[otterpro]

> Black text on a white background can cause eye strain because of too much contrast. I use dark greys for my content. Then, there is still a lot of contrast, but not as much as there would be with black text.

Is there such thing as having too much contrast, in the context of text relative to its background color? I still feel that this blog's text needs more contrast, not less. Perhaps it's only me, but the gray text used here is not contrasty enough for my eyes, at least on my monitor, and I find myself straining to read.

My favorite blog design is https://paulstamatiou.com/. It has just the right balance in contrast, and the text's spacing is perfect. I can read comfortably. I wish I could explain how it is more readable, but it just feels right.

EDIT: It's probably just my personal preference. I do notice #333333 (gray) is probably the lightest gray that's acceptable for me. The blog is using #4a4a4a, which feels a little too light. Also, I find HN to be very readable (which uses absolute black text), and I'd rather have a black text with light background than a gray text on a white background.

[systoll]

It's an interaction between user preferences, equipment, configuration, and environment, and we don't really have the information to cut through all that.

An HDR monitor displaying ~1000 nits on black in the dark room is great for film, but no-one would want to read text like that. On the other end of the scale, if you're out in the sun, trying to eek out as much time out of your iPhone as possible, you've probably set the brightness so that you can deal with black on white, but reducing it further would be unwanted.

You can't know what your users are actually seeing, and even if you could, there's a layer of personal opinion on top of all that.

IMO, the only reasonable assumption you can make is that most people have their devices set up so that they're happy with the OS itself -- and every mainstream OS [but especially iOS] uses a ton of #000 on #FFF.

[notriddle]

> Also, I find HN to be very readable (which uses absolute black text)

On a background that is not absolute white. It's a matter of contrast, not black vs gray text specifically.

[aspit]

Here's more on that! http://uxmovement.com/content/why-you-should-never-use-pure-...

[megous]

> White has 100% color brightness and black has 0% color brightness.

There's no 100% black. People should stop with this nonsense. My monitor's black is pretty greyish by default. It gives nice illusion of blackness because it's also very bright with the whites, so contrast is high, but try comparing a black screen and turned off monitor screen. It's grey as hell. There's no standard screen. If people's eyes are offended by high contrast, they have a contrast knob on their monitor or video card.

I really don't appretiate all those designers' concern for my eyes. It's really not called for. If I want less contrast I can move the virtual knobs on my monitor, and I'll get it set globally. Now the concerned designers just caused a double decrease in contrast on their websites compared to normal readable websites wich use #000 for body text, which is now much harder to correct compared to moving a stupid knob.

[scns]

jxnblk.com/grays

Just read it yesterday. Can recommend his other stuff too.