Too high of color contrast, however, creates a significant disparity in light levels that affect the user’s eyes when they read. High color contrast is useful for readability. For normal-sighted users, stick with dark gray over black to prevent eye strain. When designing for them, you may need to use black for an accessibility mode. Low vision users, who are sight impaired but not blind, tend to read text better with pure black text or white text on a black background. Doing this decreases eye strain and strengthens reading stamina. Instead of a black background, use a dark gray background so that more light emits from it and the text doesn’t bleed. This effect is known as “ halation” and it affects users with astigmatism, which people of all ages could have. When this occurs, the white letters can bleed into the black background and cause the text to blur.
This makes eyes work harder and open wider since it needs to absorb more light. There’s also reasons why you shouldn’t use a pure black background with white text. A pure black background kills all light emitting from the screen. This prevents overstimulating the retina and allows users to read for a more extended period.Ī research study found that “black text on a white background overstimulates the OFF ganglion cells while white text on black background overstimulates the ON ganglion cells.” This finding means that “white text from a black screen could inhibit myopia, while black text on white background may stimulate myopia.” The study advises against reading black text on a white background due to the striking effects of contrast polarity. Instead of black text, use dark gray text on a white background, so the change in brightness isn’t as drastic. But if we turn on a dim light in a dark room, our eyes adapt to the change easier because our retina isn’t overstimulated by such a sharp increase in contrast. Such a drastic change in light conditions is harsh to our eyes. This causes the eyes to work harder to adapt to the brightness.Īn example that illustrates this concept is when we turn on a bright light in a dark room. Such a disparity in color brightness creates intense light levels that overstimulate the eyes when reading text.
White has 100% color brightness, and black has 0% color brightness. Pure black text on white backgrounds can cause eye strain when users read the text over an extended period. Designers can do their part to reduce the likelihood of eye strain on their designs by paying attention to the color of black they use. Did you know that pure black text can cause eye strain? A survey found that “58 percent of adults in the U.S.” have experienced eye strain from working on computers.
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