Notion, iCloud, Word and Google Docs: light or dark in Safari

How to make Notion light mode

1. Click the down arrow next to your workspace name, then Settings ▸ Preferences.
2. Open the menu next to Appearance and choose Light.

Or press Command-Shift-L to switch between light and dark. Use system setting, the third choice, follows your Mac, so Notion turns dark whenever the Mac is in Dark Mode; choose Light to keep it light. Notion's help gives these steps for its desktop app: Notion account settings & preferences.

How to make iCloud.com light mode

iCloud.com has no light or dark switch of its own. Apple's guide says that when you turn on Dark Mode on your iPhone, iPad or Mac, you turn it on for iCloud.com too. So iCloud.com goes light with your Mac:

1. Open System Settings and click Appearance.
2. Choose Light.

That turns your whole Mac light, not only iCloud.com. To keep the Mac dark and iCloud.com light, the extension below is the way. The homepage's Customize ▸ Edit Background only changes the colour behind the homepage, not the site. Apple's guide: Customize the appearance of iCloud.com.

How to make Word for the web light mode

Word for the web turns Dark Mode on by itself when your Mac or browser is set to dark. To turn it off:

1. In a document, open the View tab.
2. Select Dark Mode to switch it off.

To keep Word dark around the page but see the page itself light, use Switch Backgrounds on the same tab. Word remembers the choice in that browser, as long as cookies are on, and documents always print on a light page. Microsoft's guide: Dark Mode in Word.

Google Docs: dark mode in Safari

Google's Dark theme for Docs, Sheets and Slides is a setting in the iPhone, iPad and Android apps; Google's help describes no dark theme for Docs in a browser. Google Drive on a computer has one (Settings ▸ Appearance: Light, Dark or Device default), but Google's page doesn't say it reaches your documents. Google's guides: Use Dark theme in Google Docs, Sheets & Slides and Use dark mode in Google Drive.

So for a dark Google Docs in Safari on a Mac, the route is an extension that recolours the page.

For the rest: a skin for that one site

Cameleon is our Safari extension for this. Open the site, choose a skin from Cameleon's toolbar button, and the page's colours change while its layout, text and links stay as they are. A skin chosen for a site is remembered for that site only, so iCloud.com can be light while the rest of your Mac stays dark.

• To make a site light: the two light skins, Sunset (warm paper, indigo type) and Yardage Book (sage paper, navy), go ahead on a page that is already dark, including one with a dark mode of its own.
• To make a site dark: the three dark skins, Midnight, Dusk and Legacy. A dark skin leaves a site's own dark mode alone, unless you choose a skin for that site.

What we haven't measured. We publish contrast figures for the sites we have measured, before and after. Notion, iCloud.com, Word and Google Docs aren't among them, because they need signing in and our measurements are only of public pages. Try Cameleon on them during the free week and see.

Switching the extension on

1. Open Cameleon once, then Safari ▸ Settings ▸ Extensions and tick Cameleon.
2. Safari warns that the extension can read and alter what is on every page, as it does for any extension that works on every site. What Cameleon actually reads, and never does.
3. To keep it to the sites you choose: Open Safari ▸ Settings ▸ Extensions, select Cameleon and click Edit Websites…; Set “When visiting other websites” to Ask, or to Deny; On a site you want recoloured, click Cameleon in the toolbar and choose Always Allow on This Website.

For other sites, and for Safari Reader and macOS Dark Mode, see how to make websites dark, or light, in Safari.

Cameleon needs macOS 13 or later, with Safari. Seven days free, then $3.99 once; a licence covers two Macs.