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Never Use White Text on Black: Astygmatism and Conference Slides (2017)

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Re: Never Use White Text on Black: Astygmatism and Conference Slides (2017)

#31

Post by zwayhowder »

localhost wrote: post #18

Perhaps building an app that synchronizes conference slides to a phone and allows users to customize the contrast/appearance of the slides would help in this case?

I love that idea. It would let people requiring different contrasts etc see the content too.

It won't help with pictures as easily, though a few apps these days do full PDF renders in different colours without much hassle.

I am definitely in the no black background white text camp and on the web I have a javascript bookmarklet to zap the colour CSS and make everything rather plain looking. It's not all text for me, but particularly dense text is unreadable, even with my glasses on.

Re: Never Use White Text on Black: Astygmatism and Conference Slides (2017)

#32

Post by threecreepio »

astura wrote: post #19

I really don't get it... I have severe astygmatism (which caused amblyopia in infancy) among other visual defects. My glasses do the best they can but my corrected vision still has a lot of visual defects. My poor vision causes me trouble with a lot of day-to-day things, but white text on black background is not one of them. I experimented without my glasses and I still don't have a preference for black-on-white over…

I have irregular astigmatism. In my experience, glasses and normal soft contacts do very little to correct it. Scleral contacts do a decent job with the astigmatism, but they have a few other issues.

Re: Never Use White Text on Black: Astygmatism and Conference Slides (2017)

#33

Post by cybwraith »

Hnrobert42 wrote: post #21

Maybe this is victim-blaming, but my suggestion to the post’s author is to update her prescription. I have astigmatism. This solution worked for me.

Not all astigmatism is easily corrected with glasses/contacts. I suggest reading up on irregular astigmatism: https://www.warreneyecarecenter.com/better-vision-correction...

Re: Never Use White Text on Black: Astygmatism and Conference Slides (2017)

#34

Post by nullc »

knolax wrote: post #23

I have astigmatism and I have no idea what the author's talking about. I stare at white on black terminal text all day without issue (maybe it's different for presentations?). I've also made presentations with white on black text before and had no problem reading the slides.

If the overall environment is really dim, your pupils will dilate. Like opening the aperture of a camera this will make the area of correct focus smaller.

... but if the room is so dark that the presentation background alone is all that is keeping my eyes from dialating, then I'm going to find the presentation uncomfortably bright.

Re: Never Use White Text on Black: Astygmatism and Conference Slides (2017)

#35

Post by colorincorrect »

michaelmrose wrote: post #28
colorincorrect wrote: post #7

that's a bit disappointing, seeing as this format is by far my favourite because of it being very simple and aesthetically pleasing. any suggestions? my intuitive response to this would be black on brightly hued navy blue, but i worry that is also low-contrast, which also causes issues. can't please everyone!

This option sounds like it would be a poor reading for all. You can't please everyone but it seems like you can figure out how to displease most.

https://imgur.com/a/I1jFrG8 this doesn't seem that bad, but maybe my phrasing of the colors was inaccurate.

Re: Never Use White Text on Black: Astygmatism and Conference Slides (2017)

#36

Post by packetized »

gnicholas wrote: post #12
packetized wrote: post #11

On mobile, this site has a “toggle high contrast” widget on the left side that seems to directly contravene the points made in the article.

Not just mobile — it's on desktop too. I also saw this toggle and thought it a little ironic. OTOH, this is an opt-in feature that a reader can activate, as opposed to a presentation that must be absorbed by everyone in the audience as-is.

Agreed, I just found the juxtaposition of the two confusing at first.

Re: Never Use White Text on Black: Astygmatism and Conference Slides (2017)

#37

Post by zczc »

It's even worse for people with multifocal intraocular lenses implanted after cataract surgery: they see strong glares and halos around light objects on dark background (including text), and unlike astigmatism this cannot be corrected with glasses or contacts

Re: Never Use White Text on Black: Astygmatism and Conference Slides (2017)

#38

Post by colorincorrect »

dvh wrote: post #27
colorincorrect wrote: post #7

that's a bit disappointing, seeing as this format is by far my favourite because of it being very simple and aesthetically pleasing. any suggestions? my intuitive response to this would be black on brightly hued navy blue, but i worry that is also low-contrast, which also causes issues. can't please everyone!

Black on white. That is #000000 on #ffffff.

i think this is the 2nd best option, not the best: as someone who deals with artsy stuff more than pure information (or more accurately, i prefer to interpret the goal of transmitting information as an artistic task), i find that too much white tends to overpower any graphics you have on the screen.

the benefits of a physical white background is because your lighting will make background/subject evenly lit, but on a computer screen, the white just tends to overpower.

Re: Never Use White Text on Black: Astygmatism and Conference Slides (2017)

#39

Post by mrob »

DubiousPusher wrote: post #5

Speaking from my own disability I'd say I'd much prefer if people used white on dark text over any use of light background. But this is because my own issue is with photosensitivity which affects a large number of low vision users. In fact I often create white on black content because it is easy for me to author and read. I also have significant color blindness and am totally unsure which color combinations are hard…

If both options cause problems, you should pick the one with the best workaround. Sunglasses can reduce brightness, but increasing brightness is much more difficult, so dark text on light background is correct.
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