[HN Gopher] Contrast Rebellion - to hell with unreadable, low-co...
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Contrast Rebellion - to hell with unreadable, low-contrast texts
Author : Tomte
Score : 59 points
Date : 2021-04-08 17:30 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (contrastrebellion.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (contrastrebellion.com)
| atoav wrote:
| As someone who worked as a freelance color corrector for film:
| Although you should always value accessability and consider those
| who are not blessed with perfect eye sight, the part where it
| says that this isn't subjective bothers me.
|
| I can assure you from many talks I had with customers: There is
| nearly nothing more subjective than color perception. Some people
| will be bothered by a low contrast, others by a high contrast.
| They are not bothered because they are _wrong_ , they are
| bothered because what feels good to them is different.
|
| Additionally the whole thing depends more than we would like on
| the screens used.
|
| That high contrast example on a low contrast screen might
| physically have the same brightness difference as the low
| contrast example on a expensive high contrast screen. Screen
| contrast certainly increased during the last two/three decades.
| Do we adjust our guidelines to this?
|
| Is there such a thing as too high contrast? Ask yourself, watch
| out of the window and try to focus on the part where dark and
| light meet, depending on the weather and light direction this
| contrast can be high enough to be uncomfortable to your eyes.
|
| Of course the opposite is true as well, too low contrast can be
| extremely exhausting either. But both differ with individuals:
| Some will find a high contrast to be perfectly easy on their eyes
| and far more readable, while for others it might be too much and
| exhaust them over longer periods. People who work with colors
| commercially have to strike a good balance here and take their
| own (often more sensitive) perception out of the equation.
| type0 wrote:
| > Some people will be bothered by a low contrast, others by a
| high contrast.
|
| Being bothered by high contrast is very exceptional and can't
| be compared, being hard to see and unpleasing to see are
| entirely different problems. In one you need to strain your
| eyes and the other to adjust your aesthetic sensibilities.
| atoav wrote:
| > Being bothered by high contrast is very exceptional
|
| It isn't _very_ exceptional, it is just less common than
| problems with low contrast (mostly for demographic reasons).
| It is also the main reason why every display has a Brightness
| setting and why proper workspace illumination is important
| for the health of your eyes.
|
| I agree that accessability is important, and excessive use of
| low contrast, thin or small fonts is not acceptable because
| it affects the higher percentage of people. However:
|
| 1. Saying that higher contrast is better objectively for
| everybody is and not a matter of personal preference is
| false, because it isn't. Some people prefer their contrast
| not to be high and these people exist. I worked with them.
|
| 2. On the web gladly we can offer multiple versions of a page
| (and potentially even re-style what we see). Light and dark
| themes are a good example for this. Instead of deciding on
| one thing that fits all people maybe we should think more in
| terms of providing the best thing for multiple needs.
| VBprogrammer wrote:
| In the spirit of people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones:
| this website sucks to read on a phone.
| [deleted]
| Taek wrote:
| I honestly find this page difficult to look at and read. It may
| be high contrast but that yellow is really hard on my eyes and
| does not make me excited to spend a long time on the site.
| Xevi wrote:
| Same, it was incredibly difficult to focus on the text on this
| page for me. And I don't have any problems with my eyes. On top
| of that it kept switching from dark on light, to light on dark,
| making it even worse.
| martinskou wrote:
| Oh the irony.
| Animats wrote:
| For a while, in my Ad Limiter add-on, I tried still showing ads,
| but displaying them at low contrast, as less-desirable search
| results. But taking them out completely worked better.
| pimlottc wrote:
| An incredible usability own goal. One of the problems with low
| contrast text is readability in non-ideal lighting, such as
| outside on mobile. But this site is hardly usable on mobile at
| all.
| Animats wrote:
| I especially like the dark blue on black "TWEET" text on the
| site.
| emayljames wrote:
| https://contrastrebellion.com/#page2
|
| Cough cough HackerNews!
| jandrese wrote:
| That one felt a bit contrived since it's highlighting an
| comment that has been downvoted almost to oblivion. The low
| contrast is a warning that the content is probably not worth
| your time. The low contrast is a feature, not a bug.
| [deleted]
| mcguire wrote:
| Is it? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2222522
|
| That's the text of a text post. The same issue can be seen
| here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26739220
| jandrese wrote:
| Oh, then that is weird. I have no idea.
| detaro wrote:
| I believe it's still a "feature" in the sense that HN wants
| to discourage text submissions, but I think it's very
| arguable if this a good way of doing it.
| alfu wrote:
| I only read the comments anyway.
| the_af wrote:
| No, it's the initial submission, not a comment.
|
| This also confuses the hell out of me, I always "read" them
| as "heavily downvoted comment" only to realize "hey, no,
| that's a question! Why does HN style it like that?".
