Tuesday, October 14, 2008

ouch

I have written before about the annoyance of trying to read light text on a dark background (especially white on black).

But now a helpful blogger has produced a simulation for people who don't read their own blogs.

If this doesn't convince people, you can always install the "black on white" toolbar button, which turns any page you are reading into black text on a white background.

6 comments:

Andy said...

You're right, such a colour combination is actually physically painful to read and as someone with a visual impairment it renders the blog useless to me. This means the blogger actually doesn't achieve their end goal - communication! I just have to pass it by.

Yewtree said...

Well, now you can use the black on white toolbar button (if you really want to read the person's blog).

Joe said...

I'm actually the other away around, I prefer light text on dark background, not just on aesthetic grounds but because it is easier on my eyes. I find the normal white screens and dark backgrounds very painful after a little while, in fact at work I'll often resort to my prescription sunglasses after a few hours to ease the screen glare pain. The only reason I have my own blog dark text on light background is to keep everyone else happy, but for sensitive eyes its not very nice.

Steve Hayes said...

I don't mint light text on a dark background. My first computers had white text on an amber or green background. But light-grey text on dark grey background in a tiny font is impossible for me to read, especially on my desktop computer, so I usually just skip those blogs.

Balador said...

I actually prefer light text on a dark background and found the other way round much more painful. I think his comment about people being used to reading dark text on a white background isn't totally accurate. People are used to reading black text on paper which is unlit. In my mind any large area of bright white light from a screen is going to hurt the eyes.

Mahud said...

I'm a lover of light on dark, but I'll probably stick to a dark on light for my own blog, because, it really does seem that that's the most accessible way to do things.

I agree with Steve. Gray on Gray is very nasty and impossible to read on some monitors.

I think the example was a bit on the extreme side. There are ways to tone a light on dark colour scheme. It doesn't have to be eye killer white on a super shiny solid black background.

If you must have a light on dark colour scheme use pretty colours ,with enough foreground-background contrast.

I find this to be a very helpful too: Colour Contrast Check.