as a new feature. I'll quote Mike here:

    super weird flex

  • David Thomas
    David Thomas Member Posts: 3,242 ✭✭✭

    A subscription is just the only way to get early access to this feature

    This would be a great "bone to toss toward" Connect Subscribers who were grandfathered in from Logos NOW with 6-week updates of newer features! reward the early adopters who bought into the vision of where you are headed.

    Making Disciples!  Logos Ecosystem = Logos10 on Microsoft Surface Pro 7 (Win11), Android app on tablet, FSB on iPhone, Proclaim (Proclaim Remote on Fire Tablet) &  FaithlifeTV via Connect subscription.

  • Fabian
    Fabian Member Posts: 1,009 ✭✭✭

    In a normal launch year, you'd have to wait until the launch of L11 to get access to this feature, just like dark mode itself was originally only available to Logos 9 customers, not Logos 8 customers. But this year, people who subscribe are getting early access to features that would normally only be available in the fall.

    We are not saying that this feature will forever be locked behind a subscription. A subscription is just the only way to get early access to this feature.

    To me it makes no sense what you are saying. Because you have disconnected the App itself from the releases last year. At that time it heard as no L11 will coming out. Always the new app will be updated. 

    For me Logos is inconsistent in the direction they will go. Or simply just ask every morning, how can we make more money today. As a German politician said: "Was interessiert mich das Geschwätz von Gestern?". As he on the next day told the complete opposite of yesterday. Or by many before the election and after. 

    Χριστὸς ἐν ὑμῖν, ἡ ἐλπὶς τῆς δόξης· 

  • Roger Pitot
    Roger Pitot Member Posts: 190 ✭✭

    Mark

    I don't know how you manage to keep calm (maybe you don't!) and so polite when every time you explain something so many people throw their toys out of the cot.

    Just know that many of us (the silent majority) are thankful for what you and the rest of the Logos team are doing and we understand that there are so many things to manage during a large change process.

    Bless you, and praying for you and the others for strength, wisdom and patience.

  • Kevin S. Coy, OFS
    Kevin S. Coy, OFS Member Posts: 309 ✭✭

    Just know that many of us (the silent majority) are thankful for what you and the rest of the Logos team are doing and we understand that there are so many things to manage during a large change process.

    Bless you, and praying for you and the others for strength, wisdom and patience.

    Yep....what Roger says.

    May the Lord leave you peace.

    KSC

    “Let us begin, brothers, to serve the Lord God, for up until now we have done little or nothing.”  St. Francis of Assisi

  • xnman
    xnman Member Posts: 2,779 ✭✭✭

    In a normal launch year, you'd have to wait until the launch of L11 to get access to this feature, just like dark mode itself was originally only available to Logos 9 customers, not Logos 8 customers. But this year, people who subscribe are getting early access to features that would normally only be available in the fall.

    We are not saying that this feature will forever be locked behind a subscription. A subscription is just the only way to get early access to this feature.

    Mark... Great job!   I understand fully the "evolution of software". And I like the feature. I find that sometimes I want "light" while most of the time I use "dark"... and I love the fact that now I can switch back and forth fast. 

    You're doing a great job!  

    xn = Christan  man=man -- Acts 11:26 "....and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch".

    Barney Fife is my hero! He only uses an abacus with 14 rows!

  • NathanL
    NathanL Member Posts: 143

    I don't think it's fair to label all who disagree with this as children throwing their toys out the cot.

    This is quite bizarre, this is a fix not a feature.

    "Your speech must always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person." - Colossians 4:6

  • GaoLu
    GaoLu Member Posts: 3,461 ✭✭✭

    I am deeply grateful we have it. I don't use it and don't subscribe, but still it's nice for those who want it and use it and subscribe.  And it's a perk for subscribing! 

    And I doubt this is Mark's decision.  We must not shoot the messenger.  Mark does a great job of communicating. 

  • Christian Alexander
    Christian Alexander Member Posts: 3,008 ✭✭

    I agree with Nathan. This is something I would use everyday as well. We must not shoot the messenger as others have said. “Don’t be mad at me,” Malachi must have said, “I’m just the messenger.” You see this in the opening verse of his prophecy. “An oracle: the word of the LORD to Israel through Malachi” (Malachi 1:1). The King James Version of the Bible reads, “The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi."

  • Sean
    Sean Member Posts: 1,761 ✭✭✭

    I don't think it's fair to label all who disagree with this as children throwing their toys out the cot.

    This is quite bizarre, this is a fix not a feature.

    LOL yes this was a horribly silly move.

  • Mike Binks
    Mike Binks Member, MVP Posts: 7,428 ✭✭✭

    I don't think it's fair to label all who disagree with this as children throwing their toys out the cot.

    This is quite bizarre, this is a fix not a feature.

