Why Do Web Designers use Light Gray Type on a White Background?

[jamesp]

Without fail, white text on a black background will give me a splitting headache within ten minutes. If I really want to read the content, I'll switch to "user" mode, but more often I just hit the back key and avoid the site in the future.

Frames annoy the hell outta me too. Two pages of text that takes ten pages of scrolling to read.

And another thing...
Nine times out of ten when someone posts about their new page saying, "Let me know what you think!" they don't really want to hear about any problems.

[blue2blue]

My favorite (not) is a whole bunch of text in a little Flash inset where you can't actually control the scroll -- you have to click on an up arrow or a down arrow and then it will scroll at a speed almost guaranteed to be uncomfortably slow -- or too damn fast.

 

(If the designer would even just use an iframe, at least you could control the thing with a proper scrollbar. It's a case of people with gold-plated hammers seeing a world that's made out of nails.)

 

 

Of course, video is the new Flash... as they say.

 

Now, I love the fact that video has come to the web -- it means I never have to leave the computer [it also means my eyes are now incapable of focusing on anything outside an 18-20" range].

 

But while there are some things video is great at -- there are plenty of other typical webby things it is rotten at... and it is the latter uses which now seem to be in a sudden growth phase. Just because you can embed annotation and links in your YouTube videos, it doesn't mean that's a good menuing system for your web empire.

[mshane]

The use of neutral colors gives balance to any lay out. It's subtle shade makes it clear and pleasant to look at.

website design

[cooterbrown]

That's really awesome! Geez I have been searching for this online. Thank you so much for sharing this with us. Yes, as you have probably figured out, I am a spam poster who resurrects threads and posts meaningless stuff that you might think actually relates to the thread but if you look at my sig, you see things like Neon Bikinis and Poodle Sunglasses and even Vacations in Albania . Fortunately no moderator would ever modify my post! But I will have to say if the moderator feels this way what the hell every happened with HC 2.0? Thank you for sharing, this is very interesting post! I will now go find other interesting posts! I will then drink until I am unconscious then throw up in a public bus stop! I can say anything I want! This is the internet! I will change light bulbs! Cars are not like giraffes! The color blue is not green! Neon Bikinis Poodle Sunglasses Vacations in Albania

 

 

And yet, you didn't bant him, Craig?

[blue2blue]

I'm envisioning quite a lifestyle with my trophy wife in her neon bikini and her poodle sunglases while we bask on the Albanian riviera...

 

Naturally, I'll be on my jail-broken, counterfeit iPhone the whole time... but in the evenings we'll stroll out through the marketplace looking for knock off designer shoes, clothes, and handbags...

[the stranger]

Don't ya'll know? It's art, man. Readability is just not a big concern. We're making art here, man. It's not that you can't read it, you just don't get it.

[the stranger]

Ok, you're right:

 

http://www.gilligansisle.com/quotes.html

 

[Anderton]

Isn't it ironic that after posting this thread, we still ended up with the HC 2.0 color scheme when it was introduced. I am colorizing this type for those who are nostalgic for that particular look.

[cooterbrown]

 

 

 

Aww, come on - it wasn't THAT bad.

Well, okay - it sucked, but still...

[Hard Truth]

If I ruled the world, all graphic designers under age 35 would be required to wear special glasses that put everything out of focus when they work. That way they would design things that work for us older folks.

[blue2blue]

 

If I ruled the world, all graphic designers under age 35 would be required to wear special glasses that put everything out of focus when they work. That way they would design things that work for us older folks.

 

Text sizing as done in Mozilla Firefox (but not recent versions of Chrome, Safari or IE8) can be a real savior for tired eyes (or out of date multi-focals).

 

Newer browsers, with the exception of FF, blow up the entire page when you use the quasi-universal ctrl+ and ctrl- zoom hotkeys -- which is fine if you want to look at big pictures -- but it often pushes text areas off the screen or makes navigation a pain.

 

If, OTOH, your concern was actually making the font size of text big enough to read comfortably then FF's method of resizing just the text while leaving the page layout basically the same can be a heaven-sent -- at least if the web designer knew how to handle text overruns in his CSS -- and you'd be surprised how many big sites over the last few years have had issues with that. (In FF, I think you can turn full page zoom on or get plug ins that will let you blow up images separately -- obviously you get a big, blurry picture, since the browser can't do much towards interpolating new data into the picture, but that's the same for any browser.)

[web_designer]

Very nice! I like the look a lot!

[John Sayers]

I find serious car manufactures etc can use the flash video trip really well, show you the car internally and externally etc but I find a lot of individual promotion sites with flash are a mess, especially music sites.

 

I get offers from smart designers to fix my site and make it cool, I prefer to stay with a site I know, I can fix, I can alter, without too much fuss.But that's just me.

[Ernest Buckley]

 

I get offers from smart designers to fix my site and make it cool, I prefer to stay with a site I know, I can fix, I can alter, without too much fuss.But that's just me.

 

 

I agree, better to do this stuff alone if you have some time and don`t mind learning a couple of features. I know this thread is "old" but still, web designers need to be reminded on occasion of what and what does not work.

