"Code Sandwiches"

[David Nadlinger]

On 3/11/11 11:17 PM, Jonathan M Davis wrote:
> On Friday, March 11, 2011 11:18:59 David Nadlinger wrote:
>> My question from above still remains: Is there any scientific data to
>> back this assumption?
>
> I don't know. I haven't gone looking. However, I know that there's lots of
> anecdotal evidence for it. There's probably experimental evidence as well, but I
> haven't gone looking for it.

The reason I'm asking is that while I can understand that you might 
personally prefer light text on dark backgrounds, I don't think that 
this can be generalized so easily.

I don't know of any research specifically studying eyestrain, but there 
are results indicating that *black-on-white* text is significantly 
easier to read, e.g. Hall and Hanna (2004) [1] or Bucher and Baumgartner 
(2007) [2].

Also, while I don't want to doubt that you know lots of anecdotal 
evidence favoring light-on-dark text, I think there is probably more for 
the opposite: Just look at the standard text settings of most widely 
used OS/DEs out there, or at the color scheme of the most frequented web 
sites, etc.

Light-on-dark color schemes certainly had their advantages on early 
monitors (flicker, tearing), but with today's sophisticated screens, I 
personally prefer dark text on light backgrounds. Even with a 
brightness setting matching the ambient light (many people I know have 
turned the backlight up way too high), longer blocks of white text on a 
dark background have the nasty habit of leaving an after-image in my 
eyes, as demonstrated by this site: http://www.ironicsans.com/owmyeyes/.

David



[1] http://sigs.aisnet.org/sighci/bit04/BIT_Hall.pdf
[2] 
http://www.psycho.uni-duesseldorf.de/abteilungen/aap/Dokumente/Ergonomics-2007-Text-background-polarity.pdf