Bug 170087 - Annoying white flash on Windows dark mode
Summary: Annoying white flash on Windows dark mode
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: LibreOffice (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
unspecified
Hardware: All Windows (All)
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: Windows-Dark-Mode
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2025-12-22 12:56 UTC by Hossein
Modified: 2025-12-23 11:28 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Screen record of white flash on Windows (3.28 MB, video/x-matroska)
2025-12-22 13:09 UTC, Hossein
Details

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Description Hossein 2025-12-22 12:56:14 UTC
Description:
When you open LibreOffice, when you open a new window, or when you use a menu bar, you will see that first a white context is created, and then it is changed into dark. That causes annoying white flash effect.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Make sure that dark mode is active on Windows.
2. Open LibreOffice and open a few windows (like "Tools > Options", etc.
3. Open a menu bar item and try moving the mouse between different menus.

Actual Results:
You may see a white window is created, and then it becomes dark, and then contents are added. The whole thing happens in relatively short time (depending on machine speed), but it is visible to the user.

Expected Results:
In dark mode, every window should be dark from the initial creation.


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: No

Additional Info:
Version: 25.8.3.2 (X86_64)
Build ID: 8ca8d55c161d602844f5428fa4b58097424e324e
CPU threads: 20; OS: Windows 11 X86_64 (build 26200); UI render: Skia/Vulkan; VCL: win
Locale: en-US (en_US); UI: en-US
Calc: CL threaded
Comment 1 Hossein 2025-12-22 13:09:49 UTC
Created attachment 204754 [details]
Screen record of white flash on Windows

This is a screen record that shows white flash in:

* LibreOffice startup
* Tools > Options window creation
* Selecting menus from menu bar and moving the mouse around
Comment 2 Hossein 2025-12-22 13:32:21 UTC
I guess Vulkan surface (or the way it is created) can be one source of this issue. Therefore, I copy the details here:

RenderMethod: vulkan
Vendor: 0x10de
Device: 0x25a0
API: 1.4.312
Driver: 581.228.0
DeviceType: discrete
DeviceName: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Laptop GPU
Denylisted: no

It is worth noting that I don't see such a white flash with the demo dark mode win32 application in below project (requires Visual Studio build):

Darkmodelib – Win32 Library for Dark Mode Support
https://github.com/ozone10/darkmodelib

Therefore, I think it can not be a driver and/or underlying win32 issue.
Comment 3 V Stuart Foote 2025-12-22 16:03:54 UTC
Confirmed, *very* brief flash before full draw in dark mode fo both skia/Vulkan and skia/Raster framing. But at this level of hw it is hard to consider it an annoyance.

RenderMethod: vulkan
Vendor: 0x10de
Device: 0x2803
API: 1.4.312
Driver: 581.16.0
DeviceType: discrete
DeviceName: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti
Denylisted: no

=-testing-=


Version: 25.8.4.2 (X86_64)
Build ID: 290daaa01b999472f0c7a3890eb6a550fd74c6df
CPU threads: 28; OS: Windows 11 X86_64 (build 26200); UI render: Skia/Vulkan; VCL: win
Locale: en-US (en_US); UI: en-US
Calc: CL threaded

Version: 25.8.4.2 (X86_64)
Build ID: 290daaa01b999472f0c7a3890eb6a550fd74c6df
CPU threads: 28; OS: Windows 11 X86_64 (build 26200); UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: en-US (en_US); UI: en-US
Calc: CL threaded
Comment 4 Hossein 2025-12-23 11:28:31 UTC
(In reply to V Stuart Foote from comment #3)
> Confirmed, *very* brief flash before full draw in dark mode fo both
> skia/Vulkan and skia/Raster framing. But at this level of hw it is hard to
> consider it an annoyance.
Maybe not everyone is affected by white flashes, but it is considered harmful for some people. Please see:

"Avoid flashing web content
Overview
Content that flashes repeatedly can be harmful to people with photo-sensitivity or seizure disorders like epilepsy. Flashing content can lead to reactions like vomiting and nausea, and trigger seizures if the flashes are severe enough."
https://marcom.wwu.edu/accessibility/guide/avoid-flashing-web-content

Also:

"Three Flashes or Below Threshold (Level A)
Individuals who have photosensitive seizure disorders can have a seizure triggered by content that flashes at certain frequencies for more than a few flashes. People are even more sensitive to red flashing than to other colors, so a special test is provided for saturated red flashing. These guidelines were originally based on guidelines for the broadcasting industry as adapted for desktop monitors, where content is viewed from a closer distance (using a larger angle of vision)."
https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG22/Understanding/three-flashes-or-below-threshold.html

There is also some pink flashes in Windows, in which I will file in another bug report.