Thu, Oct 26, 2006

I hate grey text

by Austin Govella

I hate grey text.

Comments

I hate grey text. It’s called contrast, people, and it makes your shit easier to read.

Why grey text? Because it makes your design look smooth from up close. The only problem is that your urge to look smooth was honed by looking at large bodies of type from a distance. Open a book, step back, and look at it. The type looks grey, and if the typography doesn’t suck, then the uniform rhythm of the type makes the page look grey.

Try the same trick with a newspaper.

So why would we want the page to look grey when we’re sitting two feet away from the screen? We wouldn’t.

Please. Next time you’re itching for a dashing shade of grey for your body copy, don’t.

Talk About "I hate grey text"

xian said:

this is an ironic self-judging meta-joke, right?

or is your running text light blue?

Fri, Oct 27, 2006

Pauric said:

It has nothing to do with the colour of the text. Its the delta contrast.

Now, as a dyslexic I find the contrast delta on sitepoint copy much easier on my reading ability than the large delta here.

There is no one size fits all and you should put reason behind why sitepoint does not suit you in particular.

Wed, Nov 15, 2006

Will Parker said:

For longish stretches of text displayed on an illuminated background (e.g., a document on a computer screen), _slightly_ lowering the contrast betweeen page and text improves readability by reducing eye fatigue.

Black text on a white background works well for print because the page itself is not backlit -- although if you've ever attempted to read a book in full summer sun without sunglasses, you've experienced the same sort of eye fatigue.

One solution is to change the text color, but the better method is to change the background. It also helps to 'set' serif type in larger sizes with slightly more open interline leading.

Give it a try on your own site design using a warm background color like #FFECAA and the same font settings. I think you'll find readability for longer posts actually improves.

Wed, Feb 14, 2007

Austin said:

Will,

Thanks for that! I'm actually working on a new design now, and I loved how the warmer color (the yellow) reduced eye fatigue. It's noticeable, especially next to a same version with a white background.

My only problem: I really like the white and I dislike the yellow. I need to wrap my head around leaving white behind and find a suitable replacement I like better.

Thu, Feb 15, 2007

Will Parker said:

You needn't go with my particular 'parchment + cherokee red' color scheme to reduce eye fatigue. I just prefer warmer colors. The main trick is set one or all of the RGB components of your background colors to something between, say, #C0 and #E0.

Figure out which lighting is best for you when reading a book and then try to match the actual color and luminance of the printed page background in your site design.

Thu, Mar 8, 2007

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