Elaine Cunningham - Black background, white/colored text
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08:45 am
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Black background, white/colored text
Let me say this right up front: DO NOT LIKE.
My eyesight has never been terrific. I didn't have glasses until I was about 11, though, because my eyesight was SO bad the pediatrician who did my yearly exam, which included a desultory, "Read the chart over on that wall...", assumed I was just being a smartass when I asked, "What chart?" Sad but true.
These days I wear progressive lenses, and I go to a retina specialist twice a year to check the status of the semi-detached retina in my left eye and the cataract forming smack dab in the middle of my right eye. I try to keep eye strain to a minimum, which means avoiding websites with black background and white/colored text. This combo is unbelievably hard on the eyes. I might notice it more than most people do, but the eyestrain factor is there for anyone. Even the folks who are 20 years old and have 20/20 vision.
In addition to being hard on the eyes, it is also, arguably, a design problem. Vincent Flanders, web design consultant and author of the book Web Pages That Suck and the website by the same name, lists among his Deadly Sins websites that use a background other than white or off-white, or a text color other than black.
Tastes differ, opinions vary, and other songs from the same album. And really, I get why people want to use dramatic color combos on websites for horror/dark fantasy/urban fantasy/paranormal romance. If you're writing stories about tortured but hot-hot-HAWT shirtless vampire studmuffins, you're not going to advertise your books against a pastel yellow background. If you're writing fantasy that has as many references to pus and vomit as blood and ichor, baby blue is probably out of the question. But what I do NOT get is the use of white type on black background in print. For one thing, that's a lot of ink. And people like me--or people who value their eyesight and don't want to BE like me--tend to avoid anything thus printed.
Blog posts, like novels, tend to flow from Inciting Events. This one has roots in the last issue of Realms of Fantasy, a really terrific glossy mag with interesting art and good stories. I had to leave at least one of these stories unread due to white-text-on-black. And trust me, you do NOT want to get between me and a much-needed short story fix.
Seriously, now. Stop it, people. Just stop. If you want your stuff to be read, make it readable, and save the color-coded sturm und drang drama for the graphics.
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![[User Picture]](http://p-userpic.livejournal.com/66910211/11068529) | | From: | ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) ephealy |
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| Date: | April 16th, 2008 01:31 pm (UTC) |
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I encourage my advertisers not to use light/white text on dark/black backgrounds. It's a proven fact, based on decades of research, that it is hard for people to read. If you're an advertiser, you want someone to read your copy, so why would you do anything to make that more difficult?
Articles, blog posts, etc. They are all advertisements, in a sense. If you spend time to create an editorial or story, you want it read. Otherwise, what's the point?
Great post, Elaine.
Part of my annoyance with some of the articles in Dragon for a whilewere stunningly arranged, but near impossible to read because of TEXTURED dark backgrounds... it's even worse when you add depth.
When it comes up, I scan the pages into Microsoft Photo Editor (to this day, the the simplest and coolest graphic program I've ever found), tweak the brightness and then negative the page... viola day = night / night = day.
:o)
Dan
PS: I bought Blood Red Harp yesterday (I don't get much of a chance to tell an author I bought their book, so I felt I should take the opportunity) on a jaunt to B&N (along with paperback copies of Elizabeth Haydon's Assassin King and the new Dragonlance Highlord Skies... but is 'Harp a one shot or was it part of a set that i'll have to track down?
thanks!
THE BLOOD RED HARP was originally planned as a continuing-character series, but while I was writing the book, the publisher was sold to another house and the series was discontinued. So I frantically retooled the book to a stand-along. You do not need to track down any other books.
![[User Picture]](http://p-userpic.livejournal.com/74011275/10443916) | | From: | saetter |
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| Date: | April 16th, 2008 02:03 pm (UTC) |
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Alright. Alright. I'll change my black background and hot pink text website...
Do I need to remove the auto play audio of the chipmunks singing "I'm Too Sexy" as well?
Do I need to remove the auto play audio of the chipmunks singing "I'm Too Sexy" as well?
That might be prudent.
I so know what you mean, I have a couple of sites I read which are this form and after a couple of minutes I have a pain in my temple and lines going across my eyes.
