Stop using grey text (2025) • Hacker News Board

Re: Stop using grey text (2025)

#21

Post by cratermoon » Fri, Mar 06, 2026, 4:19 AM UTC

ccleve wrote: post #16

For an opposing view, https://ianstormtaylor.com/design-tip-never-use-black/

16161d text on a background of fafafc is an 18:1 ratio, sufficient to meet WCAG AA criteria

Re: Stop using grey text (2025)

#22

Post by russelldjimmy » Fri, Mar 06, 2026, 4:21 AM UTC

chihuahua wrote: post #19

ccleve wrote: post #16

For an opposing view, https://ianstormtaylor.com/design-tip-never-use-black/

But the author of that page is not concerned with readability or accessibility. He just wants things to look cool and design-y. One piece of supporting evidence he cites is some random photo he took that doesn't contain #000000 black. That doesn't mean anything, it could be that it's over-exposed, or has poor contrast, or had some silly filter applied. This leads me to think that the author of that page doesn't know…

Additions without any evidence:

> He just wants things to look cool and design-y

> some random photo

> That doesn't mean anything

This leads me to believe the author of this post doesn’t know what they’re talking about

Re: Stop using grey text (2025)

#23

Post by msla » Fri, Mar 06, 2026, 4:26 AM UTC

While we're wishing, let's bring back serifs. I, for one, would like to be able to tell the difference between AI and Al without context clues, and using an inherently lossy font is the opposite of "readability".

Re: Stop using grey text (2025)

#24

Post by wombatpm » Fri, Mar 06, 2026, 4:31 AM UTC

xnx wrote: post #11

Black text on a gray background is how the web was intended to be experienced.

The number of PowerPoint and slide presentations I sat through with sans serif white and yellow text on a dark purple background still gives me nightmares. For my presentation I went black over medium-light grey. The audience sighed with relief.

Re: Stop using grey text (2025)

#25

Post by moron4hire » Fri, Mar 06, 2026, 4:31 AM UTC

xnx wrote: post #11

Black text on a gray background is how the web was intended to be experienced.

Blue hyperlinks. Purple hyperlinks after you had clicked them. Images with the blue hyperlink border. Tables with Extra Chonky borders. Row and Col span. Guestbooks.

Re: Stop using grey text (2025)

#26

Post by manbash » Fri, Mar 06, 2026, 4:47 AM UTC

I was reviewing a confluence page which was reviewed my many stakeholders. Something bugged me to an excruciating extent about the content of the page: something was off at some parts of the text. I inspected the page and it turns out the font color somehow changed to a mildly grayer color than black. This was likely due to a copy-and-paste that has gone wrong.