Show HN: Ditch Black Text to Read Faster, Easier • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: Ditch Black Text to Read Faster, Easier

#231

Post by MacsHeadroom » Fri, Sep 06, 2013, 11:05 AM UTC

DanBC wrote: post #222

corin_ wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why the Bible above all?

Because the King James bible had considerable effort to translate original texts into best possible English, preserving meaning but also creating a suitably "glorious" text. Very many concepts, words, metaphors, etc come from the King James translation. Ignoring any religious stuff - it's a good read. EDIT: corrected my st / king error!

The KJV is a rubble translation influenced strongly by the desires of the king. He had translator beheaded for not translating it the way he wanted.

Besides we have MUCH better access to older sources now, and what do we find? Contradictions, contradictions everywhere.

Re: Show HN: Ditch Black Text to Read Faster, Easier

#232

Post by pessimizer » Fri, Sep 06, 2013, 11:15 AM UTC

skizm wrote: post #163

tomkarlo wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that clear-cut. There's a real reason to ask if there's studies here, because it's not easy to self-assess if this actually works. Reading is more than just "how fast can I scan the lines in order" - it's also about comprehension, eye fatigue, etc. All of which are hard for an individual to assess casually. I think this is interesting, but I'd want to see studies on what the incremental cognitive load of "co…

I totally disagree with this sentiment (respectfully, of course). If you know the numbers it will bias your experience. You need to try it for yourself and determine on an individual level if your comprehension/speed suffers, improves or stays the same.

Your self-assessment of your subjective experience is notoriously inaccurate and biased in particular, predictable ways.

Re: Show HN: Ditch Black Text to Read Faster, Easier

#233

Post by pessimizer » Fri, Sep 06, 2013, 11:16 AM UTC

__alexs wrote: post #24

Anyone else the numerous AOL chat plugins that used to do this back in the day? e.g. http://www.tpasoft.com/fadeit/

Prior art...

Re: Show HN: Ditch Black Text to Read Faster, Easier

#234

Post by Fuxy » Fri, Sep 06, 2013, 11:46 AM UTC

Is it just me or is anybody else thinking that just making lines alternate between colors (think of tables) would do a better job.

Why do we need fancy gradients?

Re: Show HN: Ditch Black Text to Read Faster, Easier

#235

Post by _pmf_ » Fri, Sep 06, 2013, 1:07 PM UTC

The examples are a bit short (line length). It seems to be more useful with longer lines, and confusing with short lines.

Re: Show HN: Ditch Black Text to Read Faster, Easier

#236

Post by lifeisstillgood » Fri, Sep 06, 2013, 2:30 PM UTC

Can I make the obvious comment: it's not how fast you read text, but what text you choose to read.

Reading super fast over the National Inquirer is not likely to be an overall win.

Re: Show HN: Ditch Black Text to Read Faster, Easier

#237

Post by lifeisstillgood » Fri, Sep 06, 2013, 2:32 PM UTC

MacsHeadroom wrote: post #231

DanBC wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the King James bible had considerable effort to translate original texts into best possible English, preserving meaning but also creating a suitably "glorious" text. Very many concepts, words, metaphors, etc come from the King James translation. Ignoring any religious stuff - it's a good read. EDIT: corrected my st / king error!

The KJV is a rubble translation influenced strongly by the desires of the king. He had translator beheaded for not translating it the way he wanted. Besides we have MUCH better access to older sources now, and what do we find? Contradictions, contradictions everywhere.

He was not reading it for the historical / religious insight - he just liked to read English prose written as best it can be.

Re: Show HN: Ditch Black Text to Read Faster, Easier

#238

Post by starburst » Fri, Sep 06, 2013, 2:34 PM UTC

seanica wrote: post #185

There's one problem I have with it. This afternoon it triggered a migraine. I just came back just now, just in case it was a co-incidence, and yep, it was not a co-incidence.

Me too, maybe it is the color (blue / red contrast), I know that ~black background with ~white text is an instant trigger for me, always immediately close the tab when I visit such website. Do you see the words kind of "vibrating" when it triggered your migraine?

Re: Show HN: Ditch Black Text to Read Faster, Easier

#239

Post by mkl » Fri, Sep 06, 2013, 3:02 PM UTC

cbsmith wrote: post #128

crazygringo wrote: post #39

Hmmmm... I'm sure it'll need a linked scientific study to actually back up the claim. (And every speed-reading product I've seen has usually had a decrease in comprehension rate...) It's a clever idea, but anecdotally, from my experience, I'm finding it slows down my reading -- I'm having a hard time processing the blurbs because I don't read "linearly" -- I scan content to find the relevant parts, and the color chan…

I don't understand why you'd change foreground colours instead of background colours.... Either way, quick experiment shows it to be horrid for me.

Here is a quick hack that does line-by-line background colours (excuse any crappy code; I'm not a web developer). http://jsbin.com/avuku/166/edit

Re: Show HN: Ditch Black Text to Read Faster, Easier

#240

Post by mharrison » Fri, Sep 06, 2013, 3:17 PM UTC

As an author/programmer I would love to see a LaTeX implementation... (If only there were more time in the day)