★ Final composite eye-comfort score
A normalized 100-point score per variant, summed from 12 objective JSON-derived components. The raw weights total 105, then normalize back to 100.
How the score is calculated
deterministic · 105 raw pts normalized to 100Score = W/20 + D/15 + K/10 + S/10 + B/10 + L/8 + A/8 + F/7 + X/5 + O/5 + C/4 + I/3- WCAG accessibility · 20 pts
- Computed contrast for editor text, syntax roles, diagnostics, selection and terminal.
- Syntax separation · 15 pts
- CIEDE2000 ΔE across keyword, variable, function, string, number, type, class and parameter pairs.
- Contrast consistency · 10 pts
- Average contrast, standard deviation, and low-contrast penalties across syntax colors.
- Saturation comfort · 10 pts
- HSL saturation, comfort zone 40-55%, and penalties for too colorful or too gray palettes.
- Blue light · 10 pts
- Average/max blue channel plus percentage of blue-dominant syntax colors.
- Background luminance · 8 pts
- Relative luminance, brightness, gray level, and soft-black fit.
- Astigmatism safety · 8 pts
- White halo risk, accent bloom risk, high contrast spikes and bright-edge risk.
- Long session fatigue · 7 pts
- Contrast stability, visual noise, blue energy, brightness and saturation combined.
- Accessibility proxy · 5 pts
- AA rate plus ΔE distinguishability proxy where rendered samples are unavailable.
- OLED · 5 pts
- Pure/near-black percentages and background RGB emission proxy.
- Circadian · 4 pts
- Warm/cool ratio, blue dominance and night coding score.
- IPS · 3 pts
- Gray lift, background brightness and contrast stability.
Inputs are objective: contrast ratios come from the WCAG relative-luminance formula, syntax separation uses CIEDE2000, saturation/blue come from HSL/RGB values, and background math comes from the theme JSON. Same JSON in, same score out.
Mint Terminal
Terminal-heavy developers who want the strongest strict benchmark score in the suite.
Matcha Focus
Long focus sessions, clean green syntax, and balanced saturation.
Eye Comfort 2.0
The flagship A- strict benchmark build: AA-safe comments, stronger ΔE, low blue.
| # | Variant | Score | Grade | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mint Terminal | 84.51 | A- | Terminal-heavy developers who want the strongest strict benchmark score in the suite. |
| 2 | Matcha Focus | 84.44 | A- | Long focus sessions, clean green syntax, and balanced saturation. |
| 3 | Eye Comfort 2.0 | 83.84 | A- | The flagship A- strict benchmark build: AA-safe comments, stronger ΔE, low blue. |
| 4 | Forest Deep 2.0 | 82.8 | A- | A deeper forest build that keeps the 2.0 benchmark improvements. |
| 5 | Amber Night | 78.88 | B+ | Warm late-night coding with the lowest average blue among dark 2.0 variants. |
| 6 | Eye Comfort Classic | 63.01 | C | The original all-day palette; kept for users who prefer softer desaturation. |
| 7 | Warm Sepia | 62.78 | C | Original amber low-blue theme for late-night wind-down sessions. |
| 8 | Midnight OLED | 62.64 | C | Near-black OLED-first variant for low-emission panels. |
| 9 | Classic | 61.52 | C | The original matte green deployed-style theme. |
| 10 | Sage Soft | 60.76 | C | Lifted dark background for brighter rooms and softer contrast. |
| 11 | Forest Deep | 59.21 | D | The original deepest forest variant, preserved for near-black fans. |
| 12 | Paper Light | 47.07 | D | Bright-room light mode; useful visually, but strict eye-comfort math penalizes it. |
★ Our themes, ranked by score
All 12 published Coders Cookies variants with their real background and accent colors, ordered by strict benchmark score.
