About this plugin
Mini Dark Mode adds a dark mode switch to your site. Instead of running filters over every image or inverting your whole page (approaches that can break galleries, maps and photos), it toggles one class on the html element and lets a small set of CSS variables recolor text, backgrounds and components. Pages stay sharp, images stay exactly as you designed them, and your theme’s own styles keep working.
What it does
- Floating toggle button (bottom left or right) or a pill button with a text label — colors follow your accent color
- [minidarkmode] shortcode to place the toggle anywhere (menu, footer, page builder) — turn the floating button off and use the shortcode alone if you prefer
- Remembers each visitor’s choice in their browser (localStorage)
- Falls back to the operating system preference (prefers-color-scheme) for first-time visitors, and follows OS changes live until the visitor picks a side
- Applies the saved mode before first paint — no flash of light content
- Optional keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+Alt+D
- Optional transparent header in dark mode (works out of the box with Astra; includes the generic header class)
- Elementor, Spectra (UAGB), Visual Portfolio, MEC events and wpDiscuz get dedicated dark styling
- Respect for prefers-reduced-motion: transitions are disabled for visitors who ask for less motion
- No dark mode is applied to the login page or wp-admin — front end only
- Fully internationalized; translations are delivered through translate.wordpress.org
Color controls
Six built-in presets (Rose, Ocean Blue, Forest Green, Violet Purple, Amber Sunset, Slate Mono) fill every color control in one click, and every field stays editable afterwards — each field explains which parts of your site it affects. Full control over the dark palette from Settings → Mini Dark Mode: accent, links, headings, body text, borders, site and content backgrounds, plus a reference palette. Text that you colored inline with your accent color is kept in the accent color instead of being brightened.
One option keeps in-content headings in your accent color for sites whose light theme already uses colored content headings.
Fine-tuning
A dedicated “Advanced tweaks” area for per-site fine-tuning: pick a target (site header, site footer, sidebar, post content, widgets, tables, form fields, blockquotes, code blocks, links), pick a property (background, text or border colour) and pick a colour. Every rule you add applies only while dark mode is on. Targets, properties and colours are each validated against a fixed list on save and re-checked on output, so the generated stylesheet can only ever contain the declarations the plugin itself defines.
Accessibility
The button is a real button element with aria-pressed state, a visible focus ring for keyboard users, and translated labels. No motion for reduced-motion users, no layout shifts, no autoplaying anything.
Credits
- Inspired by WP Dark Mode by WPPOOL.