4 ms·

If readability is truly your pursuit, then it is my humble opinion that you should avoid high contrast white/lightgrey on pitch black colors when designing a da

by lrpe 3y ago

If readability is truly your pursuit, then it is my humble opinion that you should avoid high contrast white/lightgrey on pitch black colors when designing a dark theme for your app or website, or consider adding a toggle to switch to a light theme. I gave up at the end of the first section of this article because it was just too much.

ajxs 3y ago
Hi, author here. What was too much? Are you talking about my colourscheme, or my writing? I've actually been trying out different colourschemes for my site lately, and I'm genuinely open to suggestions. I actually took the contrast into account when picking colours, and consciously lowered the overall contrast by saturating the text and background colour a little. I don't think the contrast is much higher than many other dark-themed sites I look at often, like Github for example. I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it either way.
- jkercher 3y ago
  I think he's saying the text should be more muted like the copyright at the bottom.
- lrpe 3y ago
  No your writing is fine, and sorry if I'm being a negative nancy. It's just that light text on black backgrounds cause me eye strain so they're not really my cup of tea. The light grey font color does help a litte though. I often experience lines of text being burned into my vision with these themes, and that effect was not as noticeable here. I am admittedly not a fan of dark themes in general, but I feel they are done right when the dark background is toned down a bit so you're not staring at a pitch black screen. And not just by a few shades. As an aside, I didn't even know GitHub had a dark theme. I just tried it and it was horrible. Then I switched from dark default to dark dimmed and it was much more tolerable, although I still prefer light.
  - ajxs 3y ago
    That's okay, I really appreciate the feedback! I'll give this some thought and see if I can tweak the colours a little. I often find myself falling back on Firefox's 'Reader View' if I find a website's colour theme a bit too jarring.
    - olddustytrail 3y ago
      If you have to use Reader View that is a clear sign that the website is broken.
    - DHPersonal 3y ago
      Would you consider it against the intention of your site to include either a dark/light theme toggle, a prefers-color-theme CSS style, or both?
      - ajxs 3y ago
        I'll have a look at what I can do with prefers-color-scheme. It seems like a good solution. Thank you for the suggestion!
    - kyleyeats 3y ago
      The colors are fine. It's the text measure (around 90) that's having the user do too much work. That should be around 55-60.
      - ajxs 3y ago
        I've never heard this term 'text measure' before. Do you mean the number of characters per-line in the main content column? I tried to research the optimal column width, but the answers seem to vary so much. Just doing a quick search online right now: This source[1] says 55-100, which is a pretty big range. Although this source[2] claims that research suggests that "Reading speed was highest at 95cpl, and lowest at 35cpl on screen". I'll take your suggestion on-board at any rate, and might make some adjustments to the font-size, or cpl. Thanks for your help! 1: https://medium.com/ben-shoemate/optimum-web-readability-max-and-min-width-for-page-text-dee9987a27a0 https://medium.com/ben-shoemate/optimum-web-readability-max-... 2: https://www.viget.com/articles/the-line-length-misconception/ https://www.viget.com/articles/the-line-length-misconception...
- chaxor 3y ago
  I think it's perfect fwiw
mxmlnkn 3y ago
Interesting to see another opinion. I love #FFF on #000 and I hate those low-contrast off-white + off-black "dark" themes like they are on codeberg and forgejo. Bonus trigger points if they have some color mixed in, e.g., #D4D4D8 on #171E26. I was always wondering why would anyone would do that.

by lrpe 3y ago

ajxs 3y ago

Hi, author here. What was too much? Are you talking about my colourscheme, or my writing? I've actually been trying out different colourschemes for my site lately, and I'm genuinely open to suggestions. I actually took the contrast into account when picking colours, and consciously lowered the overall contrast by saturating the text and background colour a little. I don't think the contrast is much higher than many other dark-themed sites I look at often, like Github for example. I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it either way.

jkercher 3y ago
I think he's saying the text should be more muted like the copyright at the bottom.
lrpe 3y ago
No your writing is fine, and sorry if I'm being a negative nancy. It's just that light text on black backgrounds cause me eye strain so they're not really my cup of tea. The light grey font color does help a litte though. I often experience lines of text being burned into my vision with these themes, and that effect was not as noticeable here. I am admittedly not a fan of dark themes in general, but I feel they are done right when the dark background is toned down a bit so you're not staring at a pitch black screen. And not just by a few shades. As an aside, I didn't even know GitHub had a dark theme. I just tried it and it was horrible. Then I switched from dark default to dark dimmed and it was much more tolerable, although I still prefer light.
- ajxs 3y ago
  That's okay, I really appreciate the feedback! I'll give this some thought and see if I can tweak the colours a little. I often find myself falling back on Firefox's 'Reader View' if I find a website's colour theme a bit too jarring.
  - olddustytrail 3y ago
    If you have to use Reader View that is a clear sign that the website is broken.
  - DHPersonal 3y ago
    Would you consider it against the intention of your site to include either a dark/light theme toggle, a prefers-color-theme CSS style, or both?
    - ajxs 3y ago
      I'll have a look at what I can do with prefers-color-scheme. It seems like a good solution. Thank you for the suggestion!
  - kyleyeats 3y ago
    The colors are fine. It's the text measure (around 90) that's having the user do too much work. That should be around 55-60.
    - ajxs 3y ago
      I've never heard this term 'text measure' before. Do you mean the number of characters per-line in the main content column? I tried to research the optimal column width, but the answers seem to vary so much. Just doing a quick search online right now: This source[1] says 55-100, which is a pretty big range. Although this source[2] claims that research suggests that "Reading speed was highest at 95cpl, and lowest at 35cpl on screen". I'll take your suggestion on-board at any rate, and might make some adjustments to the font-size, or cpl. Thanks for your help! 1: https://medium.com/ben-shoemate/optimum-web-readability-max-and-min-width-for-page-text-dee9987a27a0 https://medium.com/ben-shoemate/optimum-web-readability-max-... 2: https://www.viget.com/articles/the-line-length-misconception/ https://www.viget.com/articles/the-line-length-misconception...
chaxor 3y ago
I think it's perfect fwiw

mxmlnkn 3y ago

Interesting to see another opinion. I love #FFF on #000 and I hate those low-contrast off-white + off-black "dark" themes like they are on codeberg and forgejo. Bonus trigger points if they have some color mixed in, e.g., #D4D4D8 on #171E26. I was always wondering why would anyone would do that.