Unpossibilities…

Have you ever wondered why most text is printed on a light background? How many times have you tried reading a full article on your computerscreen and dozed in or completely stopped reading the article?

I’ve thought about it occasionally. Sure, articles can be boring. But you also might consider the color scheme that’s being used on the article. I believe the same applies to text-editors. I’m using Textmate (by Macromates) on my Mac for programming in all sorts of languages. It has always been using its default color scheme, dark colored text on a white background. However, today I decided to invert the color scheme and was amazed how good it felt (here’s a screenshot). The reason for doing this can be hard to explain. I’ve stumbled upon an article written by Roger Johansson about this issue.

Roger published an interesting discussion on “Light text on dark background vs. readability” a while ago. When reading the comments made to Roger’s article, you’ll notice the different opinions people have and their reasons.

Using dark text on a light background, people say it increases your concentration and draws your attention. The opposite will happen when you reverse the color scheme. Instead of using a high-contrast white on black (that will screw up your vision), you might want to use light grey text on a dark grey background. Also increase the letterspacing and avoid bold text. But having my Textmate color scheme adjusted I do have to admit it’s more pleasureable looking at my code.

Overall, I think the comment Oscar Lima made sums it all up.

Resources:

• “Light text on dark background vs. readability”
• Veerle’s view on light text on dark background vs. readability
• Five simple steps to better typography

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 21st, 2007 at 10:56 pm and is filed under Articles, General, Interaction Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.