Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Light on Dark vs. Dark on Light

I'm not a graphic designer by trade, but elements of graphic design come up often when you produce a web site. I'm always conflicted about whether to use a dark background with light text or vice versa.

With paper, it's obvious that dark text on a light background is easiest to read.

When I'm working all day in emacs, though, black on white text is painful. I either have to darken the background to a lighter gray, or sometimes I reverse the colors to a light gray on black or dark gray.

I've always been able to work much longer without strain with a light on dark background, but I'll be the first to admit it doesn't look as warm and pleasing as dark text on light.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"With paper, it's obvious that dark text on a light background is easiest to read."

Uh, no. It's easiest to print, because it's easier to cover 1-2% of the page in ink than 98-99%.

Historically, white on black was actually just as common (think of the blackboard in school) and is still used where feasible (aforementioned blackboard comes to mind).

But in printing (or even just writing with a quill or pen), it is simpler to do it black on white.

Thus it were technical considerations, not the question which is "easier" to read (maybe dark on light indeed is easier to read on paper - I don't know, because I've hardly ever seen light on dark on paper).