Pet Peeve O'The Day: Websites With Black Backgrounds

[KittyWampus]

i happen upon them and forget how much THEY FUCKING HURT MY EYES WHEN I LEAVE THEM.

Why do people use black backgrounds when it's so hard on reader's eyes?

Is it a passive agressive thing?

Thank You very much and have a good night!

[FloridaPat]

1. Most of those sites seem to be for people who do drugs. I think

a white background hurts their eyes or head or whatever. It's also a warning that you have to be wierd to enter the site. Into Satin or whatever.

Or maybe they just have lousy taste or an idiot web designer.

My favorites are dark grey letters on black or yellow on white.

[KittyWampus]

2. Idiot Web Designer... NOT To Be Nasty.... But I'm Still Not Seeing Proper

and it's been 5 minutes since I left that website.

[pagerbear]

16. Into Satin?

My web site has a black background, but I'm not into Satin. Silk, you bet. Cotton, mostly. Never, ever Satin!

I guess I must be an IWD.

[DS1]

3. makes sense for photography sites

:shrug:

[tedoll78]

15. Yup.

There are a few radiography sites also that use a black background. It's good for contrast.. kinda like why x-rays are viewed in a dark room.

[NYC Liberal]

4. My pet peeve?

Well, two.

The trailing cursors. And the ones where the webmaster uses the sample code he got off a JavaScript tutorial to create about 10 dialog boxes when I enter that say "Welcome!" "Please enjoy your stay!" "We have lots of exciting content!"..etc.

[miss_kitty]

5. i hate the patterned backgrounds w/text over pattern

makes shit hard to read....i have to copy and paste it into word-oh the humanity!

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

6. A solution (if you happen to be using IE)

Go to TOOLS then INTERNET OPTIONS. At the bottom of the wizard you will see a button for ACCESSABILITY. Hit it and then right at the top there is a checkbox for IGNORE COLORS SPECIFIED ON WEB PAGES. The color of the web page will now revert to the color you have specified in your settings as your Window background color.

You can also override the web page text settings from the ACCESSABILITY menu.

[KittyWampus]

7. Hey! You really know how to use a computer. Thanks...

I don't know all that much about such stuff.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

9. Wait'll you get my bill....

:evilgrin:

[FloridaPat]

11. Thanks!

[Crachet2004]

8. rightclick on the page...choose select all

[hyphenate]

10. Well, as a website designer

I do a lot of black backgrounds with white lettering. I have rarely heard complaints by people. I'm the opposite--white pages with black lettering bother my eyes a lot.

Most of my sites are related to media and science fiction, however, and space backgrounds are very popular. I agree they're not for everyone, but I've seen some that are putrid--like red writing on a magenta background, or dark green lettering on a black or dark blue background, or some other obviously color-blind website.

I think that part of the idea is that when you are working in a visual medium such as the web, you are trying to translate perceptions which have been learned through mostly the print media. Obviously, in print media, it's unlikely for you to see a lot of pages done in black with white lettering--the amount of ink necessary would be prohibitive. However, the 'net is more like television, and black backgrounds are somewhat anticipated in that medium--as a dark room in a movie, or a spotlight focusing on a person, or some other such concentrated light source. It's the print media, however, which actually shapes a lot of the web, because computers originally helped with such areas as desktop publishing and print ads, as well as office productivity.

I find most websites which have black lettering on a plain white background to be endlessly boring. They're not only plain, but dull and uninspiring. If a site wants to become more interesting, there are many ways to doing it, but the introduction of color is only one of those. White lettering on black might not be the answer for a lot of people, but it sure beats some of the psychedelic backgrounds with unseeable lettering, or such wild and chaotic color schemes which beg for you to move on to the next site.

If your eyes can't stand black backgrounds with white, there is an item under "tools," "internet options," "accessibility" which allows you to ignore the color schemes of different pages. You can change it there if it will help.

[shraby]

14. I find that a tan, light blue,

parchment or a otherwise light colored background with black lettering works good to alleviate eye strain.

[NightTrain]

12. Then you better not visit mine!

But if you really want to, it's http://www.soulexpressradio.com

[KittyWampus]

13. Thanks To Some Generous DU'ers... I Just Learned How To Turn Off Color

:)

Thanks for the link.