 

I`ve been using iWeb for 5 years now and I simply plug in my photos, videos, text, etc... in the pre-configured template. I can tweak the templates but for the most part, I find them ideal for what I need. Granted its not the prettiest site but again, it does what I need it to do. Now if I could establish some sort of payment format on there to sell my music directly without iTunes and such, thats the next step for me.

 

Prior to doing this site myself, I was paying a designer who did a nice job but I got tired of sending him stuff, having him put it on the site and then having to call or email him to explain how I really wanted it. At least now, its completely up to me how it looks and the changes go up when I am completely satisfied with the design.

[daklander]

 

 

 

This out take from the Biggest Mistakes in Web Design.....

 

Harmony Central had an excellent forum entry called Why Do Web Designers use Light Gray Type on a White Background? The second comment (by "Slight Return") hits the nail on the head

[blue2blue]

 

You might take a look at Bandcamp as a sales option. I think their no nonsense approach might fit nicely with your own aesthetic. There are no adverts on band pages and the artist/rep controls key aspects of the overall look. With a little clever work, you can probably get a Bandcamp page to fit in pretty well with most band sites and they have good player widgets. They also have excellent RSS and pretty good social integration. Google practically knows about your new song before it's finished uploading.

 

 

Agreed with you guys about the potential for good and evil with Flash. When designing a site that heavily uses Flash, it's best to remember one guiding principle: Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

[the stranger]

Agreed with you guys about the potential for good and evil with Flash. When designing a site that heavily uses Flash, it's best to remember one guiding principle: Just because you can , doesn't mean you should .

 

I think designing sites with Flash should be outlawed. Use it for content, not designing a website.

[the stranger]

Hey guys, you'll never believe it. This thread is referred to in Worst Websites of 2010 article on webpagesthatsuck.com. In entry number 6, the entry deals with contrast. When you hover over the word contrast, you get this snippet:

 

 

According to Wikipedia: "Contrast is the difference in visual properties that makes an object (or its representation in an image) distinguishable from other objects and the background." Here's a website that visually explains the need for contrast.   Harmony Central had an excellent forum entry called Why Do Web Designers use Light Gray Type on a White Background? The second comment (by "Slight Return") hits the nail on the head

[the stranger]

I also just noticed this thread has 11,500+ views.

[UstadKhanAli]

Hey guys, you'll never believe it. This thread is referred to in Worst Websites of 2010 article on webpagesthatsuck.com . In entry number 6, the entry deals with contrast. When you hover over the word contrast, you get this snippet: I found it amusing. So, who's the person that runs that site? I'm guessing he/she frequents here?

 

Or maybe just ran across it. This site comes up often on searches.

 

Is this light gray type on a white background inexcusable? Maybe. But I get the feeling that people do that on purpose sometimes as well.

[blue2blue]

Hey guys, you'll never believe it. This thread is referred to in Worst Websites of 2010 article on webpagesthatsuck.com . In entry number 6, the entry deals with contrast. When you hover over the word contrast, you get this snippet: I found it amusing. So, who's the person that runs that site? I'm guessing he/she frequents here?

I love that site. (If not its rather pedestrian -- but quite usable -- look.) He's a lot more hardcore on the usability/readability front than I am -- but his straightforward, content-uber-alles approach is a bracing blast of fresh air.

 

I'm not a total stickler for web standards. The are reasons why invalid HTML isn't the end of the world (target=

[Anderton]

Hey guys, you'll never believe it. This thread is referred to in Worst Websites of 2010 article on webpagesthatsuck.com . In entry number 6, the entry deals with contrast. When you hover over the word contrast, you get this snippet: I found it amusing. So, who's the person that runs that site? I'm guessing he/she frequents here?

 

I don't know how you found that, but thanks for bringing it to our attention

[blue2blue]

I don't know how you found that, but thanks for bringing it to our attention

It's actually a pretty well known site, particularly among behind-the-web folk. He's sort of like Mr Blackwell... you wouldn't necessarily want your designs to look like his -- but you wouldn't want to find one of yours on his ten worst dressed list, either.

[the stranger]

It's actually a pretty well known site, particularly among behind-the-web folk. He's sort of like Mr Blackwell... you wouldn't necessarily want your designs to look like his -- but you wouldn't want to find one of yours on his ten worst dressed list, either.

 

And he has a real nice dry wit that seasons his scathing critiques. Highly amusing.

[the stranger]

I don't know how you found that, but thanks for bringing it to our attention

 

Totally by chance. I was browsing Mashable - Dev & Design and ended up there. And if you're into that sort of thing, it's funny. And I was already a few pages in when I just happened to stumble across the reference. What's funny is before I even saw the reference, I was thinking of these discussions we had over the contrast issue. And what's the odds that I would decide to hover on that one word? (On that site, he underlines words like they're a link, but when you hover you get a tool-tip box type thing with relevant info...it's like that that ad-words terrorism, but used for the forces of good not evil. )

It's only because we talked about it that probably lead me to hover that word. I hadn't been hovering the others. But I did that one and bam, an SSS thread reference?! "Wtf?! Uh...I think I'll take this over to the forum."

 

I would always bring back info like this, but this one seemed like a real doozy. It's not very often I see HC forums getting referenced on design sites.

 

[i'm scared to speculate how this might have happened...lulz]