[arp242]

Recent examples I encountered include (not necessarily the best examples, just that I recall off-hand):

- Neo4j docs: https://neo4j.com/docs/cypher-manual/current/introduction/cy...

- RabbitMQ docs (esp. that sidebar): https://www.rabbitmq.com/docs/reliability

- Argo Workflows UI (no link, as you need to login).

- CV from "senior UX engineer" I received yesterday in response to a job ad I posted.

- Just now I found https://www.nngroup.com/articles/low-contrast/ when searching for something else – the quote at the top is nigh-unreadable due to the "font-weight: 250" which has the same kind of effect as low-contrast grey text.

- I've also had some discussions with designers over the years. Some view their work as "art" and get incredibly defensive about even minor changes done for real pragmatic reasons. Of course, there are also plenty other more pragmatic and competent designers out there.

- HN does it for downvoted/dead comments and "text posts" such as ask/show HN. Dang said it's a feature. Many disagree.

It's not as prevalent as it once was – it was even worse 10 years ago – but it's still encountered fairly regularly.

[lowboy]

Semantics, but the #5e636a (39% lightness) text of Neo4j and #1c1e21 (12% lightness) of RabbitMQ aren't what I would consider _light_ grey. That would be up in the #bbb-eee range, or 75%+ lightness (black 0%, dark grey 25%, grey 50%, light grey 75%, white 100%). And I would be surprised if designers were involved in those 2 documentation sites.

Font weight is a crucial factor of readability, and it depends on screen specifics. On my 2020 M1 mbp at ~40% screen brightness, the NNGroup link quote is quite readable. As it is on my phone.

I don't rate any designer or developer very highly if they're too precious about their "art".

The HN dead/downvoted comments is contentious for sure. I don't agree with the choice fwiw.

[guappa]

Ah you are one of those people who believe nobody in the whole world has worse eyesight or screen or lighting conditions than what you presently have.

[lowboy]

Nope. And not sure how you made the leap there from me giving context into my environment and equipment and how I was perceiving some text on the screen.

[arp242]

I perceive it as "light grey", so shrug.

It's all "readable" in the sense of "I can read it", but not in the sense of "I can read it effortlessly". I have a bit of CSS in Stylus to fix it, and it takes noticeably less effort to read it with a "normal" font. The RabbitMQ menu is just so much easier to scan as well with a more normal colour.

[lowboy]

Good distinction between light grey setting and perception (I was speaking to the former). Maybe on your screen/OS/browser for a given font, a setting of #000 would start at (perceived) “grey”.

And agreed that readability is a scale and it’s best to be on the “easy” end of that scale.