And my eyesight is excellent.
I so agree,
I don't have a terrific eyesight either, a bit like... let say : put a drow under the sun and see what happens.
Not very practical for working and those kind of sites or blog, I just can't read them either too hard on the eyes. What I would advice is... wearing sunglasses for reading white text on black stories? :D
Heh. And I read this entry in white text/black background.
I set my LJ up this way only because I wanted to reduce screen glare. For me, it's more comfortable to read light-on-dark. Purely a selfish choice, I must admit.
Now, if I ever had a website that I expected hundreds of people to visit, I'd go with dark-on-light. I didn't realize so many people had trouble with light-on-dark.
"It's a proven fact, based on decades of research, that it is hard for people to read."
No it isn't. The problem with this sort of blanket nonsense is that it doesn't take reality into account. In this case, it doesn't take into account the difference between a light emitting source and a light reflecting source.
For print, large fonts of nice a single dark color over a single light color of dramatic contrast is certainly better and causes less eye strain than any other reliable option. (Of course, a really good ambient light is very important for reducing eye strain.)
For computers, large fonts of a nice single light color over a single dark color of dramatic contrast is certainly better and causes less eye strain than any other reliable option.
Then of course, every casual user is simply used to former. If you go from one extreme to the other... naturally it bothers your eyes.
Go stare at one of the large, clear bulbs from most common night-lights, or Christmas decorations, for fifteen minutes. Go stare at one of the large, blue bulbs from a lot of Christmas decorations, for fifteen minutes. Which one strained your eyes more?
Anyway, Elaine, the biggest problem I see with casual computer users is not the font colors, but the font size. If you find yourself leaning closer to your monitor after working for a while on a regular basis, you have the font size too small. My suggestion would be changing the DPI. (Under Windows Display Properties->Settings->Advanced->General->Display->DPI Settings and choose 120 or custom.) A lot of people have their monitor adjusted really poorly to boot. (Almost everyone I see has the brightness turned up too high for extended use.) I can only suggest reading articles and experimenting with the settings.
Soma
Thanks for the suggestions, Soma.
Turning down the brightness and increasing the font size were two of the things I did a couple years back to reduce eye strain, and they really do help.
Print vs computor: light reflecting vs light emitting--that's a succinct way of putting it. And it makes sense. My rant was prompted by a print source, white text on black, which I find extremely difficult to read. But now that you mention it, I don't like bright, glaring white on my computer screen, either. I've set the brightness/color so that it's actually a very pale gray--much easier on the eyes.
I've experimented with a lot of different background colors to find which ones are easiest for me to read. Maybe it IS largely a matter of familiarity, but I find light print on black/dark difficult. Perhaps it's the astigmatism--even with corrective lenses, light sources against dark tend show a lot of rays, which can make white text on dark look fuzzy. For a small amount of text, no problem, provided it's large enough and bold enough, but after a paragraph or two, I get an increase of floaters and flashes in my vision and the beginnings of a screaming headache.
hmmm, interesting, i sit here reading this while recovering from surgery to correct a detached retina and staring at the realms of fantasy magazine on my table. it is open to the exact white-on-black article you reference. it is open to that article because that is where i gave up on reading it... i may also have to skip it at this point..
Yikes! Good luck with your recovery.
thanks! it is going well, and it is a fairly easy recovery
at this point.. i basically just read and sleep all day :)
it could be much much muchmuchmuch worse.
One of my students once turned in her final paper printed in yellow on white paper. She didn't realize that her printer had run out of black ink until she was ready to print the paper, and that was the best she could offer me as proof that she had, indeed, completed the assignment on time. Fortunately, the university had this great innovation called the computer lab, so she was able to make use of the computer lab to print the paper in black ink on white paper.
Yikes! Yellow on white.
One might hope this would impress upon her the importance of backup ink cartridges. The little buggers have a nasty habit of running out when you're up against a deadline. :)
| From: | (Anonymous) |
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| Date: | April 18th, 2008 08:14 pm (UTC) |
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That happened to me once... For months I used the darkest shade of blue that I could. I don't think many people noticed the difference. At least if they did, they didn't tell me. |
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