@Jim Eberle: More contrast means a sharper image
That's true, but sharpness of the image doesn't necessarily mean a more comfortable read in the context of a computer monitor. In fact, you allude to this with the reference about anti-aliasing. Technically, smoother text is lower contrast, but people seem to prefer it because rough text is distracting. There are human factors.
You can test your own eyeballs here: contrast.html
I think that's testing something different that what I'm describing. From a numerical perspective, #000000 is the most different from #FFFFFF. In the case of a single sentence and a very short period of time, black text on white wins. If you're staring at the same block for a while, I believe it gets progressively harder to look at.
Jesper's site is another good example. I find the black text on the gray background much easier to look at than if was on full white.
by Scott Stevenson — Apr 27
That's true, but sharpness of the image doesn't necessarily mean a more comfortable read in the context of a computer monitor. In fact, you allude to this with the reference about anti-aliasing. Technically, smoother text is lower contrast, but people seem to prefer it because rough text is distracting. There are human factors.
You can test your own eyeballs here: contrast.html
I think that's testing something different that what I'm describing. From a numerical perspective, #000000 is the most different from #FFFFFF. In the case of a single sentence and a very short period of time, black text on white wins. If you're staring at the same block for a while, I believe it gets progressively harder to look at.
Jesper's site is another good example. I find the black text on the gray background much easier to look at than if was on full white.