But what if you want to extend Chrome’s dark mode to websites as well? If so, you can apply black backgrounds to website pages with and without extensions to make Chrome pages darker. This is how to apply dark mode to websites in Google’s flagship browser.
How to Apply Dark Mode for Websites by Enabling a Flag Setting
An option that renders website content with a black theme does exist in Google Chrome. However, that option is a flag setting hidden within Chrome’s Experiments tab. You can apply a dark mode to websites by enabling the Auto Dark Mode for Web Contents flag.
Open Google Chrome, and click inside the browser’s URL address bar. Type chrome://flags/ in the website address bar, and press the Enter keyboard key. Now input the keyword enable-force-dark in the Search flags box at the top of the Experiments tab. Select Enabled on the drop-down menu for the Auto Dark Mode for Web Content option. Click the Relaunch button that appears at the bottom of Chrome.
Now you can check out the new dark website mode in Chrome. Open the Google page in the browser. That search engine will now have a dark background. All websites that previously had white backgrounds will now be dark with white text.
The Auto Dark Mode for Web Contents flag has several other Enabled dark mode settings. Those options apply different effects to the dark mode. Try applying some of that flag’s different settings to see their effects.
How to Apply Dark Mode for Websites With the Dark Reader Extension
There are also some extensions for Chrome with which you can apply a similar dark mode for websites. Dark Reader is one such extension that includes some good options. To add Dark Reader to Google’s flagship browser, click the Add to Chrome button on its web store page.
After installing Dark Reader, click that extension’s button on Chrome’s URL toolbar. If you can’t see it, click the Extensions jigsaw piece icon to select Dark Reader’s Pin option; then press the Dark Reader button to open the add-on as in the snapshot directly below.
If not already selected by default, click the Dark mode option there. That will apply a black background to most website pages. You can easily switch back by clicking the extension’s Light or Off options.
You can also customize the dark theme with the extension’s other options. Click the left and right arrow buttons for the Brightness, Contrast, Sepia, and Grayscale settings to configure those options. If you only want those settings applied to the open webpage, select the Only for option.
The dark theme will apply to all websites unless you select otherwise. Click Dark Reader’s Site list tab shown directly below. There you can configure the extension to apply its black theme only to specified websites by selecting Invert listed only. Then enter the website URLs for which to add black backgrounds.
Dark Reader’s More tab includes some additional customization settings for web pages. You can change the font on websites by clicking the Select a font drop-down menu on the More tab. Choose a font there, and press the X button to apply it.
Download: Dark Reader for Google Chrome (Free)
If you like dark modes, you’ll love the black backgrounds Google Chrome’s enable-force-dark flag setting and Dark Reader add to websites. Enabling the enable-force-dark flag is fine for adding a basic dark mode to sites, but Dark Reader offers greater flexibility with its extra customization settings.
Applying black backgrounds to websites with either method will give Google Chrome an even darker side when combined with Windows 11’s dark app mode.
