I'm over 40 and I do not have reading glasses. I have correction lenses for near-sightedness. Over the years I have gotten used to reading with my contacts in and I think my eyes have compensated for it. I had one near sighted parent and one far sighted parent; my optometrist is watching me to see which way my eyes are going to go. Three years ago, they started to move away from being near sighted, but over the last two years, they haven't changed at all.
My mom has reading glasses now (she is far sighted) and I can't recall if my dad had bifocals in his glasses (he was near sighted.) Chances are good I'll need some eventually and I expect they will be in addition to my contact lenses, rather than going to bifocals. Some days I want to switch to glasses all the time, but after a day of it, I'm always ready to go back to my contacts.
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Originally Posted by haydnfan
Well not everyone. I know people in their 40s all the way to their 60s that don't need reading glasses.
There are some people that have difficulty reading and concentrating on high contrast media. Try switching from black font on white background to either black font on sepia background, gray background or white font on black background.
Font settings as well have an impact on readability. You will read better on a serif font than a sans serif or a slab serif. I would suggest trying the Georgia font. Also the use of white spacing is important. Make sure that line spacing is 1.5 spaced or double spaced. Adjust the margins and font size until you have 10-15 words per line. Going less than or greater than that interval results in the line either feeling too short or too long.
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Originally Posted by Purple Lady
I have a problem with high contrast and white text on a black background is too much for me. It needs to be a pale gray or else my vision goes double. I usually use a light purple background with black text, but any color is better for me than white.
I've seen a few posts recently that say serif is better for reading, but for me sans serif is much easier. A lot of websites use sans serif I thought because it was supposed to be easier for screen reading.
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I think white on black is pretty hard to read for text. (It is okay for photo captions since I think photos look better on black backgrounds. I wouldn't want to read a whole paragraph that way.) Personally, I prefer dark brown font on a sepia/tan background (not often an option) or black font on an off white/gray background. I also keep my brightness turned down quite a lot -- I don't like my page to glow or to be very bright.
Interesting about fonts, as I have always preferred serif fonts over sans serif. I have also heard that sans serif is supposed to be easier/faster to read, and that may be true, but I think it is less pretty to look at than the other ones and will switch it in my ebooks if I can.