| One of the most important tasks your Web site | | | | contrast go away, but you can inadvertently |
| must accomplish is communicating your message to | | | | introduce a visual effect that makes the type look |
| site visitors. Be sure the time, energy and funds | | | | like it's vibrating. |
| you're spending produce design that assists in that | | | | Give Your Site Visitors a Break |
| communication. | | | | Years ago, I participated in a university study of |
| Can Your Site Be Read Easily by All Visitors? | | | | computer screen readability and the results were |
| Readability is a fairly big topic and covers typefaces, | | | | clear: |
| capitalization, thickness of letters, colors and more. It | | | | - Black type on a white background was the easiest |
| is an important topic to keep in mind when designing | | | | to read. |
| your Web site. And it's not just about visually | | | | - Dark type on a light background was more readable |
| impaired visitors. The decisions you make regarding | | | | than light type on dark backgrounds. |
| any of these factors can affect how readable your | | | | - Sufficient contrast between type and background |
| site is to anyone. | | | | was required for readability. |
| Don't make it difficult for visitors to read text on | | | | - Background images reduced readability. The more |
| pages by adding dark colors or busy illustrations in | | | | complex and darker the background, the more |
| the background. Patterned and even solid color | | | | difficult it became to read the text in the foreground. |
| backgrounds can reduce readability and obscure | | | | So, take a look at your site. Do you have |
| content on your Web site because they can reduce | | | | backgrounds set to colors that reduce readability? Do |
| the contrast needed for our eyes to discern letter | | | | you have images placed behind important text? Do |
| forms. | | | | you have type set in colors that don't show up well? |
| Stressing the Reader | | | | If you answered yes to any of those questions, |
| Normally, when we read, we do so by recognizing | | | | what can you change that might improve the |
| words through the shapes made by letter | | | | readability and, therefore, usability of your Web site. |
| combinations. When you reduce readability, you make | | | | - Can you lighten backgrounds or darken text, or |
| readers work harder. They can't read as fast | | | | both, to increase contrast? |
| because they have to look at each letter. It can get | | | | - Can you remove images from behind text? |
| quite frustrating to attempt to read long passages of | | | | - If you must have a patterned background, can you |
| text through busy backgrounds or low contrast. Just | | | | make it very light like a watermark and arrange it so |
| try reading dark green type on a red background or | | | | that large unpatterned sections are behind the blocks |
| yellow type on a light blue background. Or any words | | | | of text? |
| set against a background image that has words in it. | | | | If something is hard to use it doesn't get used very |
| When backgrounds and the type on them are in | | | | much. |
| colors that are close in value, not only does the | | | | |