Eye Strain

[kHz]

Nobody will process color combinations identically (i.e., black on white, white on black, yellow on darkgreen, etc), but I am curious what color combinations (contrast) everyone has found causes the least eye strain and/or fatigue.

Sometimes I will try a new color combination to reduce eye fatigue. Currently I am trying two: black on beige and gold2 on midnightblue. I read that blue isn't processed easily so it won't fatigue the eyes.

 

[Stella740pl]

Don't know about gold on blue (either midnight or any other shade), I've had more than enough of it in my DOS days, and to me, it does cause a lot of eye strain, no matter what some article might say.

For my everyday work, I've set up black on off-white (custom-blended, much better than crisp bright white) and in some cases black on very light grey. For more contrast, and only sometimes, I use navy blue or dark maroon, again, either on off-white or light grey.

 

[CajunCenturion]

The point with blue, because of its shorter wavelength, is that it comes into focus in front of the retina, thereby making it difficult to focus on. That's why blue tends to fade into the background, and as such, makes for a good background color. Red, other the other hand, with the longer wavelength, tends to come into focus behind the retina, making it appear to jump out.

This is why those websites which have red foregrounds on blue backgrounds appear to be 3d. The eye is pushing the blue back and bringing the red forward to compensate for their focal locations.

Yellows and greens, with wavelengths between red and blue, come into focus fairly close to the retina and are the easiest to focus on, and therefore easiest on the eyes. They make good foreground colors.

There are lots of other factors that also come into play including the color saturation and luminance, in addition to the contrast between foreground and background colors. You can have too much contrast, meaning black on white or white on black may not be best. Stella740pl has already addressed this issue with some good suggestions.

There are several other factors that have just as much impact on eye strain and fatigue. The monitor should be the right distance from the eyes. Too close is more of a problem than being doo far away, but both contribute to strain. The monitor should be at or just below eye level. The primary light source in the room should not be directed towards the monitor, and all glare should be taken out of the picture. You may also want to consider environment contrast, that being how the monitor contrasts with the wall behind the monitor.

You are absolutely correct in that everyone is different so that is not right or wrong answer, only general trends.

Good Luck
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[infinitelo]

yellow text on a dark green background.



if it is to be it's up to me

 

[chiph]

Three things have helped for me:
1. Switching to a LCD monitor.
2. Selecting the right font.
3. Having good genes (I'm the only one in the family who doesn't need glasses, and yet I'm the one spending all day in front of a monitor!)

For programming, I use ProFont for Windows, which is a fixed-pitch 9-point font that is very clear and easy to read. It aparantly got it's start on the Amiga, and various people have ported it over the years to Apple, Unix, and Windows (both as .fon and .ttf files).

Chip H.


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[langleymass]

If you wear glasses, get ultra-violet coating on them. This will prevent you from sunburning your eyes. Get an LCD if you can.

 

[SilentAiche]

It seems widely known that red is the most irritating color to the eyes, which makes one wonder why that is the predominant color used in digital alarm clocks. I switched to green numbers years ago for my bedside clock, and I think it has helped a bit. I realize that no one looks at their clock anywhere near as much as a monitor, but we are talking about somewhat bright lights in a dark environment.

Or, perhaps alarm clock display colors were just important to me since I am a professional insomniac (well, maybe not professional - I never toured or anything...)

Tim

 

[orypecos]

I usually use Internet Explorer, but not all website support the font enlargment, so sometimes I have to open up Netscape. It will allow me to enlarge the font almost endlessly.

 

[CapsuleCorpJX]

White (or green) courier text on black is definately my favorite.

Courier font is very simple, and all the different chars are distinct.

Black background is obvious (least light).
White is the most distinct color from Black.

But it seems to be much more common for black text on white background, which is a mistake, people think that a computer monitor is like a sheet of paper, its not.

 

[chiph]

orypecos -
Often, in IE and FireFox, you can use Ctrl+MouseWheel to change the font size to make a site more readable.

Chip H.


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[technome]

Get a set of glasses, with the focal length set for computer distance. If you go for new lenses, you must tell the eye doctor the distance or else they test at a normal reading distance. I recommend having the lenses made with the first level of Polaroid, I have a set but would have preferred a higher level of Polaroid but the next levels are dark, and people do not like it when they can not see your eyes. Polaroid cuts down the fatigue from bright monitors, sunlight and fluorescent light; fluorescents causes the most fatigue, at least for me.
Avoid coatings, as they do not last, and you must clean them with special solutions religiously.Eg Windex kills the coating fast.

Fluorescent fixtures behind you vs overhead or in front seem to cause less fatigue. At clients I sometimes remove the bulbs from fixtures overhead or in front of me, or remove 2 bulbs, from 4 bulb fixtures; actually if I have a choice, I prefer a dark room.

As far a background colors. I like a light grey upfront, a darker gray in the background, black type face.

 

[stormbind]

This idea of colour affecting eyestrain is new to me.

I took a colour test once, and the test involved continually worse images until you could no longer figure out what it said. According to the expert, my colour vision is better than theoretically possible

(I plug that at every oportunity - lol)

So on eyestrain, all I can say is CRT causes me problems and old LCD screens cause me problems. This is due to flicker. CRT flickers in it's basic operation, and a LCD backlight pulsates at a frequency aswell - as the light ages, the pulsating gets worse. I'll go with new LCD whenever possible and my eyes feel much better for it

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[stormbind]

Oh, and if you are a parent, I beg you to protect your children from those evil CRT things: They are what I blaim for me ending up wearing spectacles

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[technome]

I think flourescent bulbs are more evil than the newer CRTs, especially in overly bright rooms