Comments on: On the readability of inverted color schemes http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2006/08/on-the-readability-of-inverted-color-schemes/ Tips and Commentary on Web Accessibility, Usability, and Search Marketing best practices. Sun, 21 Mar 2010 18:20:24 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc hourly 1 By: Teppo http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2006/08/on-the-readability-of-inverted-color-schemes/comment-page-1/#comment-30354 Teppo Sat, 07 Mar 2009 22:31:32 +0000 http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2006/08/on-the-readability-of-inverted-color-schemes/#comment-30354 There are two general issues which do not get mentioned too often wrt this discussion (as applied to LCDs). 1. First, LCDs normally use a fluorescent backlight bulbs which are known for their harsheness of colour. Regardless of the claims that this harsheness has been corrected dramatically in the recent years, the point remain pretty obvous: this light is damaging to your eyes. Hence is the normal colour scheme. 2. Flicker is the second issue with any monitors you use. The studies have shown (I do not have links right now at my hand but you can google it) that flicker up to 100Hz overstimulates brain of the subject to the dramatic and statistically significant detriment of their cognitive function. Ever wondered why it's harder to remember text read of the screen rather than paper - search no further. The productivity goes down as well in inverse correlation to the time spent at the computer. Flicker is not only inherent to a 60Hz refresh rate for my top of the line LCD, it's also an inherent feature of probably most fluorescent bulbs, inluding the one which lits your display. And if you spend most of your time in the office you get extra brain stimulation from office fluorescent bulbs too. Well, if there's little usability issue normal vs. inverted colour schemes it seems reasonable to have those two considerations on the back of your mind. Personally, after finding a way to invert colour on my PC, I can work for 12 hours straight without feeling deepleted emotionally or having sore eyes. The only problem is glare, but that can be handled too. :) There are two general issues which do not get mentioned too often wrt this discussion (as applied to LCDs).

1. First, LCDs normally use a fluorescent backlight bulbs which are known for their harsheness of colour. Regardless of the claims that this harsheness has been corrected dramatically in the recent years, the point remain pretty obvous: this light is damaging to your eyes. Hence is the normal colour scheme.

2. Flicker is the second issue with any monitors you use. The studies have shown (I do not have links right now at my hand but you can google it) that flicker up to 100Hz overstimulates brain of the subject to the dramatic and statistically significant detriment of their cognitive function. Ever wondered why it’s harder to remember text read of the screen rather than paper - search no further. The productivity goes down as well in inverse correlation to the time spent at the computer. Flicker is not only inherent to a 60Hz refresh rate for my top of the line LCD, it’s also an inherent feature of probably most fluorescent bulbs, inluding the one which lits your display. And if you spend most of your time in the office you get extra brain stimulation from office fluorescent bulbs too.

Well, if there’s little usability issue normal vs. inverted colour schemes it seems reasonable to have those two considerations on the back of your mind. Personally, after finding a way to invert colour on my PC, I can work for 12 hours straight without feeling deepleted emotionally or having sore eyes. The only problem is glare, but that can be handled too.

:)

]]> By: Phao Loo http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2006/08/on-the-readability-of-inverted-color-schemes/comment-page-1/#comment-29445 Phao Loo Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:25:20 +0000 http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2006/08/on-the-readability-of-inverted-color-schemes/#comment-29445 It is really informative articles. Sitting in front of computer hours a day, I have problem with my eyes. Recently find out a way to protect my eyes: invert scheme. I use Opera and use its inverted color scheme (View > Style > High Contract (W/B)) and in MS Word, I use Blue Background, White Text (Tool > Option > Blue Background, White Text). These schemes seems protect my eyes. But I the best scheme is Black background, and Cyan text (#00CCCC) or Black background, light gray text like command prompt in Windows. All thoughts are about color, but about the font, I agree with Mark Boulton: "When reversing colour out, eg white text on black, make sure you increase the leading, tracking and decrease your font-weight. This applies to all widths of Measure. White text on a black background is a higher contrast to the opposite, so the letterforms need to be wider apart, lighter in weight and have more space between the lines." It is really informative articles. Sitting in front of computer hours a day, I have problem with my eyes. Recently find out a way to protect my eyes: invert scheme.

I use Opera and use its inverted color scheme (View > Style > High Contract (W/B)) and in MS Word, I use Blue Background, White Text (Tool > Option > Blue Background, White Text). These schemes seems protect my eyes.

But I the best scheme is Black background, and Cyan text (#00CCCC) or Black background, light gray text like command prompt in Windows.

All thoughts are about color, but about the font, I agree with Mark Boulton: “When reversing colour out, eg white text on black, make sure you increase the leading, tracking and decrease your font-weight. This applies to all widths of Measure. White text on a black background is a higher contrast to the opposite, so the letterforms need to be wider apart, lighter in weight and have more space between the lines.”

