[dkarras]

It is a bit ironic that the website has white text on black background which is no-no on screens as the very high contrast creates ghosting and eye strain / hurt for many people. Carefully read the text, then look at anywhere else and you'll see ghost lines everywhere for a few minutes. So the text should at least be gray-ish to decrease the contrast if you want to go that way. This works pretty well on paper, but sucks on screen.

Whenever I see such content, I send them this link which demonstrates the issue in a fun way: https://www.ironicsans.com/owmyeyes/

[zerocrates]

That's a "prefers-color-scheme: dark" style: if your machine is set to light mode then it's black on white, well okay, very dark gray on very light gray. (Also the text in dark mode is slightly gray but it's very slight).

I don't think it's totally crazy to present text like this to users who are advertising a preference for white-on-black (though of course there's an argument to be made about the difference between "dark" as a UI choice and a content choice... really this feels like something your browser should let you opt out of despite your OS colorscheme choice).

[dkarras]

Preferring dark mode does not necessitate presenting #f0f0f0 text on #000 background. Lots of websites out there that present a proper dark mode when they sniff the preference.

[dylan604]

Until pandemic, most of my time was spent in dimmed rooms like edit bays which is a common lighting condition for that type of space. The dark color scheme is pretty much the default for any software you'd expect to find in that environment. Since the primary type of UI that I create is also used by people in that industry, they typically have a dark background scheme too. Now, that I no longer work in those caves, the bright colors are taking some getting used to and I'm still not there.

For you to say it sucks without saying "for me" at the end of it is just you assuming everyone has the same preferences as you. I can tell you from experience, this is just a bad belief to hold.

[userbinator]

Turn your monitor's brightness down.

Those of us who have monitors which aren't left at eye-bleedingly-bright defaults shouldn't have to suffer low contrast text (which is much harder to fix).

[smrq]

I find this argument unconvincing for the same reason that the answer to the musical loudness war isn't "turn your speakers down". When contrast is maximized 100% of the time, there's no room for emphasis.

[userbinator]

I find your argument unconvincing too, because having your monitor set to a comfortable brightness was the norm before designers ignorant of brightness controls started ruining it for everyone else.

The "musical loudness war" is completely irrelevant and makes no sense in this context either. Turn your speakers down if your ears are hurting.

[dylan604]

>The "musical loudness war" is completely irrelevant and makes no sense in this context either. Turn your speakers down if your ears are hurting.

Recorded distorted sounds are still distorted regardless of your volume setting. Loudness war making people's ears hurt isn't solely due to the volume. If you can't tell the difference between piss poor mastering vs something properly mastered and being able to recognize them when you hear them is one of those "ignorance is bliss" things in life. However, once you can tell, you can't not hear it once it's present. The only way volume fixes it is when volume is set to 0.

[nextaccountic]

But the problem with the loudness war isn't the loudness per se, but the loss of dynamic range: if everything is as loud as it can be, there is no room for emphasizing anything.

It's like, if you are always shouting, you can never raise your voice.

Which is exactly what is happening with full contrast websites: if everything is at max contrast, there is no room for emphasis.

[mrob]

Printed text does just fine using maximum contrast all the time, and bold and italics for emphasis.

[nextaccountic]

Maybe for text specifically you're right, but we use screens for other media like pictures and video. If we have to tone down contrast to make high-contrast text comfortable, we are also reducing contrast of other media, and this loss may be significant.

Now, if we had reflective monitors (like e-ink etc) we could just be comfortable with maximum contrast text (like printed text). I think the display technology is a problem here.

(But still: there are some books with yellowish pages which I find more comfortable to read than ultrawhite pages. Maybe such lower contrast pages are more expensive or something, or not adequate for all lightning conditions etc)

[xigoi]

There is room for emphasis: bold text, colors, different font, …

[_Algernon_]

Typography has a solution for emphasis that doesn't use contrast, and it's called italics. Use that.

[criddell]

So for your analogy, would you say the solution for compressed dynamic range in music recording would be for artists to use, say, guitar distortion or other audio choices for emphasis in music rather than playing with loudness?

[_Algernon_]

Text and music are two completely separate forms of medium with completely different conventions. Your insistence on comparing them is meaningless.

[dkarras]

Yeah, in my case that is not it. Turning the brightness up makes it significantly worse though, I agree.

[xigoi]

The link you posted is exactly how I normally read every webpage – I have Dark Reader set up to make all text white on a black background. Light backgrounds make my eyes bleed and I actively avoid working with software that forces them on me.

[dkarras]

I am not talking about dark / light mode difference. I too prefer dark mode in everything I use. Dark mode does not mean highest contrast text on black background though.

[xigoi]

Yes, I am talking about pure white on pure black. I find gray on slightly darker gray hard to read.

[jwells89]

I think this varies between individuals.

In my case, it’s not unusual for white on black to be more comfortably readable than the opposite, depending on ambient lighting, screen panel type, type of device, etc. As such I greatly appreciate it when sites provide a light/dark toggle or at least work well with reader mode, which I can tune to fit my needs.

[diego_sandoval]

I never have this problem, but it might be because I always use my monitor in the range of 15% to 30% of its maximum brightness.