Counterpoint: I think this gets a bad rep because people overdo it. Personally, I think #000000 black text on white to be… Glaring? Like the stark contrast is hurting my eyes. Going for e. G. #444444 solves this while not sacrificing legibility. But then you get fancy #999999 super thin script on white and I’m right there with you.
Do you even find it glaring/like it’s hurting your eyes when you’re outside or in a very well lit room? Because I’m under the impression that his trend mostly comes from people using their devices in dimly lit areas.
#444 does sacrifice some legibility, imho. It’s not terrible, but I still much prefer pitch black.
Studies have shown that the excessive contrast of black text on white overstimulates the eyes, creating more eyestrain than dark grey (#444).
Here’s a study showing how the overstimulation from black text on white background can cause myopia through choroidal thickening (and the reverse, with white text on black background causing choroidal thinning.) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-28904-x
The problem with that is that not all displays show the same colours and contrasts, so what looks like one shade on monitor A can look totally different on monitor B. Combine that with the massive number of sites that just have any old gray, as opposed to a specifically recognised dark gray, and you frequently end up with text appearing is light or mid gray.
When this happens, (which you notice a lot on certain monitors) the eye strain is faaaaar worse than a nice thin black text. I find myself pressing CTRL-A at times to highlight everything on the page for a little more contrast, because the standard text is so unreadable.
If the shade is really that different, then the problem is a poorly calibrated screen, and black text on white is also going to look “totally different”.
You don’t always have control of calibration settings when you’re on someone else’s monitor, but at lest black always looks black and is still readable without selecting text to change it.
Also, as I said, not everyone uses the same shade of gray when building a web page/style/theme. In fact, far from it. Black however, is always black, one shade, 000000.
These statements seem anecdotal and contradictory. You’re not really addressing the issue of black/white being overstimulating, and causing more eye strain than dark grey/white at any rate.
Nothing anecdotal about that, but sure. And my entire point from the start was that black causes less strain than light gray.
At the end of the day, you have your opinions, I have mine, and I’m sure you’re right that dark gray is better than black for eye strain, but in the real world it doesn’t work like that due to the reasons I laid out above; monitor calibrations and web devs who just throw whatever shade of gray they want on to it.
I just posted a study showing the problems of black/white. I don’t disagree about the overuse of light grey/white, but it’s really irrelevant to what I said.
The reason I felt what you were saying was anecdotal is because consistent black is really a feature of amoled screens. If a screen is so badly calibrated that dark grey is coming out substantially lighter then it’s probably going to doing something similar to black.
I don’t disagree about the overuse of light grey/white, but it’s really irrelevant to what I said.
My entire point from the very start, the point that you’re replying to, was about the differences in shades of gray, be that from calibration or design choice lol.
If a screen is so badly calibrated that dark grey is coming out substantially lighter then it’s probably going to doing something similar to black.
From my experience of using screens like this for years, no, it doesn’t. Black is black. Gray varies by screen, and more importantly, by web dev.
No developer ponders what shade of black to use, it’s 000000. Gray… Not quite as clear cut.
White background & gray text.
When did we shift away from black text?
There’s less contrast with gray, and on a lot of displays it’s more difficult to read, and more straining on the eyes.
Counterpoint: I think this gets a bad rep because people overdo it. Personally, I think #000000 black text on white to be… Glaring? Like the stark contrast is hurting my eyes. Going for e. G. #444444 solves this while not sacrificing legibility. But then you get fancy #999999 super thin script on white and I’m right there with you.
Do you even find it glaring/like it’s hurting your eyes when you’re outside or in a very well lit room? Because I’m under the impression that his trend mostly comes from people using their devices in dimly lit areas. #444 does sacrifice some legibility, imho. It’s not terrible, but I still much prefer pitch black.
Studies have shown that the excessive contrast of black text on white overstimulates the eyes, creating more eyestrain than dark grey (#444).
Here’s a study showing how the overstimulation from black text on white background can cause myopia through choroidal thickening (and the reverse, with white text on black background causing choroidal thinning.) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-28904-x
The problem with that is that not all displays show the same colours and contrasts, so what looks like one shade on monitor A can look totally different on monitor B. Combine that with the massive number of sites that just have any old gray, as opposed to a specifically recognised dark gray, and you frequently end up with text appearing is light or mid gray.
When this happens, (which you notice a lot on certain monitors) the eye strain is faaaaar worse than a nice thin black text. I find myself pressing CTRL-A at times to highlight everything on the page for a little more contrast, because the standard text is so unreadable.
If the shade is really that different, then the problem is a poorly calibrated screen, and black text on white is also going to look “totally different”.
You don’t always have control of calibration settings when you’re on someone else’s monitor, but at lest black always looks black and is still readable without selecting text to change it.
Also, as I said, not everyone uses the same shade of gray when building a web page/style/theme. In fact, far from it. Black however, is always black, one shade, 000000.
“Black always looks black”
“…[dark grey] text appearing light or mid grey”
These statements seem anecdotal and contradictory. You’re not really addressing the issue of black/white being overstimulating, and causing more eye strain than dark grey/white at any rate.
Nothing anecdotal about that, but sure. And my entire point from the start was that black causes less strain than light gray.
At the end of the day, you have your opinions, I have mine, and I’m sure you’re right that dark gray is better than black for eye strain, but in the real world it doesn’t work like that due to the reasons I laid out above; monitor calibrations and web devs who just throw whatever shade of gray they want on to it.
I just posted a study showing the problems of black/white. I don’t disagree about the overuse of light grey/white, but it’s really irrelevant to what I said.
The reason I felt what you were saying was anecdotal is because consistent black is really a feature of amoled screens. If a screen is so badly calibrated that dark grey is coming out substantially lighter then it’s probably going to doing something similar to black.
My entire point from the very start, the point that you’re replying to, was about the differences in shades of gray, be that from calibration or design choice lol.
From my experience of using screens like this for years, no, it doesn’t. Black is black. Gray varies by screen, and more importantly, by web dev.
No developer ponders what shade of black to use, it’s 000000. Gray… Not quite as clear cut.
I’d much rather have light-on-dark UI.
Agreed, night mode ftw. Isn’t supported everywhere but it’s great when it is!