]]> By: Joe Dolson http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2006/08/on-the-readability-of-inverted-color-schemes/comment-page-1/#comment-27865 Joe Dolson Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:20:49 +0000 http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2006/08/on-the-readability-of-inverted-color-schemes/#comment-27865 Since monitors are a projected light source regardless of the color of the light, I think the light-exposure and power-use issue is going to happen no matter what colors you use - even the blacks may actually be projected light. I don't know whether the color of light makes a difference in terms of eyestrain, but certainly turning the screen brightness down will make a huge difference! That will actually have an effect on the quantity of light generated, and reduce the impact on your eyes. (Unless, of course, you turn it down too far...in which case your eyes may be working just as hard to perceive the monitor at all.) Since I spend an inordinately large amount of time at the computer, I tend to keep the screen brightness turned down, except for when I'm doing design work, of course... There is, in fact, a document discussing white on blue text which talks about WordPerfect. It's <a href="http://webword.com/reports/contrast.html" rel="nofollow">by John Rhodes</a>, from WebWord. The articles he references are the same I referenced above, but he does say: <blockquote cite="http://webword.com/reports/contrast.html"> In any event, the white on blue contrast provides especially good contrast in low brightness environments. And, as William told me, this was very useful when refresh rates were slower (i.e., less than 60 Hz). The white on blue contrast in such situations reduced perceived flicker. </blockquote> So, that's interesting information! Thanks for your comments, Petter! Since monitors are a projected light source regardless of the color of the light, I think the light-exposure and power-use issue is going to happen no matter what colors you use - even the blacks may actually be projected light. I don’t know whether the color of light makes a difference in terms of eyestrain, but certainly turning the screen brightness down will make a huge difference! That will actually have an effect on the quantity of light generated, and reduce the impact on your eyes. (Unless, of course, you turn it down too far…in which case your eyes may be working just as hard to perceive the monitor at all.)

Since I spend an inordinately large amount of time at the computer, I tend to keep the screen brightness turned down, except for when I’m doing design work, of course…

There is, in fact, a document discussing white on blue text which talks about WordPerfect. It’s by John Rhodes, from WebWord. The articles he references are the same I referenced above, but he does say:

In any event, the white on blue contrast provides especially good contrast in low brightness environments. And, as William told me, this was very useful when refresh rates were slower (i.e., less than 60 Hz). The white on blue contrast in such situations reduced perceived flicker.

So, that’s interesting information!

Thanks for your comments, Petter!

]]> By: Petter Nybråten http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2006/08/on-the-readability-of-inverted-color-schemes/comment-page-1/#comment-27864 Petter Nybråten Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:05:28 +0000 http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2006/08/on-the-readability-of-inverted-color-schemes/#comment-27864 Thanks for looking into a very interesting subject. Lately, my time reading webpages has gone up considerably due to studying. My eyes becoming sore, I've been reminiscing about the good old WordPerfect for DOS in the early nineties. Remember, it used a white-on-blue on-screen scheme? To me, this has always seemed better for ones eyes due to less total light exposure. After reading your article, I'm not so sure anymore. I'm interested in another aspect also, though. Saving energy. I was very surprised to find out that lcds don't save any power on lighter colors. However, having turned my screen brightness level down from 75 to 15 (!!!), my eyes are now so much better. And this HAS to make me more energy efficient. Anyway, my point is that these are connected considerations to make while designing for the web. I haven't found much on it, but I'm sure there was something relevant to these issues prompting the developers of WordPerfect to make it as they did. Thanks for looking into a very interesting subject.

Lately, my time reading webpages has gone up considerably due to studying. My eyes becoming sore, I’ve been reminiscing about the good old WordPerfect for DOS in the early nineties. Remember, it used a white-on-blue on-screen scheme? To me, this has always seemed better for ones eyes due to less total light exposure. After reading your article, I’m not so sure anymore.

I’m interested in another aspect also, though. Saving energy. I was very surprised to find out that lcds don’t save any power on lighter colors. However, having turned my screen brightness level down from 75 to 15 (!!!), my eyes are now so much better. And this HAS to make me more energy efficient.

Anyway, my point is that these are connected considerations to make while designing for the web. I haven’t found much on it, but I’m sure there was something relevant to these issues prompting the developers of WordPerfect to make it as they did.

]]> By: Joe Dolson http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2006/08/on-the-readability-of-inverted-color-schemes/comment-page-1/#comment-25723 Joe Dolson Sat, 02 Aug 2008 21:23:51 +0000 http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2006/08/on-the-readability-of-inverted-color-schemes/#comment-25723 Thanks, Eric. I'm glad it was helpful for you. It can be a difficult area to pin down, since a significant element <em>is</em> personal preference -- but there is still an identifiable aspect which is measurable. Thanks, Eric. I’m glad it was helpful for you. It can be a difficult area to pin down, since a significant element is personal preference — but there is still an identifiable aspect which is measurable.

