Black or white background? The dillema.

[sean.berg]

Hey all,
So I've been wondering with a couple of designer friends, what is the best for webdesign as a background?

I've been torn between black and white.

With a white background (and dark writting), the reading is supposed to be easier, but you have that problem that it would be like reading the shaddow of words as a light is shun to your face.

With a black background (and light writting), the reading is supposed to be more confortable, but it can bring some problems with different monitors. i say this because my monitor is really dark, so sometimes if the letter is small / not-bold, than it makes life slightly harder for me (and other, i suppose).

So for websites that contain lots of text (such as blogs, news sites, and so on), what would be better? Dark background, light letters or light background, dark letters?

[resdog]

For me, I prefer the pastel, softer colors. As light isn't truly "White", these softer shades can help pop the dark text colors. I never use white but a light gray or soft yellow.

Also, it really depends on what kind of feeling you are trying to convey. A heavy metal rocker site will probably not want to use any "light pastel" colors.

[sean.berg]

Actually, the website I'm having this problem with is a rock website (nexusrock.net). But as new-metal isn't exactly heavy metal, well...I get stuck between white and black.

Probably pastel wouldn't be a good choice for a website with that theme, eh?

[TheBluePanda]

I would recomment black type on a white background 95% of the time. But then again, I don't have many instances where a black background would be tasteful and appropriate. So I guess it just depends on your audience.

[chris_bcn]

How long is a piece of string? Should my new shoes be blue or brown?

It completely and utterly depends. There is no one size fits all solution

[sean.berg]

But isn't there a recomendation or something?

Because as it's a website that contains more text than images, I'd like to know what yould be more confortable for the readers eyesight.

Or is there no diference whatsoever?

[chris_bcn]

It's a murky world.

High contrast - dark bg and lighter text is better for people with vision difficulties, however for people with average or better eyesite, some combinations can be hard on the eye, making the text appear to jump about slightly.

If you're worried about accessibility then you can offer different versions - normail, zoom etx, and allow the user to switch between them

[PersonasBinar]

^^^ +10^^^
With style sheets you'll be able to make the same data appear in several ways.

[JPnyc]

If you just use relative font size, the user will be able to adjust the font himself, if they have vision issues.

[Drazan]

If you use two css files, you can then have a click button on the page to switch. Just assign a variable to the css location. Then you can have the text areas appear white on black or black on white.

For a rock band, black is traditional. You can also design the entire site in dark colors, but the "page" that the text is on could be white. You can then artistically frame the white "page" area so it doesn't appear as a flat square stuck in the middle of the page.

I just completed a theme that has a seemless grunge border around the page. The site's not public yet, or I would post the link.

Pale colors don't have to be pastel. You could go with a parchment or light grey color.

[rikbarwick]

Personally i would say it depends on the subject matter. I have just done a site for a model agency and found that a mid grey worked well with the different range of images as a black background meant that high contrast images lost their impact and white background made light image looked washed out

[budafist]

I prefer dark background with pale text. I sit in front of a mac for around 12 hours a day. This place makes me squint. Yes, I'm squinting now. I've worn my contacts for way too long and it's just not fun to look at a mostly white screen...Sure I should just turn down my screen brightness, but that makes colours look shyyyte.

Dark background good. Like darkforum.com

Of course, if you don't have people sitting there reading your site for any length of time, you can do whatever you want.