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Myndex 🔵

UX Movement. OMG.

There's an article there, I won't link as I don't want to boost engagement but "Why You Should Never Use Pure Black for Text or Backgrounds" is approximately the largest rubbish pile in the history of internet dumpster fires.

Attached is my latest reply:

Well I stumbled upon this gross misunderstanding that seems to have had seriously negative consequences as some people seem to take what was said in this article as factually accurate. ## It is not. I realize I’ve commented before, but on this occasion I noticed something. I read one of the references Anthony posted: >> “…*research study found that “black text on a white background overstimulates the OFF ganglion cells while white text on black background overstimulates the ON ganglion cells*…” Um. NO. No no no! That is a significantly bizarre statement that is not even remotely supported by the paper. More over, and those of you reading along at home are not even going to believe this one, that “on/off study” was not a study with humans, it was a COMPUTER SIMULATION. I read it three times because I could not believe such a pile of junk pseudoscience passed any sort of peer review. So, in the first place, that cite is not a paper to base any real conclusions on, and in the second place, this kind of misinformation is functionally harmful and has to be stopped. STOP USING GRAY TEXT… PLEASE ! I’ve written a number of authoritative articles on the subject of contrast, color, and text, a quck Googlesearch will fint them, such as “Please Stop Using Grey Text” and “Better Reading on the Web” and my favorite “The Realities and Myths of Contrast and Color” at Smashing Magazine.
To summarize, the actual science says: 1) For a light background, full back text is IDEAL. But it is useful to note that in most cases, #222 is functionally the same as #000. However, and expecially for body text, #000 is the goal, and there is no reason not to use full black test with light BGs, except for links or certain differentiation, but most especially for small body text, USE BLACK #000 BLACK 2) Use fullly black text. For questions on this concept, please see #1, above. 3) The cause of EYE STRAIN is NOT black text, it is a bright white background that is too bright for the eye’s adaptation state. And using grey text here MAKES FATIGUE WORSE. 4) I realize that posting articles with misinformation is the way to boost engagement, but dammit Anthony, don’t post harmful junk! If you want to do the dark engagement tactic, pick things that are innocuous and non-harmful to actual human beings. 5) When you see a site with unreadable gray text, please write them and complain. IT’s time to put a stop to this nonsense. Thank you for reading and have one of those “nice days” you’ve heard so much about. Andrew Somers Director of Research Inclusive Reading Technologies, Inc. and W3C WAI Invited Expert
Myndex 🔵

@KevinMarks

Hi Kevin, yes I loved your article years ago, in fact it's a key cite I used early on to demonstrate how and why the current WCAG 2.x contrast needs to be replaced.

In "Better reading on the web" at UX Collective, and also "Please stop using grey text" on my TangledWeb.xyz blog, I lament about once readable sites shifting from black to grey text after WCAG 2.x and HTML5 came about.

uxdesign.cc/better-reading-on-

UX CollectiveBetter reading on the web - UX CollectiveBy Andrew Somers
Nov 05, 2023, 05:41 AM·Public
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