There isn't a combination that is better for all. The new W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2) recommend that users can choose their own foreground and background colours. http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-WCAG20-20081211/#visual-audio-contrast-visual- presentation
I thought this background statement from the W3C provides some interesting motivation: "Many users with cognitive disabilities have trouble with standard black text on a white background. Sometimes, they can read the text a lot better using different colors for the text and background and sometimes these color combinations are very specific and not what would be expected by someone else (for instance brown on blue)." -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2009 6:26 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [IxDA Discuss] White text on dark background? Hi everyone, There's a debate in our team on whether we should use dark or white background when displaying texts (say around 200 words). Not considering the fonts, font size, and color contrast, I found myself feel more comfortable to read texts on dark background for longer period time on screen. Some posts I found on web (such as http://my.opera.com/Vorlath/blog/show.dml/283240) also state print media and computer screen are different. Computer screen itself outputs lights and thus white background can be blinding. However, most of the news site and even the IXDA forum is still using white background. Is this just a convention or has some scientific reasons behind it? -Yun-Ling ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
