Is the background color too bright?

[Donut]

I keep my backgrounds gray to spare my eyes the strain. I want to get input from the forum members if they think the white background appears to bright and is straining their eyes.

Thanks for your input.

[Dr. Snubnose]

Background way to bright and strains my eyes so quick I can only stay on the forum for minutes before I have to get off. Font's are small and titles hard to read....I miss the old forum format.....I hate this one....I know it had to be done....but I feel it wasn't for the better change at least aesthetically, and it used to be more user friendly...I'm sure it's just me...but the fact that someone else is bringing it up makes me think maybe there is more out there that feel the same as me....will be interesting to see the results of the posted poll.....Doc:)

[w3tnz]

Lol wut.. Why dont you just change the settings of your monitor? Try turn the brightness down as much as possible and bump up the contrast.

I dont have a problem with a white background, alot of programs and sites use white, I like it, I also like the new format of the forum, but that is purely preference.

Doc, if you use Google chrome you can hold down CTRL+Z (Zoom) and use your mouse wheel to zoom in and out while browsing webpages, it will stay on whatever zoom you set until you change it.

[razorsharp]

It isn't bad to my young eyes but a darker background is nicer

[Pinetreebbs]

It's fine for me, I like the contrast to the text.

I looked at other forums I post in and they typically used the same white background but soften the highlight colors and set a text color other than black.

A very light shade of gray or ivory would be OK. Colored text on a black or very dark background may be 'kewl' to some but is awful to read.

For here, try changing your monitor brightness and contrast settings. The default contrast and brightness settings for most monitors is set to STUN.

Most browsers allow adjustments or the use of default settings you might want to explore.

[Donut]

With a LCD monitor I typically turn the brightness down to around 20 brightness, 100 contrast.

Maybe 15 years or so ago, while on IRC, someone suggested to me to turn the background gray to make it easier on my eyes. I tried it and have been using gray backgrounds on things I can control ever since.

I've heard that marketing people ran tests on what people remembered after reading, they found that black on white made people remember the most.

For paper, black on white is good. For computers, I don't think the same is true.

[The Deacon]

FWIW, I think there was more white when Spyderco first changed over to this version of vBulletin. I'm also inclined to think that at least some of the white areas of the layout cannot be changed to another color since all the vBullentin powered forums I visit use white in certain places. What I do wish Spyderco would change is the use of red text on black background. I may be the only one but, for some reason, I find it very difficult to read.