I'd like to know if having white text on a black background will cause eyestrain or other usability problems- especially for those with glasses or eye problems.

My goal is to have my site accessible to the widest range of viewers possible. I appreciate any help and info you guys can give me.

Generally, it's bad. But if you know why it's bad then you can take the steps to make it work. Here are the reasons not to do it:

It decreases legibility
It causes eyestrain
It is overdone
It can make your images look darker (try this-take an image and put it against both a white BG and a black BG)

There are more but this will get you started. Now, here is how to get around these problems:

For legibility, use san serif fonts to start with (you really should use these on the web anyway) because the ligatures of serifs get lost more easily on a dark BG

Eyestrain, don't go with black and white, try a little less contrast. Maybe a light shade of another color

Pay attention to your layout & composition

Increase the lightness and saturation of your images a bit to compensate for the black BG making your images appear darker.

Hope this helps. If you have any other questions post them and I'll try to help you where I can.

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Business Forum

Marketing Tips

Thank You- That is very helpful information!

I'm thinking I will use a grey font or a cream/off white font on the black background and use sans serif font.

The pictures on my site will be financial charts, which tend to be white anyway, alleviating the dark image problem.

Have a great day!

Also think about increasing the text size which can also help reduce eyestrain - especially for the axis titles on the charts

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PR6 Sublime Directory Lyrics

then dont do what you are suggesting.
use the standard black text on a white background.
there is a good reason it is the 'standard'.
.

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columbus ohio web site design . residential architects in columbus ohio . non-profit url : club relaxzoolander
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I personally like the concept of white on black for text in websites. Keep in mind, this is not for a website that would have many lines of text, because that is abusive to ones eyes. Please take a look at my work site (listed below), it takes the white on black concept through the entire site. Two important rules:
1. Use a sans serif font!
2. Don't go any lower than size 2 for the font.
Good luck!

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Cheers! Matt
Whitefrog Professional Website Design (fun)
Dream It All - Home Decor, Fountains, Florals, Stone Statues

I personally out of my own work use a red font on black background. White font on black background can cause some eye strain atleast for me lol, but like relaxzoolnader said if your wanting to reach the most people possible font wise you might want to use black on white background.

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Plentiful Piercing Discount Body Jewelry

hi,
white text on a black background would be fine.. lot of people from different forums told me that my site is nice.. i'm also using white text on a black background