Monday, November 19, 2012

Black text over white?

So reading a thread over at TMP about white/light text over black backgrounds on blogs, I was thinking about why I made the choice to have a black background for my blog (knowing it was the poorer design choice.) Essentially, I was going to treat my blog as sort of a shadowbox with photos of my figures, wip and finished, and the black background helped me achieve this effect.

But I have written some longer pieces of text, and dark text over a white background is not a bad thing. Perhaps it's time for me to make this update? What are my readers' views on the subject? Does the light text over black bother you? Is it any more difficult to read? Would you prefer a lighter background?
Pros and cons of either?

The great thing about Blogger is it's just a couple button clicks away, so if white or light background doesn't seem to work for us, then it's easy enough to change back. Let me know how you all feel about it; I may change it over to white for a test period anyway to see how I feel about it, since the final say is mine. But I have to say, looking at my little test screen here, I'm kind likin' it.

Also- My Varp Krigarr arrived!! I'll post tonight with a couple pics; he's pretty neato.

17 comments:

  1. BroedersNovember 19, 2012 at 4:25 PM

    White background is much easier to read.

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  2. Gary TherkildsenNovember 19, 2012 at 4:30 PM

    I don't mind the black, but it is much easier to read black/dark text on white/light background. It also looks more professional IMO. Your snapshot looks good, I say try it.

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  3. JeffNovember 19, 2012 at 4:31 PM

    Speaking as a fellow white on black blogger I think it actually focuses the eye on the models. The ultra clean thing makes it look kinda... corporate, y'know? People who struggle to read the text will generally have accessability tweaks already.

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  4. SeanNovember 19, 2012 at 4:53 PM

    I like the black background and white text. That is how I read books on my kindle fire. To me an all white background is too much white. Just one readers opinion.

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  5. Sam WiseNovember 19, 2012 at 5:04 PM

    That's could be strange, but I like white over black!
    that's the colours of my own blog (in fact, white over dark grey...) and it's pleasant for the pictures and generally for the colours.

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  6. AdamNovember 19, 2012 at 5:47 PM

    A lot of sites (wiki, google ect) use white backgrounds with black text, and eventually, it feels like you're staring at a lightbulb.
    I prefer the black background for blogs.

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  7. el zorroNovember 19, 2012 at 6:18 PM

    personally I like the light text over black (provided the text is a legible color - like yours). Often unless the black text on white just looks like you are a minimalist who has never bothered to change the settings (or invest the time to find a workable color scheme)

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  8. Messanger of DeathNovember 19, 2012 at 6:29 PM

    I prefer the black background... especially, as I sometimes look at your old projects. The "shadowbox" effect adds something special to the pictures.

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  9. iemattiasNovember 19, 2012 at 7:26 PM

    I'm going to throw my 2 cents in with the black background crowd. I don't have any more trouble reading it, and your work with the minis is so good that the pictures of them form the visual anchor to your posts in a way that a lot of other blogs do not quite achieve.

    But on the other hand, it can't hurt to try something new either.

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  10. Hugh WalterNovember 19, 2012 at 7:33 PM

    I found that when viewing my blog on older machines it was a bit bright, so after a bit of experimenting settled on changing from a modern sans-serif font (like yours, Tahoma? Garamond?) to the old Times Roman which is a bit more 'sculptural'. I also found changing from default white to a pale grey helped a lot.

    Also if I do get eye-strain surfing, it's usually because I've been on a pale or white site for too long (eBay is a killer) not on a blog like yours or mine.

    Try grey!
    Hugh

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  11. AnonymousNovember 20, 2012 at 2:22 AM

    I'm one of the 'dark' background crowd. It reduces glare, which is the bane of all computer users. Not an issue if you use one for a couple of hours a day, but for longer periods white screens can be problematic and can cause long term sight problems.

    Reading issues come largely with a poor choice of font and size of text, which will depend on the both the blogger and the reader, due to their individual settings. As has been said, not using a totally white text and refraining from too much 'bold' text does make a difference.

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  12. Pick A Damn ArmyNovember 20, 2012 at 11:57 AM

    I can't read more than a few lines of white text on black background and I have no accessibility tweaks set up or needed. Yours is the only black background blog I've kept on my feed because it is worth highlighting the text as I read. I would love to see you switch to white background. Is there any way to put thick black borders on your pictures to keep some of the shadowbox? Or maybe a black border on either side of the text column? You can be stylish and easy to read at the same time. :-)

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    Replies
    1. EvilcartoonistNovember 20, 2012 at 1:12 PM

      How does the blog look now? I'm still doing (just for the time being) light over a dark background, but I've softened the black and raised the point size of my text to see if I can reach a compromise that satisfies both camps.

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    2. Pick A Damn ArmyNovember 22, 2012 at 2:41 PM

      It looks better and I appreciate that the text is not full white but the text still vibrates like two high saturation complementary colors next to each other. It hasn't helped enough that I won't still highlight the text as I read, but I do appreciate how good pictures look with a black background, I'm not going anywhere.

      Delete
  13. Lead AddictNovember 20, 2012 at 2:41 PM

    I blog light over dark because I like the way it makes my pictures read. The only better option would be a med grey background. I think this tends to be an age issue. As I am aging I do find its harder to read long passages of white text over black. But i still prefer it for my own blog.

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  14. Foss1066November 20, 2012 at 10:29 PM

    One more for the Black background. It's easier on my eyes, and like attire, just looks classier. :)

    That being said, you could post in plaid and I'd still come to your site Carmen!
    Cheers
    Ths

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  15. Rob89November 22, 2012 at 4:17 AM

    I'm for the Black background.
    It's rather painful to read text, but it's the best color to make pics stand out.

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