They say dark background sites are bad but ...

all of the info i've read about website design suggests that page backgrounds should be white or of a light color.

however, many of my favorite sites (including TC) are just in opposite. on any given day, i look at TC a number of times w/out my eyes straining.

moreover, when i go to a white background site, such as the new york times (which i visit usually once or twice a day) the white glare strains my eyes.

does anyone know of website "experts" who actually advocate use of dark backgrounds?

i have a couple sites floating around on the web (http://www.piggod.com for one) & in both cases i chose to use black backgrounds w/ light text. dark backgrounds just seem more 'professional' to me & appear to reduce blank space & glare.

anybody else out there have opinions about dark vs. light backgrounds?

[ Edited by: Tiki Chris on 2005-03-18 08:41 ]

I agree with you Chris, I like the dark backgrounds.

[ Edited by: purple jade on 2005-03-18 09:07 ]

I don't know where you're reading that, but dark backgrounds are definitely harder to read large blocks of text on. They are fine for a sentence or two, but not for reading long texts. It's not about the color, it's the contrast. TC has a nice, middling amount of contrast that makes it easy on the eyes - Hanford's a good designer, whaddaya expect? Conversely, it's always easy to tell who is colorblind when you land on a page with huge chunks of purple or neon blue text on black. That makse my eyeballs fell like they are gonna pop out.

On 2005-03-18 08:40, Tiki Chris wrote:

moreover, when i go to a white background site, such as the new york times (which i visit usually once or twice a day) the white glare strains my eyes.

~when im trying to read white background sites, i often click and highlight the text to fake a dark background!

On 2005-03-18 09:26, Tiki-bot wrote:
I don't know where you're reading that, but dark backgrounds are definitely harder to read large blocks of text on.

tiki-bot,
what i've read agrees w/ you. but i'm just trying to see if anyone comes down on the other side of the argument. i tend to like dark backgrounds. i'm definitely w/ you about the importance of contrast.

cheers,
chris

On 2005-03-18 09:31, dogbytes wrote:
~when im trying to read white background sites, i often click and highlight the text to fake a dark background!

ha! i've done that too.

Life in a Bungalo has been dark since day one and I always liked it. But I have heard that it doesn't look as good on cheaper laptops. Then again, no one has complained.

-g-

I totally agree - my eyeballs prefer the atmosphere of dark websites, both for reading and for general esthetics. I always change the display colors on machines I work on, so that the general background is kind of a beige recycled paper color - this usually still has good contrast with black text, but not the cold blue glare of a white background. Unfortunately on my own website all the reviews and other text sit on a ridiculously distracting background that I've been meaning to change since 1998.

I've heard that white backgrounds are better for professional websites so that people can print a webpage or article that just consumes ink/toner for the positive content (text), not the negative space (background).

-Randy

Back in the olden days, when we used to run a computer by rubbing two sticks together (the late 1970's, before then you would run a computer by banging 2 rocks together), you would have a dark screen with lighter letters on your terminal. After many hours of coding you would start getting eye strain, and many programmers would reverse the foreground & background, put on sun glasses & continue coding.

I like multi colored, flashing, black and white stuff. Makes for a perfect early morning nightcap after a cup o exspresso and a 3 hour commute on the 405 north, through OC & L.A.! A little Jimi Hindrix in the back ground! Score!!

I like Bamboo Ben's site, particularly the neon green page! That's some fancy interweb programming :)

Interesting posts.

A couple of things to point out here about the color scheme of TC:

I designed Tikiroom.com first with the dark green background because I wanted the site to have a moody dark feel like all the best tiki bars do. At the time, Tiki Central was on Yahoo and I didn't intend to have forums here.

When I moved TC here, I kept that same color scheme to make it fit together.

Interesting note though: I do a lot of television graphics work for various video devices and settop boxes, and the rule of thumb there is to use Light text on a dark background.

This is because a lot of TVs have their contrast turned up, and this causes blooming (thickening or glowing) of bright things. Light text on dark appears to be bolded a little, while dark text on light will make the text look thinner (because the background is blooming) and harder to read.

For people who prefer dark on light, there's the "Old School" Tiki Central theme that works on most pages. You can choose it on this page.

Long live the forest-green, tropical effect....checked out the "black and white" version. No good for me. Best site on the web!

But hey, I just left the Tiki-Ti after three of Mike's Mai Tais. What do I know?

way back in the day - the stone ages - pre-web... when CRTs first started to rule the world.... it was generally accepted that dark backround screens were easier to read.

this makes sense - because your eyes are not staring into a bright light source which can be fatiguing. hence, most of the the earliest computer displays were amber text on black.

nowadays the web presents a different set of issues - i tend to recommend lighter colored backgrounds for web clients that have sites where people will regularly print out pages.

if you have white or light text on a dark background - chances are you will bhave printing issues. there are programming ways around this, but overall - that's the reason for the recommendation of light colored background websites.

*On 2005-03-18 12:13, freddiefreelance wrote:*Back in the olden days, when we used to run a computer by rubbing two sticks together (the late 1970's, before then you would run a computer by banging 2 rocks together), you would have a dark screen with lighter letters on your terminal. After many hours of coding you would start getting eye strain, and many programmers would reverse the foreground & background, put on sun glasses & continue coding.

ah... someone else who remembers the olde thyme days... staring at any screen light or dark for hours at a time will give you eye strain, but staring at a darker background CRT display is STILL easier on the eyes overall.

[ Edited by: Futura Girl on 2005-03-24 08:18 ]