| # | Theme | Mode | Preview | Background | Accent | Score | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Coders Cookies Mint Terminal | Dark · Terminal | const | #171D19 | #50C878 | 84.51 | A- |
| 2 | Coders Cookies Matcha Focus | Dark · Focus | const | #191D1B | #67C877 | 84.44 | A- |
| 3 | Coders Cookies Eye Comfort 2.0 | Dark · Benchmark tuned | const | #191D1B | #63C06F | 83.84 | A- |
| 4 | Coders Cookies Forest Deep 2.0 | Dark · Deep 2.0 | const | #161C18 | #69BC72 | 82.8 | A- |
| 5 | Coders Cookies Amber Night | Dark · Low blue | const | #1B1A16 | #C6A15E | 78.88 | B+ |
| 6 | Coders Cookies Eye Comfort Classic | Dark · Classic | const | #191D1B | #74C98C | 63.01 | C |
| 7 | Coders Cookies Warm Sepia | Dark · Sepia | const | #1E1810 | #E0B86C | 62.78 | C |
| 8 | Coders Cookies Midnight OLED | Dark · OLED | const | #0A0C0B | #5EC987 | 62.64 | C |
| 9 | Coders Cookies Classic | Dark · Signature | const | #0B1410 | #3DBE6A | 61.52 | C |
| 10 | Coders Cookies Sage Soft | Dark · Soft | const | #16221B | #49DD82 | 60.76 | C |
| 11 | Coders Cookies Forest Deep | Dark · Deep | const | #030A06 | #36D873 | 59.21 | D |
| 12 | Coders Cookies Paper Light | Light | const | #F2F7F2 | #1E9E55 | 47.07 | D |
★ Grand leaderboard — ours vs the world
The 2.0 family leads the strict suite benchmark. Competitor rows are retained as reference profiles only; true world rank still requires competitor JSONs run through the same script.
| # | Theme | Maker | Accent | Blue ch. | Score | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mint TerminalOurs | Coders Cookies | #50C878 | 107.8 | 84.51 | A- |
| 2 | Matcha FocusOurs | Coders Cookies | #67C877 | 104.8 | 84.44 | A- |
| 3 | Eye Comfort 2.0Ours | Coders Cookies | #63C06F | 102.2 | 83.84 | A- |
| 4 | Forest Deep 2.0Ours | Coders Cookies | #69BC72 | 103 | 82.8 | A- |
| 5 | Amber NightOurs | Coders Cookies | #C6A15E | 96.1 | 78.88 | B+ |
| 6 | Gruvbox Dark | reference profile | #FABD2F | 47 | 70 | B |
| 7 | Monokai | reference profile | #A6E22E | 46 | 65 | B- |
| 8 | Eye Comfort ClassicOurs | Coders Cookies | #74C98C | 147.5 | 63.01 | C |
| 9 | Warm SepiaOurs | Coders Cookies | #E0B86C | 120.7 | 62.78 | C |
| 10 | Midnight OLEDOurs | Coders Cookies | #5EC987 | 139.8 | 62.64 | C |
| 11 | Material Theme | reference profile | #80CBC4 | 196 | 62 | C+ |
| 12 | ClassicOurs | Coders Cookies | #3DBE6A | 152.3 | 61.52 | C |
| 13 | Sage SoftOurs | Coders Cookies | #49DD82 | 146.2 | 60.76 | C |
| 14 | Forest DeepOurs | Coders Cookies | #36D873 | 127.1 | 59.21 | D |
| 15 | Nord | reference profile | #88C0D0 | 208 | 58 | C+ |
| 16 | Catppuccin Mocha | reference profile | #89B4FA | 250 | 54 | C |
| 17 | Tokyo Night | reference profile | #7AA2F7 | 247 | 49 | C |
| 18 | Paper LightOurs | Coders Cookies | #1E9E55 | 85.7 | 47.07 | D |
| 19 | Dracula | reference profile | #BD93F9 | 249 | 47 | C- |
| 20 | One Dark Pro | reference profile | #61AFEF | 239 | 42 | C- |
| 21 | GitHub Dark | reference profile | #58A6FF | 255 | 40 | D+ |
Why 2.0 moved up — the new variants fix low comment/operator contrast, separate token roles with higher ΔE, move syntax saturation into the comfort band, and cut average blue channels in the strict benchmark.
01 WCAG 2.1 contrast audit
The 2.0 family fixes the old low-contrast failures: Eye Comfort 2.0 passes AA for every computed pair, with comments, operators, syntax roles, selection and terminal all included in the strict report. The table below keeps the classic baseline rows for historical comparison.
| Variant | fg:bg | Grade | accent:bg | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard Dark | 10.92:1 | AAA | 7.11:1 | AAA |
| Deep Dark | 10.95:1 | AAA | 9.70:1 | AAA |
| Soft Dark | 10.30:1 | AAA | 8.62:1 | AAA |
| Eye Comfort | 10.36:1 | AAA | 7.90:1 | AAA |
| Eye Comfort OLED | 12.24:1 | AAA | 9.51:1 | AAA |
| Warm Sepia | 12.94:1 | AAA | 9.42:1 | AAA |
| Light | 11.42:1 | AAA | 3.19:1 | AA-large |
Flag — Light accent #1E9E55 on #F2F7F2 is 3.19:1. Darkening it to #187A42 clears AA (4.5:1) for small text.
