Self posts like this one have very low contrast when they use grey text and I find it impossible to read them.
In contrast, the comments which are in black text are easy to read.
Can something be done about this?
Ask HN: Light grey text is killing my eyes.
1–10 of 43 posts
Re: Ask HN: Light grey text is killing my eyes.
#2Use w3m:
For reading, I find it much more pleasant than Firefox. Posting is perhaps a bit awkward.
Re: Ask HN: Light grey text is killing my eyes.
#3I haven't seen a rationale for it yet but I'd guess that it's a subtle way of encouraging descriptions to be short (like the one you just wrote), it's probably intentional that it's hard to read long rambling posts like http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=468139
I read a pg comment somewhere that makes me think that's his design decision - he already weighs "Ask HN" type of posts differently than the standard one with links, for example. Maybe it's to ward off too much navel-gazing.
Re: Ask HN: Light grey text is killing my eyes.
#4I haven't seen a rationale for it yet but I'd guess that it's a subtle way of encouraging descriptions to be short (like the one you just wrote), it's probably intentional that it's hard to read long rambling posts like http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=468139 I read a pg comment somewhere that makes me think that's his design decision - he already weighs "Ask HN" type of posts differently than the standard one wit…
That was in fact the post that triggered this one. I gave up reading it after the second paragraph.
However it was mainly because I wasn't interested in the topic, but had checked all the other articles out. There are some long self posts that are genuinely interesting to read and it still hurts my eyes to read them.
Re: Ask HN: Light grey text is killing my eyes.
#5it's not so much the grey as it's ON GREY BACKGROUND as well
looks like the same color as the link text so maybe it was just something that fell through and never got addressed
Re: Ask HN: Light grey text is killing my eyes.
#6Light gray text is a DTD (designer-transmitted disease) that's rapidly infecting sites across the Internet.
(When it's really light, I use Firebug to modify the CSS.)
Re: Ask HN: Light grey text is killing my eyes.
#7If you use firefox, you might want to look into STYLISH or GREASEMONKEY.
Both provide ways to change the look of any website.
Re: Ask HN: Light grey text is killing my eyes.
#8I haven't seen a rationale for it yet but I'd guess that it's a subtle way of encouraging descriptions to be short (like the one you just wrote), it's probably intentional that it's hard to read long rambling posts like http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=468139 I read a pg comment somewhere that makes me think that's his design decision - he already weighs "Ask HN" type of posts differently than the standard one wit…
Then limit the size of the textarea or something like that. It's bad usage, and saying that "it's a feature, not a bug" doesn't help.
Re: Ask HN: Light grey text is killing my eyes.
#9Light gray text is a DTD (designer-transmitted disease) that's rapidly infecting sites across the Internet. (When it's really light, I use Firebug to modify the CSS.)
I second that. The designers I work with have this fetish for low contrast designs that may be super mod and hip, but seem to lower usability to me.
In general I agree that black on white might be a little harsh, but when you have squint to make out the text it's over the top.
Re: Ask HN: Light grey text is killing my eyes.
#10why not let people pick their own color schemes? Like we do with the top bar.