Other boards recognize the affect that high-contrast white-background screens have on the eyes. The SDMB should consider either toning down the contrast, or possibly reversing it.
I’m no fan of Maddox, but the color scheme of his site is very easy on the eyes.
He says “I’ve chosen a black background for most of my text because it’s easier on the eyes than staring at a white screen. Think about it: your monitor is not a piece of paper, no matter how hard you try to make it one. Staring at a white background while you read is like staring at a light bulb (don’t believe me? Try turning off the lights next time you use a word processor). Would you stare at a light bulb for hours at a time? Not if you want to keep your vision.”
I think that makes sense. Please consider it. I guess I might as well have told this to my toaster, but now it’s out there.
Just my opinion, but I actually find it easier to read sites with a light background for extended periods of time than I do those with dark backgrounds. Maddox’s site, after a while, hurts my eyes.
I said it over there, and I’ll repeat it here for posterity: the current color scheme is fine. Bright text on a black background for many people (like me) seems to vibrate and shimmer and is hard to focus on. If you must change the color scheme, at least give us the option of choosing which we’d prefer.
Since a page on a computer monitor is projected (not reflected light) it’s even harder to read white text on black on a screen than it is on paper; each character is basically point-source illumination.
It’s a huge strain.
As it is, whenever I come across some idiot’s text-heavy white-on-black page, I quickly load a style sheet that renders the page in something that’s naturally easy on the eyes – like this.
Wow, look at that – the same colours as the SDMB, Yahoo, The Globe & Mail, and just about every other site that’s designed by anyone with a lick of sense instead of a surly teenager with misconceptions about design and basic human vision.
Maddox uses preschool-sized fonts because normal-sized fonts are too frigging hard to read with inverted colours – the get blurry and bleary if you try for too long.
The part you’ve quoted is his response to all the people who inundate him with emails asking why he sticks to such a crappy design choice, and it’s a poorly-reasoned argument. He wouldn’t have to justify his colour scheme to people if it was easy to read.
If you prefer a different scheme, use a browser that lets you tweak the colours yourself. Knock yourself out. (Just don’t complain when you find we’re all giving you a headache after a half-hour or so.)
Please refrain from telling us what we should or should not experience. Are we incapable of experimenting and discovering for ourselves which we prefer? For my part, I find my eyes straining much more with black-on-white than with the reverse (regardless of my monitor’s brightness). White-on-black doesn’t get fuzzy and it doesn’t give me headaches.
Of course, I have configured my browser accordingly and I’m happy with that solution. I wouldn’t ask the SDMB to change their stylesheet to match my preference.
I respectfully disagree. Most of the boards I’ve seen with the light text-on-dark-background scheme belong to k3Wl!!!1!! GaMeRZ sites, car tuning sites, computer case modding sites, and the like.
Another thing to consider is that many Dopers, whether we should be doing it or not, visit this site from work. A browser window displaying a page with a light background and dark text, just like the word processing programs and spreadsheets we’re also working on, will be less likely to raise the suspicion of passing co-workers and supervisors than a darker, more colorful scheme.
One more thing I like about the SDMB color scheme; it’s gender-neutral. Make the colors too dark, and you could turn off female members and visitors. Still, the light scheme doesn’t scream “parenting site!” or “wedding planning site!” like many others I’ve seen.
I’ve got a similar dark text on light background scheme on my site; there’s maybe a wee bit more contrast with table colors than the SDMB, but that’s about it. Never any complaints.
I also prefer a light background. For those who don’t, it’s easy to change.
In IE 6.0, click on tools/internet options/general, then click on the accessibility button on the lower right.
An article I read said that a light background is best. The reason given was that a dark background causes your pupil to dilate and surrounding lighter areas in the room appear brighter, causing eyestrain, similar to non-wraparound sunglasses. The article also said to avoid colors that could be confused with the monitor case basically so your eyes know where the edge of the screen is.
Might part of this difference of opinion due to different monitors? dnooman, what kind/brand of monitor do you use? Maybe less expensive monitors don’t do white on black as well.
Your eye doesn’t know (or care) whether the object you’re looking at is reflecting light or emitting it. The only issue is the brightness of the object. If you turn the lights off, of course your eyes adjust to the dark room and the monitor will be too bright to read comfortably. But if you turn down the brightness of the monitor, it will be just fine. Also, a white paper is extremely painful to look at if you’re sitting outside in direct sunlight; that doesn’t mean it’s painful or harmful to look at indoors.
So if you find a white background uncomfortable to read, you might want to try turning down the brightness. Also, refresh rate seems to be more important on white background; a 60Hz monitor may be perfectly fine for reading white-on-black text, but cause eye strain with a black-on-white text. In that case, increase the refresh rate or switch to an LCD monitor and the problem should go away.
I like white on blue myself, or black on cerulean. The latter is what I look at work all day because black on white on a 21" monitor is way too much white.
Some boards provide a choice of different skins for their registered users. Bit of a frill, but I appreciate it when the default setting makes me want to tear my eyes out. My USD$0.02. Normally I don’t mind black on white/light…uh, lavender/grey, but today my eyes bleed due to lack of sleep.
No, you’re not. Compare the color schemes on male-dominated gaming/clan sites to female-dominated parenting sites. Color schemes are the subject of quite a bit of discussion on forum operator message boards.
Am I being whooshed?
