What colors are best for reading from a monitor?

Question

Books

Most sites have a white background and black text. It is not very convenient for me to read when the white background shines into my eyes, especially in the evening. I tried a dark background and light letters - it doesn't work out very well. Maybe it's the font?
Therefore, the question arose: “What color combinations of text and background are best suited for reading from a monitor?”

Answer 1

1. Contrasting colors
Ideally, this is black on white, but as they say right here, a bright monitor will hit the eyes with white. It is best to use not cold white, but warm.
like verdana, tachoma, etc.
Ideally, not only a designed computer or web font, but with separate glyphs for each font size. There are such fonts (few, look, I don’t even dare to name them), they are quite smooth even with anti-aliasing turned off, as they are designed pixel by pixel, including the asks are calculated so that the inter-letter distance does not walk, which is also very tiring for the eyes and makes it difficult to read .
Yes, the letters look prettier with it, but the eye is constantly trying to focus.
From the general recommendations, if you are going to read a lot from the monitor, I can also advise you to pay attention to the leading. Many leave it by default, but it is too small for reading. You should not increase it too much, as the connection between the lines will be lost, but let's say if we have automatic 12/14 pt, then it is better to increase it by 1 or 2 points, i.e. 12/16.

Answer 2

It is not very convenient for me to read when the white background shines into my eyes, especially in the evening.

Could it be the brightness of the screen? The black and white combo is perfect.

Answer 3

@Mischuk oddly enough, the combination of black and white is the most terrible. Fortunately, even if you open a text editor with a white background and start writing black text, the monitor will not display perfect white, just like perfect black. If this were so, the contrast would ripple in the eyes (unless rare individuals could read calmly).
Ideally, these are two opposite colors, contrasting enough, but not as much as possible. Each person has a different sense of the ideal, but in general the situation is such that diametrically opposite colors only worsen the situation. As always, the truth is out there somewhere. Ugh, in the middle. For example, I really like something like beige against an arsenic background.
As for monitors, a dark background works very well here. The fact is that the monitor itself is a lamp. Try looking at a bright lamp. Well, an hour, two ... Sad, right? However, if behind frosted glass - a little better. This is exactly what happens with the monitor. There are people who have a headache from LCD monitors - after all, this is a lamp behind frosted glass. But black pixels transmit less light. That is, they are more matte. Therefore, it's better.
Another tip - the larger the font, the better, however, as elsewhere, you should not be too zealous. As for me - right here (toster.ru) is almost ideal. Personally, I like it a little smaller - it fits more, but according to the average at the hospital, this is still ideal.
PS I know of very few resources that successfully used inverted colors. The reason is simple - UI elements conflict with the background. And if they are made light, they stand out too much. So it's not easy to find the ideal.

Answer 4

This topic has already been ... Here is the link