]]> By: Eric http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2006/08/on-the-readability-of-inverted-color-schemes/comment-page-1/#comment-25632 Eric Fri, 01 Aug 2008 14:32:01 +0000 http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2006/08/on-the-readability-of-inverted-color-schemes/#comment-25632 Thanks Joe for the in depth research, exactly what I have been searching for! I am an Information Architect, and have asked my Usability colleagues about this issue. Though they all speculated that dark text on light backgrounds was the "Correct" way, none of them could point to any research on the topic. I myself prefer the dark on light combo, but I do not find the light on dark to be as annoying as others do. Except the extreme cases, like one might see on MySpace, where some people make the text a bright and saturated, pink lets say, text on a blue background... something like that makes my head hurt. I started down this path because it seems so counter intuitive, with less light shooting out of the monitor at your eyes, one would think you would have less eye fatigue? But as my colleague pointed out, we need light to see. Thanks again! Great stuff. Thanks Joe for the in depth research, exactly what I have been searching for! I am an Information Architect, and have asked my Usability colleagues about this issue. Though they all speculated that dark text on light backgrounds was the “Correct” way, none of them could point to any research on the topic. I myself prefer the dark on light combo, but I do not find the light on dark to be as annoying as others do. Except the extreme cases, like one might see on MySpace, where some people make the text a bright and saturated, pink lets say, text on a blue background… something like that makes my head hurt. I started down this path because it seems so counter intuitive, with less light shooting out of the monitor at your eyes, one would think you would have less eye fatigue? But as my colleague pointed out, we need light to see. Thanks again! Great stuff.

]]> By: Joe Dolson http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2006/08/on-the-readability-of-inverted-color-schemes/comment-page-1/#comment-18976 Joe Dolson Mon, 13 Aug 2007 15:57:39 +0000 http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2006/08/on-the-readability-of-inverted-color-schemes/#comment-18976 Ironically, that method ties in very closely with another article I wrote recently - <a href="http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2007/06/invisible-text-selection-background-inheritance/">Invisible Text Selection</a>. The general reaction I got on that article was that other people don't seem to notice this problem very often - but it sounds like you use text selection in such a manner that you might come across it! Ironically, that method ties in very closely with another article I wrote recently - Invisible Text Selection. The general reaction I got on that article was that other people don’t seem to notice this problem very often - but it sounds like you use text selection in such a manner that you might come across it!

]]> By: Elenor Snow http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2006/08/on-the-readability-of-inverted-color-schemes/comment-page-1/#comment-18945 Elenor Snow Mon, 13 Aug 2007 01:15:19 +0000 http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2006/08/on-the-readability-of-inverted-color-schemes/#comment-18945 I'm not (particularly) disabled in my sight (other than being 51 years of age), and yet when I get to a site I need to, or strongly want to, read that is white on black -- I use CTRL A (the PC keycode for highlight all) to turn the text into dark blue on white (my user settings). That allows me to read the text. {shrug} It works for me. I wish the 'trend' of light text on dark backgrounds would hurry up and pass by though. I’m not (particularly) disabled in my sight (other than being 51 years of age), and yet when I get to a site I need to, or strongly want to, read that is white on black — I use CTRL A (the PC keycode for highlight all) to turn the text into dark blue on white (my user settings). That allows me to read the text.

{shrug} It works for me. I wish the ‘trend’ of light text on dark backgrounds would hurry up and pass by though.

]]> By: Joe Dolson http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2006/08/on-the-readability-of-inverted-color-schemes/comment-page-1/#comment-18391 Joe Dolson Thu, 02 Aug 2007 15:41:20 +0000 http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2006/08/on-the-readability-of-inverted-color-schemes/#comment-18391 I believe you're right --- I think I've read the same thing somewhere. Like you said, it does sound plausible, at any rate. I believe you’re right — - I think I’ve read the same thing somewhere. Like you said, it does sound plausible, at any rate.

]]> By: shayne http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2006/08/on-the-readability-of-inverted-color-schemes/comment-page-1/#comment-18372 shayne Thu, 02 Aug 2007 04:13:49 +0000 http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2006/08/on-the-readability-of-inverted-color-schemes/#comment-18372 I'm told its got something to do with what happens when you stare at a bright object such as a largely white screen. your pupils dilate, which increases the sharpness of your vision. Reverse it around, and so does the dilation. Not entirely sure who it was that told me that, but it does sound plausible. I’m told its got something to do with what happens when you stare at a bright object such as a largely white screen. your pupils dilate, which increases the sharpness of your vision. Reverse it around, and so does the dilation.

Not entirely sure who it was that told me that, but it does sound plausible.

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