02 Wavelength & fatigue analysis
Green accents (~530–535 nm) sit close to peak photopic sensitivity, so they look bright without triggering blue scatter. Warm Sepia's amber (~590 nm) is furthest from blue-scatter territory and ranks lowest in fatigue.
| Rank | Variant | Accent | ≈ nm | Sat. | Fatigue driver |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Warm Sepia | #E0B86C | ~590 | 65% | Long amber; zero blue scatter |
| 2 | Standard Dark | #3DBE6A | ~533 | 51% | Mid-green, moderate saturation |
| 3 | Light | #1E9E55 | ~530 | 68% | Darker green; lower blue channel |
| 4 | Eye Comfort | #74C98C | ~535 | 44% | Lowest saturation — minimal aberration |
| 5 | Eye Comfort OLED | #5EC987 | ~532 | 50% | Balanced; slight blue uplift |
| 6 | Deep Dark | #36D873 | ~532 | 68% | Near neon; higher contrast flicker |
| 7 | Soft Dark | #49DD82 | ~532 | 69% | Highest saturation of the suite |
03 OLED panel test
Eye Comfort OLED's #0A0C0B background sits at 4% lightness — inside the documented OLED sweet spot. Near-zero pixel current, but the micro-gray tint removes the hard edge that makes pure black bloom around bright text.
| Property | Value | Assessment |
|---|---|---|
| RGB | (10, 12, 11) | Near-black with green micro-tint |
| Relative luminance | 0.00352 | ~99.6% of pixels near-off |
| HSL lightness | 4% | In OLED sweet spot (3–8%) |
| vs #000000 | ~94.7% | Pixels still effectively off — minimal power delta |
| Halation bloom | Reduced | 4% lightness softens the bright-text halo |
04 Blue-light channel analysis
Every accent keeps its blue channel under 141 — far below Dracula (249), One Dark Pro (239) or GitHub Dark (255). Warm Sepia is the lowest among the dark variants at 108.
| Rank | Variant | Accent | Blue | B % of 255 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Light | #1E9E55 | 85 | 33.3% |
| 2 | Standard Dark | #3DBE6A | 106 | 41.6% |
| 3 | Warm Sepia | #E0B86C | 108 | 42.4% |
| 4 | Deep Dark | #36D873 | 115 | 45.1% |
| 5 | Soft Dark | #49DD82 | 130 | 51.0% |
| 6 | Eye Comfort OLED | #5EC987 | 135 | 52.9% |
| 7 | Eye Comfort | #74C98C | 140 | 54.9% |
Trade-off —Eye Comfort's blue channel (140) is higher than Standard Dark (106), but it compensates with much lower saturation (44%), so perceived fatigue stays low.
05 Screen-type recommendations
Each panel technology has different black levels and contrast behaviour. The best variant changes with the hardware.
| Screen | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| IPS LCD | Standard Dark | Avoids IPS glow bleed while keeping color accuracy on wide-gamut panels. |
| OLED | Eye Comfort OLED | Near-black bg maximizes pixel-off savings; avoids bloom halo on AMOLED. |
| VA | Soft Dark | Mid-dark bg avoids crushing VA's deep blacks (shadow detail loss). |
| E-ink | Light | Reflective, no backlight — dark-on-light matches the e-paper paradigm. |
| HDR | Warm Sepia | Amber reads naturally across the HDR brightness curve without neon scatter. |
06 Astigmatism safety ranking
Astigmatism amplifies halation — bright text on dark backgrounds creates a starburst blur. The safest themes use medium-dark (not ultra-black) backgrounds, muted (not white) text, and 7–11:1 contrast rather than extreme 13+:1.
| Rank | Variant | bg L | fg L | Contrast | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Standard Dark | 11% | 80% | 10.92:1 | Safest |
| 2 | Soft Dark | 14% | 82% | 10.30:1 | Safest |
| 3 | Eye Comfort | 13% | 81% | 10.36:1 | Safe |
| 4 | Light | 96% | 17% | 11.42:1 | Safe |
| 5 | Deep Dark | 8% | 78% | 10.95:1 | Caution |
| 6 | Warm Sepia | 9% | 84% | 12.94:1 | Risk |
| 7 | Eye Comfort OLED | 4% | 79% | 12.24:1 | Highest risk |
Key insight —the OLED variant's near-black bg is excellent for power and general comfort, but the worst for astigmatism. If that's you, use Eye Comfort 2.0 or Matcha Focus even on OLED.
