Hard black on hard white is 21:1 contrast, and most accessibility guidelines aim for on the order of magnitude of 3:1, 4:1, 7:1, or so, depending on usage. Blac

Hard black on hard white is 21:1 contrast, and most accessibility guidelines aim for on the order of magnitude of 3:1, 4:1, 7:1, or so, depending on usage. Black text is tiring on the eyes with an LCD, and high contrast text can trigger word motion and blurring for those who suffer from dyslexia. That's right: your text contrast in your 'ideal' black/white world can make dyslexic readers struggle to read what you've written. It's not 'trendy,' it's out of respect for those with disabilities. Please make an effort in your own work to respect those in the world with dyslexia, colorblindness (never use red/green for status without another visual indicator, an overwhelmingly common sin that I'd wager 80% of those reading have done at some point), full blindness, and many other disabilities that can affect those who use your software. If your organization doesn't have accessibility guidelines, it should write some; there are a lot to start from online. You can (and should) also run your software through accessibility tools to help. Hard black, #000000, is a modern thing and itself the trend. Typography has never in history been hard black until Web pages started just throwing 'black' on 'white' down without understanding color and color physiology. Hard black, all zeroes, is even outside of generally usable color in television; almost all broadcast equipment stays in the 16-255 range and relegates 0-15 for superblack purposes. Notice you can tell when a TV is on? That's why, and there are numerous technical reasons for even that.