Meryl's Notes Blog

I’ve noticed a nasty trend lately… gray text on white. This isn’t a cool trend as it’s harder to read text. On top of that, on many sites you can’t change the size of the text unless you’re using a browser like Firefox. So what if black text is boring? There’s a reason for that — it’s readable.

Most of us scan rather than read Web pages. Gray text is a barrier for scanning because it requires working harder to make out the text as it doesn’t have a strong contrast to the background. It’s okay to use some gray text, but not for most of the page’s contents.

But I’d rather read gray on white than something like white or black on hot pink (OK, so that’s a teen’s MySpace page, not an actual Web site). Seriously though, white background is preferred to a color background although I’ve seen some that are well done. In most cases, the font and background selections don’t work well.

From the sponsor: The cosmetic surgery Los Angeles Web site uses black text on white. The doctor is an artist and a perfectionist who prides himself on achieving a properly proportioned and well-balanced look for his patients.