|
| Every time.
| dang wrote:
| Past threads:
|
| _The Contrast Rebellion_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26046190 - Feb 2021 (5
| comments)
|
| _The Contrast Rebellion_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14575153 - June 2017 (46
| comments)
|
| _Contrast Rebellion_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9442322 - April 2015 (70
| comments)
|
| _Ask HN: Fixing low contrast websites on the client side_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9020408 - Feb 2015 (4
| comments)
|
| _Webdesigners: please make text readable_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2807047 - July 2011 (106
| comments)
| motoboi wrote:
| I wanted to join the revolution but could not read the small
| text, sorry. Maybe the mobile revolution first?
| wedn3sday wrote:
| When I came across low contrast text articles in the past, I used
| to manually edit the pages css to fix the font, now I just close
| the tab and never go back.
| throwanem wrote:
| Yeah, it's pretty rich to complain about UX on your webpage that
| _hijacks scroll_.
| throwaway8581 wrote:
| I love that the website demonstrates why the "rebellion" will
| fail. The designers of the site know about one annoying thing,
| enough to lecture others, but are perfectly oblivious to
| another even more annoying thing that they themselves do.
| [deleted]
| ant6n wrote:
| Lol, that website is completely unreadable on my iPhone because
| of the random jumping while trying to scroll.
| finnthehuman wrote:
| Don't let the use of a "function over form" argument trick you,
| this is a fashion argument for fashion people.
|
| These arguments use whatever cudgel is nearby to make their
| points. Principal is not about principals, it's about proving
| their taste in fashion superior.
| the_af wrote:
| But do you agree that low contrast text is hard to read?
| _greim_ wrote:
| Classic form-over-function scenario. If you're only paying
| attention to the aesthetics of a block of text--rather than
| actually reading it--it becomes a noisy and chaotic thing, to be
| reined in and reconciled to other elements in the visual grid.
| monkellipse wrote:
| Safari on iOS does NOT like this page. I was pretty excited to
| look at some low-contrast examples to mock in that top slider
| graphic, but the dang page keeps auto-scrolling me past it. Glass
| houses and all that...
| a3n wrote:
| Ironic that the text is too small to read on my phone, and reader
| mode is not enabled. Do you have to do something specific to
| enable, or disable, reader mode?
| throwanem wrote:
| You actually can't; it is purely heuristic, and (afaik
| intentionally) has no API facing page scripts or content. It
| just examines page content and, if it finds "enough" text,
| offers reader mode.
|
| Here's how Firefox's reader mode implementation does it:
| https://github.com/mozilla/readability/blob/master/Readabili...
| vinceguidry wrote:
| Oh jeez no wonder an extension to default to reader mode
| hasn't been the panacea I'd been hoping. The stupid extension
| doesn't have a bar icon to let me turn it off, instead I have
| to add to a whitelist.
|
| Back to the drawing board.
| eyelidlessness wrote:
| I recently tried to overcome some unexpected reader mode
| behavior on my site, and found it very difficult to find
| good, consistent, thorough documentation. It's pretty opaque
| and can change without warning, and unlike most browser
| technology intentionally so (because documenting it makes it
| easy for ads and other junk to cheat). That said, I found one
| article[1] much more helpful than most of the other resources
| I found, linking here so it might help others.
|
| 1: https://medium.com/@mandy.michael/building-websites-for-
| safa...
| zeta0134 wrote:
| I recently discovered that I have an astigmatism in one eye,
| which I can only partially correct with glasses. I don't need to
| wear prescription lenses day to day, but one thing I noticed
| immediately was how much easier high contrast text is to read.
| Without my glasses, any significant contrast has a slightly out
| of focus halo, making thin lettering just a tiny bit harder to
| read.
|
| I'm sure due to this condition that I can't speak for the
| majority of the population, but it seems to suggest this:
| everyone's eyes are different. Sometimes in tiny, subtle ways. In
| my case, a tiny bit less contrast helps tremendously with
| legibility, and I find dark themes easier to read because the
| halo is less pronounced. Other users might have a different
| experience. As much as possible, accommodating user preference
| (especially light / dark theme) will help those of us who need to
| tweak further tremendously.
| dennis_moore wrote:
| Black on pickle green isn't at all that readable. And neither is
| light pickle green on dark pickle green.
| the_af wrote:
| Regardless of whether this particular webpage is a good example
| of web design and readability, I think the point is well made: is
| it true that low contrast text is hard to read? I think it is.
|
| Scroll hijacking is a separate issue that must be addressed
| separately.
| hn_throwaway_99 wrote:
| I agree, but beyond scroll hijacking the text is so teeny on my
| Android I can barely read it, which is highly ironic given the
| subject matter.
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(page generated 2021-04-08 23:02 UTC)