White text over black background? Is it bad?

[Dave at the Movies]

I always hear you aren't suppose to do this but I've never known why.

I hear it gives people a headache but if that's the case I would guess those people would get a headache no matter what if their eyes are really that sensitive.

[Orange]

I find it hard to stare at for a long time, I have problems with headaches anyway, so staring at something like that can definitely strain the ol' eyes.

[Deleted]

I don't think that's true. I think that comes from the fact that its cheaper to make white paper than it is black paper so black on white became the norm.

[Dave at the Movies]

I'm doing a movie review blog/site and the only good design I can find has a black/grayish background.

Will it really matter that much? I've never heard of people not going to a site just because of it having a black background.

[Deleted]

Jun 22, 2011 11:40:54 GMT -5 Dave at the Movies said:

I'm doing a movie review blog/site and the only good design I can find has a black/grayish background.

Will it really matter that much? I've never heard of people not going to a site just because of it having a black background.

Well - considering we're all on a site with a grey-ish background I don't think it woudl affect your site too much.

[James McCloud IS John Godot]

Extreme contrasts do tend to strain a lot of people's eyes. So bright white on pure black is generally frowned upon. White on dark grey, or slightly off-white on near black works a lot better than #FFFFFF on #000000 if you don't mind me getting all hexadecimal.

[Hit Girl]

White on dark grey is best. That's why I like this site. It gives me an option to have that kind of screen. I find black text on a white background to be blinding.

[Mozenrath]

Jun 22, 2011 12:03:43 GMT -5 Hit Girl said:

White on dark grey is best. That's why I like this site. It gives me an option to have that kind of screen. I find black text on a white background to be blinding.

Yeah, black makes it too stark.

[DSR]

I had always heard the opposite. For computers at least, putting black text on a white background is like making your reader stare at a lightbulb.

[Red Impact]

Yeah, black on light grey or white on dark gray is better than white on black or black on white.

[Mister Pigwell]

Heavy contrasts are terrible regardless.

Eye searingly terrible.

There's only two skins I can use on this forum without wanting to gouge my eyes out and that's the default one and the Pirates one... and after using the pirates one for a while I notice even the default kinda wears on my eyes.



I'm getting old. And blind. And cranky.

[Pooh Carlson]

Jun 22, 2011 12:54:49 GMT -5 DSR said:

I had always heard the opposite. For computers at least, putting black text on a white background is like making your reader stare at a lightbulb.

What I was gonna say. Thats why backlit e-readers are horrible.

[Red Impact]

Jun 22, 2011 13:24:39 GMT -5 Pooh Carlson said:

Jun 22, 2011 12:54:49 GMT -5 DSR said:

I had always heard the opposite. For computers at least, putting black text on a white background is like making your reader stare at a lightbulb.

What I was gonna say. Thats why backlit e-readers are horrible.

At least the ones that don't give you the option to change the background and text color. Fortunately, the one I have allowes me to, because it did begin to strain after a while.

[The Booty Disciple]

Jun 22, 2011 12:57:31 GMT -5 Mister Pigwell said:

Heavy contrasts are terrible regardless.

Eye searingly terrible.

There's only two skins I can use on this forum without wanting to gouge my eyes out and that's the default one and the Pirates one... and after using the pirates one for a while I notice even the default kinda wears on my eyes.



I'm getting old. And blind. And cranky.

Well go put on Matlock and have a nap. No one likes a cranky old guy running around posting, and Kash already has that role down pat.

As far as the question at hand, I've never really liked white backgrounds and black text for eye strain reasons. Working in tech for 3 years made me despise bright backgrounds, because if I was staring at a screen for hours upon hours, my eyes would go crazy and be fuzzy and blurry at night when I was home watching TV. I use the black background on my Gmail account, and generally use a color scheme on my computer that is dulled down quite a bit too.