The dark mode of Microsoft Word is getting darker

Microsoft is improving the dark mode in Word to make it even darker. The software manufacturer has started testing an update of Word that will color entire documents in a dark canvas. At the moment, Word has a dark mode that changes the ribbon and toolbars, but the canvas remains bright white. A future update of Word will also include the ability to switch the canvas in dark mode.

“This is a long-awaited feature of a lot of Office Insiders and we’m excited to make it happen,” explains Ali Forelli, program manager for Microsoft’s Word team. “In the dark mode, you will see that the previously white page color is now dark gray / black.” While the canvas will change, colors in a document will also be adjusted. Red, blue, yellow and other bright colors will be ‘slightly shifted to mute the overall effect of the color palette’ and match the dark background.

Image: Microsoft

There will be a switch mode button in the Word ribbon to toggle between a dark and light cloth, and options in Word to permanently disable the dark cloth as well. This new update to Word’s dark mode looks similar to the one currently in OneNote, which has options to switch between a dark and light cloth.

This darker mode is currently available for Office 365 beta testers, so it should be introduced to all Word users in the coming months.