The very feint text fashion - will it end ?

[Digmen1]

Hi Guys
I am an amateur when it comes to coding.
But as an internet user and an older one (61 years) I am getting very concerned at the number of sites that are using a feint grey text and now very feint grey text.

I think I have good eyesight, but on some sites I have to really get close to the screen to read the text.

What is with this ?
Is is that cool ?
Who started this trend ?
Why do people do it ?

Surely you want people to be able to to read your content ?

When will a trend back towards black start ?

Any comments would be much appreciated.

[lucy24]

Isn't there a long, long discussion of this on "websitesthatyou-know-what dot com"? Conclusion: Yes, it's annoying as all get-out, and you can achieve the same effect much more prettily and readably by setting the background to slightly off-white.

You Are Not Alone, in other words ;)

Not entirely irrelevant tangent: I recently went through my own site* in order to regularize the background colors. Each directory had a slightly different shade, which struck me as overkill. Also distracting, in the rare cases where people hop from one to another. I think I got it down to three shades. Maybe four: some pages are very text-intensive and really need an extra-light background.

But what struck me was that over the years the backgrounds have gotten lighter. My very oldest directory-- the games, dating back to the late '90's-- now seemed unpleasantly dark and hard to read. The second-oldest, Rats, was almost as bad. Time for some wholesale lightening.


* Those who have snooped know that I don't really have a web site. I have half a dozen micro-sites under a single domain umbrella. Each directory has its own css, including background color. The individual paintings don't count, because backgrounds are set to harmonize with the color theme of the painting. Same for the e-books.

[Leosghost]

Also relevant and tangential...
[juicystudio.com...]

especially the

luminositycontrastratio*
page

and the

coloursaferatio*
page

the tools on that site may be of use to some.

closed some tabs;-)

*page titles given so as to avoid 3 links to the site in the same post..although IMO the site merits many links..and a good read / look around.

[lucy24]

Ouch. I detoured to check. That background yellow is the very same #FC0 as My Favorite Site. Possibly I missed the <fe>markup</fe> somewhere in there :)

[rocknbil]

This has always been an annoyance to me, and always justified with "good design principles."

What is with this ?

"Your web site is boring - what's this, 'black' text on a 'white' background? Let me redesign your site, because I am God's Gift to Web Design and Know Everything. We will kill your conversions and visits, but man, it will look COOL!"

Is is that cool ?

Heck no. It's trendy, hip, Web 2.0, but not cool. :-(

Who started this trend ?
Why do people do it ?

Don't know, don't care, "forgive them, for they know not what they do" (and don't care, see trendy, hip . . . )

Surely you want people to be able to to read your content ?

I love the responses to this one. Almost all of them are the same with variations. "Our target market is X age old and actually prefer light gray type on a low contrast background. We've asked everyone we care to listen to - they all love it. Basically, we don't give a c**p about anyone else, so their opinions don't matter." And the really SICK thing about this? Since their visitors are a "skewed set", this spills over into self-gratifying statistics presented at board meetings and assessments, so the site owners never even know it's happening.

When will a trend back towards black start ?

Set your browser style sheets to a **legible** contrast and override theirs. They really don't care.

[Staffa]

... or just hit Ctrl+a and highlight the lot, gives you white text on a dark blue background

[ken_b]

... or just hit Ctrl+a and highlight the lot, gives you white text on a dark blue background

No, just hit the back button and go to a different site, one that actually understands what they are doing.

There are darn few questions, problems, etc that aren't answered on several, if not many sites.

[sonjay]

22-year-olds with perfect eyes are so myopic.

Someday they'll be 50 and presbyopic. Then they'll understand.

[Digmen1]

Thanks guys for all the replies.

It seems that most of you agree with me that this fashion for feint text has gone too far.