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Originally Posted by pilotbob
Why do you say that? Can you point to any studies?
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there are
tons of articles on this topic, and you can find some to support any viewpoint, particularly since the overwhelming majority of them are simply based on the personal preferences of the writer. however here are two which support what i was saying earlier :
http://blog.tatham.oddie.com.au/2008...is-a-bad-idea/
Quote:
However, most studies have shown that dark characters on a light background are superior to light characters on a dark background (when the refresh rate is fairly high). For example, Bauer and Cavonius (1980) found that participants were 26% more accurate in reading text when they read it with dark characters on a light background.
Reference: Bauer, D., & Cavonius, C., R. (1980). Improving the legibility of visual display units through contrast reversal. In E. Grandjean, E. Vigliani (Eds.), Ergonomic Aspects of Visual Display Terminals (pp. 137-142). London: Taylor & Francis
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(emphasis mine)
and an interesting explanation which is highly pertinent to my own case :
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People with astigmatism (aproximately 50% of the population) find it harder to read white text on black than black text on white. Part of this has to do with light levels: with a bright display (white background) the iris closes a bit more, decreasing the effect of the "deformed" lens; with a dark display (black background) the iris opens to receive more light and the deformation of the lens creates a much fuzzier focus at the eye.
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as it happens, i have astigmatism, although i hadn't heard about this effect until today. when i try to read light text on a dark background, the text seems to vibrate and i in only a few seconds i start to feel a bit dizzy (like motion sickness) and my head starts to hurt.
another good article :
http://www.456bereastreet.com/archiv...s_readability/
and then there is the separate but equally important problem of accessibility to people with colour blindness :
http://accessibility.psu.edu/color.html
you can use online simulators to see what different colour schemes look like to people with colourblindness, like this one
http://www.etre.com/tools/colourblindsimulator/
or this one
http://www.tsi.enst.fr/~brettel/colourblindness.html
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Do you remember Dsiegel's web wonk? He was a typographer that had a web site on how to make a web site usable and readable. He talked about this issue, colors and contrast. He didn't suggest a dark foreground with light foreground, but did suggest a muted color for the background.
The web site isn't up any more but I'm pretty sure it can be found in the internet archive. While the typography stuff all applies today the layout methods he specified are very arcane now that we have the new CSS 2.x and HTML 4 stuff.
Yes, here it is, I found it. http://web.archive.org/web/200604280...egel.com/tips/
Read the Netscape Background Colors test topic.
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that actually supports what i was saying : the best readability can be obtained using dark text on a light background. the fact that he suggests a pastel colour rather than pure white goes back to the problem of luminosity which i mentioned : a white background on a computer, because the screen is *emitting* light, is very fatiguing for the eyes, but it's because of the luminosity, not the contrast ratio or colour scheme. this is why reducing the luminosity of the screen is very important (the default settings on most screens are like staring directly at the sun, it's like the manufacturers have some sort of sadistic desire to torture your eyes), and a pale colour will seem somewhat less luminous even without modifying the screen settings, and therefore be more comfortable. you should take the time to adjust the brightness settings on your screen and keep in mind that the optimal setting will vary depending on the ambiant light, so it won't be the same on a bright day as on a dark overcast day or at night.