Light-on-dark or Dark-on-light?

[John]

Does anyone know if there is any clear indication which basic scheme
(dark-on-light or light-on-dark) is "better" from a UX perspective?
Any other information / opinions etc are welcomed as well.

Thanks,
John

[Nick]

Just from my web design experience I've never had a client say they
hate (with passion) black text on a while background, but I have had
several clients who hate (with passion) white text on a dark or black
background.

Another thing that might be interesting to look into is scotopic
sensitivity (sensitive eyes), which is often linked with dyslexia. I
have sensitive eyes and find reading off white paper or a bright white
screen daunting, for lack of a better word, and the perceived glare
make words, especially small ones, quite hard to read (which can lead
to jumbling of words).

Please correct me if I am wrong, but white light is made up of all the
colours in the light spectrum which, to me at least, makes it more
intense than other colors which are made up of less of the full
spectrum.

In my opinion, dark on light seems to be more popular for corporate
websites sites, and I guess if you print the page, it could
potentially still look similar to the website if you tweak your
print.css nicely - which would be reinforcing the content on the site
which would be good for continuity.

Nick

[TomLessing]

Scotopic sensitivity syndrome seems to be a disputed condition (there
seems to be disagreement on whether it exists among experts), which
probably indicates that very few people have the symptoms. Have a look
at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotopic_sensitivity_syndrome.I am not
suggesting that people don't suffer from it, is known that we all have
varying sensitivities and abilities to perceive light so it is quite
possible that this syndrome exists. With UI we seem to be ever more
catering for smaller and smaller parts of the community. Which in
itself can be a negative cycle, you get to a point where you are
actually waste time trying to cater for 1 out of 1000 people or
something like that.

A green reason for going white text on a black background could be
that it actually saves power due to the fact that dark pixels on some
monitor types use less electricity, therefore you actually save
something, have a look at Blackle.com. It is a black version of
Google. This is probably also a disputed power saving tip as the
actual savings could be small or non existent in many cases depending
on the type of screen you use.

From my observations websites with dark backgrounds with light text is
often poorly designed. The print styles for one is not properly
configured. Then the designers failed to account for a big variance in
screens. It looks great on their machines but on some you can barely
see the difference between the background and text. Very annoying
indeed.

Yes white light is a combination of all the other colors. Keep in mind
though that most so called white light is a generic term for many
whitish light sources. Even with computer screens there could be a big
difference between how a given color is displayed. For example my
brothers' identical HP laptop can quite nicely show in Pastel that a
given line in a grid is not editable due to a light blueish color
being used. On my laptop you can barely see the difference. This is a
good example where the developers didn't think or know better.

My advice to someone who have sensitive eyes especially to white light
is to "try before you buy". Go sample a bunch of screens, play with
things like brightness etc and find one that offends you less than
other screens. Anti glare filters might even help.

[coda]

I think in certain contexts they each have their own pros and cons.
I've often found that external light sources have a big effect. For
example, if you look at most development environments in which a
programmer will be staring at their screen for extended periods of
time, typically in a darkly lit environment to minimize glare on the
screen, then they will prefer a light-on-dark scheme. It offers less
strain on the eyes because their eyes are only focusing on the light
text. I find it easier to work in the dark than in a brightly lit room
(no glare) so I prefer light-on-dark myself.

But I've designed a number of light-on-dark sites in the past, and
there have been instances where I've viewed the site in an environment
other than my own (the contrast between the text and the background
met accessibility standards) and found it more difficult to read the
text, so have always thought that dark-on-light is a safer choice when
it comes to readibility.

I'd be keen to hear what others think - great question!

[Nick]

> Have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotopic_sensitivity_syndrome.Iam not

The link got messed up there here it is again:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotopic_sensitivity_syndrome

> Then the designers failed to account for a big variance in
> screens. It looks great on their machines but on some you can barely
> see the difference between the background and text. Very annoying
> indeed.

Black and Grey reproduction on screens, especially LCS's is all over
the place. I was working on a purple site with gradients that showed
terrible color banding on laptop screens (which generally are less
good at color reproduction). The color banding was really bad on
certain screens, so we had to increase the number of purples in the
gradient to stop it happening.

> My advice to someone who have sensitive eyes especially to white light
> is to "try before you buy". Go sample a bunch of screens, play with
> things like brightness etc and find one that offends you less than
> other screens. Anti glare filters might even help.

I actually moved over to LCD's back in 2001, then to an Apple Laptop
in 2002, and now I've got a combination of Apple Cinema Displays in
the office and my laptop for the road. Highly recommended, as I used
to get headaches at uni working late into the night on an old CRT
screen (I guess most would). However I'm not a fan of the new "glossy"
screens Apple and others are pumping out...

[John]

Thanks for all the replies. They have definitely given me something
to think about.

I think that I will go for a dark on light scheme, but have the frame
outside of the (fixed-width) a darker colour to reduce the total light
on the screen, but make it more likely to be readable where I want
people looking.

As always if anyone has feedback on that, it is welcome :)

On Jan 6, 9:15 am, Nick <n...@nicksoper.com> wrote:
> > Have a look athttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotopic_sensitivity_syndrome.Iamnot