Uchū – Color palette for internet lovers

Have you tried running any readability analysis on this? Feels like the contrast on the background and foreground is too low to make for comfortable (long term) reading.

I think there's too much focus on 'readability' these days. At work we have a new team that's making us measure all the contrasts for people with reading difficulties. Contrast has to be > 80% or something. And text sizes huge. And they don't allow us to change our themes. Or to install plugins like dark reader "for security".

Problem is, it makes everything super fugly and eye-straining for everyone else (considering no dark reader allowed anymore). And it's much harder to see which parts are important and which aren't. Because everything is super bold and screamy. I didn't buy a 4.7 million colour display to only show 10 of them. I tend to get headaches from really high contrast, I prefer using a softer theme like solarized.

The 0.5% of employees with vision issues would be equally well served with a browser plugin that adjusts it for their particular issue. Not everyone with visual difficulties has the same issue, after all. Some people can't see certain colour combinations so they need to be avoided or modified. Some just see blurry so they need large fonts but probably even larger than they are now. Some can't see at all and they're not helped by this either, they just need a braille ruler and good alt tags on images. Which is something nobody in the company seems to care about. They just care about things that are super noticeable.

We used to have a nice gentle email signature that is now all kindergarten colours and huge fonts and it's just so in your face. For something that nobody ever reads anyway. It was de-emphasised for a reason, so people know it's there but that it's not important information unless you're really looking for it. If you really want to read it you can always just highlight it. Or switch to plain text mode.

Ps: I'm not against catering for disabilities at all, but I'd like to see a more tailored approach. Not trying to fix one thing and breaking it for everyone else. I don't set my phone on huge text mode either but I'm happy it's there for people that do need it.

Lack of contrast hinders everyone with any kind of vision issues (old/colorblind etc.)

“Too much” contrast means young hipsters complain it burns their eyes.

Even the highest standards for readability leave a comfortable range for expressing creativity (and soft colors), it’s not like they require #000 on #FFF.

> Lack of contrast hinders everyone with any kind of vision issues (old/colorblind etc.)

False. Someone with some kind, but not everyone with any kind. This broad stroke that you've just painted is counter to the goals of accessibility.

> “Too much” contrast means young hipsters complain it burns their eyes.

Let's not trivialize disabilities we don't even know exist. But if you wanted to research this, you can look up the term "photophobia" or "light sensitivity".

> Even the highest standards for readability leave a comfortable range for expressing creativity (and soft colors), it’s not like they require #000 on #FFF.

Again, false.

Let's consult Accessibility Requirements for People with Low Vision:

> 2.4.2 Light and Glare Sensitivity

> Many people with low vision have extreme sensitivity to light (called photophobia). Bright light makes it difficult or impossible to see, and causes eye pain and headaches. For some people, the normal brightness of a computer screen with a light background is not readable and painful. They need to change the background to a darker color. Glare sensitivity is common with age-related vision changes and cataracts.

> [...]

> 3.1.2 Text Contrast

> As mentioned in the Light Sensitivity section, some people need low brightness, especially for backgrounds. Some people who need low brightness for backgrounds also need low brightness overall and thus need low brightness text.

> Other people need high contrast between text and background, including many older people who lose contrast sensitivity from ageing. Some read better with dark text on light background.

> For some people, common color combinations or colors from a limited color palette work fine, for example, black text on white background or the inverse with white text on black background. Other people need to select more specific background and text colors. For example, people who need low brightness overall, need to select the specific background and text colors that provide sufficient contrast for them yet not too high brightness. Readable and optimal color combinations differs vastly among individuals and can even vary for one individual depending on conditions such as fatigue and lighting.

(emphasis mine)

Source: https://w3c.github.io/low-vision-a11y-tf/requirements.html

> Let's not trivialize disabilities we don't even know exist.

Ok, fair. But I don’t think it’s an accident that all the people I hear complain about contrast being too high are 20-something engineers.

There’s nothing about good contrast that says it needs to blaze your eyes off. You can have perfectly good contrast with a completely black background and minimal amounts of light. Like I said, there’s no reason that “contrast” needs to mean black on white.

I'm almost 50. And I have a big problem with my display, even during the day I run it at 0% brightness. During the night it's really way too bright. This is why I use dark mode. I also sometimes reduce the contrast but this messes up colour accuracy in a bad way.

I agree it's not really a content issue as much as a hardware issue. LCD screens have a limited backlight range and seem to be optimised for peak brightness not lowest brightness. Probably because big numbers sell better on paper. Even reviews only talk about top brightness these days.

My screen only tops around 200 nits and the lowest setting is way too high.

Yeah, I'm at the point where I'm looking at manually positioning/removing one of those full-screen dimming filters so I can use my monitor past 7pm. And 90% of the time if a screen goes really dim it does so with savage PWM.