Magazine lay out

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Member for

13 years 5 months

Posts: 12

Am I the only reader who has a problem reading white text on a coloured background ?

I anticipate that I may pass over interesting items just because the lay out makes them difficult to read.

Would it be significantly more expensive to use a dark font, like brown, purple, dark green etc. against a light background, like cream, yellow, pale blue etc. ? After all the average age of the readership of aviation publications is probably well past 40 and our eyes are not as good as they were..

Original post

Member for

15 years 10 months

Posts: 204

I too prefer black on white, and as my eyes are not as good as they once were, I object to the minute fonts sometimes used. I got fed up of trying to read some passages of our esteemed mag with a magnifying glass that I resorted to having magnification being added to my reading glasses, and then they used an even smaller font - are they in league with Dolland & Aitchison? :rolleyes:

Member for

15 years 1 month

Posts: 479

Perhaps they are cutting down on their printing ink costs - pity the magazine price doesn't reflect that economy!

Member for

14 years

Posts: 1,234

?
Dark background uses more ink?
Anecdotally......
I was part of a big experiment in school in 1960plonk. Several dozen schools took part. They were messing with the colour of Blackboards and Chalk.
Which was the easiest to read from all angles in the room etc.
The result was a dark Blue blackboard with pale Blue Chalk.
So, because Black is the cheapest paint and White is the cheapest chalk, they stayed with it. "Seen to be written, not written to be seen!" as usual with most reports.

Member for

14 years 2 months

Posts: 1,259

It depends on the lightness of the colour that the white or black is going against that impacts on the legibility, whilst the easiest is black on white for the printed page, it is actually easier to read white on black when on a screen, though convention means we are generally used to and more comfortable with the black on white.

Going back to printed, if the lightness is less than 50% then black should be used and if the reverse then white.

The issue I find arises when you have a single colour of text going across a mixed background.

Member for

15 years 1 month

Posts: 479

PeeDee: "?
Dark background uses more ink?

Agreed - but to clarify my remark, I was referring to the 'tiny text' observation by a previous poster. However, as they can then, hopefully, get more words on a page we shoud be getting more for our money, but the ink cost possibly increases pro-rata!

Just put a voucher for Specsavers in every copy :D.