Kevin Raber's "Time for a Change"

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

One does not equal most 

Perhaps, but weight compensates ;-) More people visit CNN and LuLa than "most" other sites.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Perhaps, but weight compensates ;-) More people visit CNN and LuLa than "most" other sites.

Are you expecting the readership of LuLa to drop precipitously when the new, improved website is launched?

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Why would I expect that?

[jjj]

Perhaps, but weight compensates ;-) More people visit CNN and LuLa than "most" other sites.

Bad use of [incorrectly guessed] statistics and logic there.

[jeremyrh]

Are you expecting the readership of LuLa to drop precipitously when the new, improved website is launched?

Err .. no .. I  understood that the physics of perception would adjust themselves to the new readership statistics?

[Digital Pictures]

Looks like our suggestions about the black backgrounds were ignored by Lula.

Maybe they're not so unlike Canon and Nikon themselves sometimes.

And maybe Canon and Nikon feel the same way about their comments as LuLa feels about the white (they call them grey, they're WHITE) backgrounds some of us pointed out to them.

BC

[Kevin Raber]

There will not be black backgrounds. And, no white type.  Based on the majority of feedback we have that was a good move and one requested for years.
The New site is what it is and we will now work on adding features and such that we couldn't have before for the benefits of our readers. 
We still have to complete the NEW video section and then we have a list of other things that will be added.

I am always happy to hear about ideas to make the site better.  The NEW Site is here though and we like it and it is our site and we enjoy sharing it with readers.

Kevin Raber

[michael]

As the person who has heard hundreds of complaints for some 15 years about our use of white text on black background, it pleases me no end to now receive complaints about our switch to the reverse.

My days are now complete. The universe is unfolding as it should,

M

 

[Paul Gessler]

Looks like our suggestions about the black backgrounds were ignored by Lula.

Maybe they're not so unlike Canon and Nikon themselves sometimes.

And maybe Canon and Nikon feel the same way about their comments as LuLa feels about the white (they call them grey, they're WHITE) backgrounds some of us pointed out to them.

BC

To all of those who really feel that strongly about it, just create your own custom CSS to display the site the way you want it. In about 20 minutes I was able to hack together a respectable "dark theme", though it still has some little problems I need to work out. Numerous browser extensions are available to load your local customizations whenever you visit a LuLa page.

Try doing that to change the layout/style of your Canon/Nikon camera menus (Magic Lantern notwithstanding, to a certain extent)...  

[dreed]

In the corner for dark on light:

Human Computer Interaction Legibility and Contrast

In the corner for light on dark:
American Institute for the Blind: Tips for Making Print more Readable ... however their website is the inverse of what they suggest (for older people)!

Applying Colour Theory to Digital Displays

Why light text on a dark background is a bad idea
People with astigmatism (aproximately 50% of the population) find it harder to read white text on black than black text on white.

[jeremyrh]

In the corner for dark on light:

Human Computer Interaction Legibility and Contrast

In the corner for light on dark:
American Institute for the Blind: Tips for Making Print more Readable ... however their website is the inverse of what they suggest (for older people)!

Applying Colour Theory to Digital Displays

Why light text on a dark background is a bad idea
People with astigmatism (aproximately 50% of the population) find it harder to read white text on black than black text on white.

So white on black is a good choice only for blind people. Hmmm ... wondering how many blind photographers there are ?

[BJL]

In the corner for light on dark:
American Institute for the Blind: Tips for Making Print more Readable ... however their website is the inverse of what they suggest (for older people)!

The only vote for light on dark there is guidelines for _printed_ media; the far higher contrast levels possible with screen displays probably render that part of the argument irrelevant.  So having joined the astigmatic majority, I will now vote for dark on light! (Though tools like Apple's "Reader" mode usually gives me that option with a light-text-on-dark-background site.)

Note to JeremyRH: "vision impaired" usually does not mean "blind": as just noted, about half both the population has some relevant visual impairment, in the form of astigmatism.  And by my guess at the average age of this forum's participants, probably more than half of us are "vision impaired".

[jeremyrh]

Note to JeremyRH: "vision impaired" usually does not mean "blind": as just noted, about half both the population has some relevant visual impairment, in the form of astigmatism.  And by my guess at the average age of this forum's participants, probably more than half of us are "vision impaired".

Apologies to any visually impaired people - I did not intend to make light of your situation. However, the idea that half of the readers of this forum are visually impaired to the extent that the publishers should use by default the guidelines issued by the American Institute for the Blind seems a little unlikely to me.

[jjj]

afaict most of the text on the new website is shown grey on a grey background -- the least legible option.

From here it's very dark grey/black on a light grey background and is very legible indeed. Easier on the eyes than pure black on pure white and waaaaay better than the previous reverse text.

[jjj]

Do you have any evidence that less luminance contrast improves the accuracy and speed of reading?

Do you have any it doesn't? 
Bear in mind the contrast/brightness ratio of a bright backlit screen is a quite different thing from say the printed page. So back text on white paper may have less contrast than black on light grey on a monitor.
Also pure black and pure white may be the most contrasting shades, but may not be optimum and may even be tiring for reading [online]. LuLa is [now] nicer to read than say Wikipedia.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

... more luminance contrast improves the accuracy and speed of reading.

Contrast and luminance is like medication: in proper doses, it helps. Too much, and it is a poison.

[jjj]

This has been studied repeatedly; and studied repeatedly for screens.

The earth is round, the sky is blue, and more luminance contrast improves the accuracy and speed of reading.

You didn't actually bother to read my reply it would seem.
Slobodan got it though.

[jjj]

And yet still missed the point(s).

[jjj]

Bible studies?   

[PierreVandevenne]

Great new design. Looked around for 30 mins or so. Love it. Congratulations. Then headed for the forum. Should I say I was surprised by the "nit" picking about luminance? Well, I wasn't ;-)