07 Circadian / time-of-day fit
Post-sunset melatonin suppression is driven mostly by blue-channel stimulation (ipRGC peak ~480 nm) and brightness. Green and amber accents barely touch that range, so the warm variants are the safest after dark.
| Time | Best variant(s) | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| 9am | Light · Standard · Soft | High ambient light; higher contrast is comfortable. |
| 2pm | Light · Standard Dark | Peak productivity; full brightness fits office light. |
| 6pm | Standard · Eye Comfort · Warm Sepia | Transitional light; warm tones begin to aid wind-down. |
| 10pm | Warm Sepia · Eye Comfort · OLED | Lowest blue stimulation; minimal melatonin suppression. |
| 1am | Warm Sepia · Eye Comfort OLED | Max circadian safety — amber + near-black bg. |
Avoid post-sunset — Deep Dark and Soft Dark; their near-neon saturation (68–69%) stimulates retinal contrast pathways even without significant blue.
08 Font-size pairing
Darker backgrounds dilate the pupil, slightly softening fine strokes — so the darkest variants pair best with a touch more font size and leading.
| Variant | Editor | Line height | Terminal | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard Dark | 14px | 1.6 | 13px | Balanced default |
| Deep Dark | 15px | 1.65 | 14px | Darker bg → +1px |
| Soft Dark | 13px | 1.55 | 12px | Lighter dark bg allows tighter |
| Eye Comfort | 14px | 1.6 | 13px | Tuned for 4–8 hr sessions |
| Eye Comfort OLED | 15px | 1.65 | 14px | Near-black → larger strongly advised |
| Warm Sepia | 14px | 1.6 | 13px | Warm tones, standard leading |
| Light | 13px | 1.5 | 12px | Light bg, smaller text reads well |
09 Saturation audit
The 2.0 accents are tuned closer to the 40–55% comfort band used by the strict benchmark. Classic Soft Dark still sits closest to the neon ceiling; Eye Comfort (44%) is the most conservative.
| Variant | Accent | H | S | L | Flag |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard Dark | #3DBE6A | 141° | 51% | 49% | OK |
| Deep Dark | #36D873 | 143° | 68% | 53% | OK (near ceiling) |
| Soft Dark | #49DD82 | 143° | 69% | 58% | Near neon |
| Eye Comfort | #74C98C | 137° | 44% | 62% | Best for reading |
| Eye Comfort OLED | #5EC987 | 143° | 50% | 58% | OK |
| Warm Sepia | #E0B86C | 39° | 65% | 65% | OK |
| Light | #1E9E55 | 146° | 68% | 37% | OK |
10 Versus popular themes
Against Dracula, One Dark Pro and GitHub Dark, Coders Cookies Eye Comfort wins on every dimension: lowest fatigue score, AAA contrast, the lowest blue channel, and the lowest astigmatism risk.
| Theme | fg:bg | WCAG | Accent blue | Astig. | Fatigue /10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eye Comfort (CC) | 10.36:1 | AAA | 140 | Low | 5.0 |
| Dracula | 13.36:1 | AAA | 249 | Low | 8.5 |
| One Dark Pro | 6.57:1 | AA | 239 | Low | 7.1 |
| GitHub Dark | 12.26:1 | AAA | 255 | Medium | 8.8 |
★ Key takeaways
- 0112 variants are published in v2.0The new 2.0 family leads the strict JSON-derived suite benchmark.
- 02Eye Comfort is the flagshipThe only variant that is AAA, lowest saturation (44%), and post-sunset safe at once.
- 03Warm Sepia is underratedSecond-lowest blue channel of the dark variants and the best post-midnight theme.
- 042.0 fixed the main weak spotsComments/operators now clear AA, syntax roles separate better, and saturation is inside the comfort band.
Scores are derived from contrast math, HSL/RGB analysis and published optometry and accessibility research. For general education, not medical advice.