Topic on Talk:Design/Archive/Athena

Light text on dark background: great for reading on small (mobile) screens and probably important for differentiating navigational elements from content.

Light text on dark background: pretty much horrible for reading on the (desktop/laptop) web.

Discuss.

(All pithy statements aside, I think this is a serious problem. Websites that use light on dark color schemes are in the minority for a reason. Is there a way to retain the structural composition of Athena but have a color scheme that isn't so hard on the eyes?)

Interestingly, research says differently.

Most of the time, users operate in either "scan" or "read" modes. In read mode, usually black-on-white is best, but for scanning (such as looking at website chrome) light on dark is better. UX Movement talks a bit about this very thing, actually.

Many years ago (like, 1995) I read a paper that said that "light grey on black" was the best to reduce eye strain and promote readability. Of course, that was back with old LCD monitors, so things are different now. Your question is good, though, so I went a lookin'.

...and I found a reference to the old paper, but not the paper itself. However, this stackoverflow question actually goes into more depth, and with more research.

What about users like me who usually invert the colors on their desktop computers? I know that this is more of an accessibility concern, but it would probably mess up the entire idea of having the MediaWiki software's color scheme determined by its code, right?

The biggest advantage of OLED displays, which are becoming steadily more prevalent (Samsung phones and tablets, LG phones, Apple Watch, LG's 55EC9300 TV/monitor, etc) is the potential for less energy use and longer battery life, particularly with a dark-background user interface. Our site is so popular that simply popularizing light on dark would save significant energy.

I've been editing wikipedia using a dark background for years. It works better for me. It should remain an option and be fully supported. Currently it's manageable but a bit of a pain to do - I periodically have to fix things to have it keep working for me, or work around issues I haven't or can't yet fix.

Also, OMG. That UX movement post's author is a, well, I'll just say he's got no clue what he's talking about. His argument is as logically sound as that of creationists, and the follow-up comments tear it apart. Wow.