    My first thought was to take Mark's statement

    more than thirty years, and modernizing it to support light and dark mode switching across all of its features took many weeks of effort from our team of developers.

    To imply that the change was not simple, like what it would have been if the software had been built as promised for the Mac from the ground up, but that the change involved a lot of 'tweaks' that might not be easy to separate from other features in the development model.

    I would guess that once the development model becomes the release version that this change will be incorporated in that for all users.

    tootle pip

    Mike

    How to get logs and post them.   (now tagging post-apocalyptic fiction as current affairs) Latest Logos, MacOS, iOS and iPadOS

  • 1Cor10 31
    1Cor10 31 Member Posts: 737 ✭✭

    We are not saying that this feature will forever be locked behind a subscription ...

    I don't use dark/light ... never have. But the reason you had to restart was Faithlife short-cutting the feature design.  Then saying well, you need to pay for us to fix our design?

    Right.  

    Mark, for goodness sakes, why put egg on FL's face ... how valuable could the revenue be for D/L changing??  Now, the AI functionality, well sure.  It just seems you're ruining the great news you worked so hard on.

    I have tried Dark Mode and it doesn't suit me. So I never will use it. But that doesn't mean I can't comment on what I think is not a good argument from Mark Barnes!

    I can't agree more with DMB. Not being able to switch between Dark and Light mode is a design flaw. How do we know that with reasonable certainty? Let's ask: Is there any other software/device maker who requires restart to switch? The answer to the best of my knowledge is "No". Therefore, what Logos is doing is a bug fix and an not an improvement. Just because it took weeks of coding to fix a design flaw doesn't make it an improvement. I'll give you an analogy. I once had a PhD student do some analysis for a paper that we were both writing. Found out that he made a serious mistake. I couldn't trust his work anymore. Had to take the data out of his hands and had to redo the whole analysis from scratch myself. Me spending all that time didn't make a better product; all it did was fix a broken product. Similarly, please don't use time spent coding to fix design flaws as an excuse to call it an improvement.

    I think it will be super helpful if Mark Barnes or Phil Gons or anyone from Logos (please, I am not interested in hearing from those who are going to bat for Logos) spells out what IS and what IS NOT a bug fix, which will not require subscription. It is perfectly fine for Logos to say, "look we release a set of features for purchase for $X and any future changes to the feature require subscription or can be bought after 2 years for additional $Y."  AS a business, they have a right to set prices the way they want and we as consumers can walk with our wallets.

     

     

    I believe in a Win-Win-Win God

  • Mark
    Mark Member Posts: 2,636 ✭✭✭

    That's how I feel about it as well, Logos now fixing something they didn't get right in the first place

    This is a feature that in many ways in my view is a test as to what the future holds.  This should not be part of a subscription.  AND it should continue to be fixed.  Now in light mode you can in program settings change the resource panel background.  But in dark mode you cannot?  How hard can it be to get this right?

  • GaoLu
    GaoLu Member Posts: 3,461 ✭✭✭

    Yeah but....Remember Logos Now?  You could subscribe and get some gadget a few weeks early (NOW!).  Who cared?  I suppose a few people did. Most subscribed for other reasons--I guess.  Fair enough.  A few more bucks for Logos. Everyone more or less got what they wanted. 

  • Frank Sauer
    Frank Sauer Member Posts: 1,432 ✭✭✭

    I personally do not use Dark Mode on the PC app, but do agree with the majority sentiment in the thread that this should not be locked behind a subscription, nor IMHO should it be a paid upgrade.

    For those who use the Dark Mode, were the issues with it ever fixed? IIRC, there was a major issue with Sentence Diagramming and one or two others that rendered Dark Mode useless for users that used the features that were impacted.

    Logos 10 - OpenSuse Tumbleweed, Windows 11, Android 15 & Android 14

  • Sean
    Sean Member Posts: 1,761 ✭✭✭

    Yeah but....Remember Logos Now?  You could subscribe and get some gadget a few weeks early (NOW!).  Who cared?  I suppose a few people did. Most subscribed for other reasons--I guess.  Fair enough.  A few more bucks for Logos. Everyone more or less got what they wanted. 

    Yes. I was one who subscribed to Logos Now and was fairly satisfied with the plan. And then they pulled it because it was too difficult to keep up with that. They replaced it with the inferior FaithLife Connect because of course everyone would be excited to have FaithLife TV! instead. Though they did kind of make up for it for old customers, this soured me on the idea of a Logos subscription.

    Now (see what I did there?) they're trying it again with Logos Pro--same promise of regular updates but now with AI! Which I'm about as interested in as I was FaithLife TV.

    (No really, while I couldn't resist taking those shots, I do wish Logos well with this new plan. But I also hope they are reading the room so they can avoid coming back six months later and saying, "Oops, we need to make some major changes yet again!")