White text on black?

[Babz]

Been a while since I've been here. Absolutely cannot stand this reverse-type-for-body-copy theme.

Is there a user preference to change it back to positive type on a white background? (Hopefully. Pretty Please!)

Sorry if this is old news or not a question I'm allowed to ask or whatever.

Thanks,
Babz

[mhschmieder]

Babz, I feel for you as I have lifelong visual challenges that make it almost impossible for me to read white-on-black.

I didn't want to complain as it is a better overall forum experience, it took work, and I seem to be in the extreme minority; whereas in the early 1980's we all welcomed what we called "reverse video" dumb terminals that were black-on-white.

I was 17 years younger than the next-youngest co-worker back then, and we had all been suffering white-on-black "dumb terminals" for eons (once we moved past watching the lights blip on the front panel of the mainframe itself).

I have been speculating that most people younger than I am, aren't cheapskates about paying for visual correction for astigmatisms. A few years ago, I concluded that this may be why I can't read white on black without getting dizzy and cross-eyed, as nothing stands still when it comes to the text.

When the text is black, pixels around it might not be stable (especially for those of us with astigmatisms), but the core of the character remains stable. This is just my personal theory.

Anyway, in a past life I was moderator of several forums and know how much work it is, so I never like to complain. But if my personal visual affliction isn't as uncommon in modern times than I thought, maybe it's worth looking into whether it's possible to support both.

The vi-control forum switched engines recently (meaning after the start of the pandemic ), defaulting to white on black, but then were able to offer a custom setting for black on white. Not sure if it's the same engine as this forum.

[Babz]

Babz, I feel for you as I have lifelong visual challenges that make it almost impossible for me to read white-on-black.

I didn't want to complain as it is a better overall forum experience, it took work, and I seem to be in the extreme minority; whereas in the early 1980's we all welcomed what we called "reverse video" dumb terminals that were black-on-white.

It's not just people with visual challenges. It will create eye strain for any reader. It's a cardinal rule of graphic design. Reverse type should only be used for emphasis, banners, etc., not body copy. It is completely unreadable for small type or anything longer than short messages.

One other forum I follow tried this and fortunately there was an appropriate negative reaction and they offered a way to turn it back to normal, and the insane people who actually like eye strain could keep it on reverse if they wanted.



Best,
Babz

[James Steele]

Yeah, it’s the usual situation, you try to do something good, and it blows up in your face. I will try and set it up so that people can choose the ugly default, white interface. I haven’t found a third-party light interface, but apparently it’s becoming an issue. We want it now, we want it good, we want it how we want it, and it’s got to be free.

I will tackle this when I have some free time but I’m in the middle of a studio upgrade right now with cables everywhere. So bear with me.

[James Steele]

…and the insane people who actually like eye strain could keep it on reverse if they wanted.

That’s the only explanation. I must be insane. Like I said, I’ll get to it when I can. This isn’t my job. You should try putting up a resource to the world for years, put hours into making what you hoped was an improvement and getting jumped within minutes.

This entire forum has pretty much devolved into a place where people come to post almost entirely when they have problems. I had a vision initially where I’d hoped users might share best practices and tips. Instead I should name this place “unofficialtechsupportnation.com.” I even get private messages… or people track me down on the web to find alternate ways of contacting me so they can message me and I can drop what I’m doing and solve their problem for them. It’s not enough that I made this place so that *in addition* to giving back with sharing production ideas, (that was the theory), people could throw a tough question to the brain trust. You’d think that was enough of a contribution…

And yes… not really in a good mood tonight. Have a fever and chills, but luckily not COVID. But soon as I can get up from bed I’ll get on that white/black issue. The thing is I can’t go live with the generic interface that says phpBB at the top because it destroys any branding I have going on. So I need to go to phpBB.com and pore over compatible skins and find one that acceptable and can be easily modified. Might as well, Doris told me the membership dues have been pouring in this month.

[James Steele]

Just tried to go back to the generic skin since ad a living organism I have no choice but to respond to negative stimuli and try to make it stop. Unfortunately the yellow for the topic headers disappears against the white background, and I don’t have time to sort that out tonight. Ooh look! A can of worms and it’s open!

[Babz]

Thanks, James!

James Steele looks great in black! Appreciate any effort!

[bayswater]

In threads following the change to the format, we see James made a series of changes. The original skin was a grey on grey — like the standard Logic interface. Contrast was not good enough to make out what the text said. Dark text on a light background was rejected because that apparently causes a plague of winged monkeys and poorly tuned pianos that naturally occur from too much blue light. When the current skin appeared the revolt died down to a dull roar. Not everyone was happy, but we learned to live with it.

[mhschmieder]

I'll read the other replies in the morning, as I just finished a long night shift at my day job and have horrible eye strain from how bad things render using remote desktop tools.

The point I wanted to make, is that co-workers -- especially young ones -- tell me they get eye strain from black-on-white but not the other way around. I wonder if this is because they tend to spend more time on their smart phones, so maybe their corneas need a rest from so much bright backlit screen time? Anyway, it's why I never got into computer games, as I work hard and then spend time with computer based music production. Too much screen time, even minimizing phone use!

Unfortunately, this sort of thing often ends up being a situation where compromises have to be made as there's no one shoe fits all solution. But hopefully there is a somewhat easy way to allow customization. And I apologize if it was already mentioned in one of the posts that was made while I was seeing spots writing code.

[James Steele]

Yeah, here’s a compromise. I feel like crap probably have some sort of flu and a little bit of a fever and was stumbling around trying to find my keys which were tap to my AirPods. So I feel like crap and I have to drag myself to work tomorrow, so I will try and deal with it when I can. I have to get through tomorrow. I have a few days off and I’m gonna pass out and sleep. I don’t have Covid I did the test.

[cuttime]

Yeah, here’s a compromise. I feel like crap probably have some sort of flu and a little bit of a fever and was stumbling around trying to find my keys which were tap to my AirPods. So I feel like crap and I have to drag myself to work tomorrow, so I will try and deal with it when I can. I have to get through tomorrow. I have a few days off and I’m gonna pass out and sleep. I don’t have Covid I did the test.

Get well soon. I appreciate all you do.

[Babz]

Feel better soon, James.

[Phil O]

I don’t have Covid I did the test.

I had covid and didn't test positive until I had symptoms for a couple of days. If you still have symptoms (on say, day 3) you might want to test again. My wife is a medical professional and says they are seeing this quite a bit with the new variants. Be careful, James, and be well my friend.

Your friendly neighborhood Phil

[Michael Canavan]

Control Option Command 8

there's your black text on white background.

[bayswater]

Control Option Command 8

there's your black text on white background.

Does nothing here. Does it have to be set up somewhere?