Black Backgrounds

[Bill Moore]

Originally Posted by RoboJedi75

We decided against a black background because with the layout we had, it would've made anything light stand out so much.

Nate is right on the money. The color of your background isn't so important by itself, as it is how well it meshes with the content you plan to display. Sometimes black works, sometimes it doesn't; but, the same can be said for every other color background.

Consider if you wanted to display Hubble photos of nebulae, it would be a crime to have anything other than a black background. The peripheral darkness would make the colorful photos stand out to an even greater degree.

[Ricky2443]

Originally Posted by SamSofa330

Just a side not.. But how would you all suggest i use (the dredded ) Yellow and (royal?) Blue on my team's website? I've always found it is hard to integrate the yellow into the site but I am open for ideas...

My team has the same colors yellow and blue, http://www.wolvcatrobotics.com/. i think I've been able to pull it off quite nicely, check it out.

[artdutra04]

Originally Posted by 11Ed71

I've heard two schools of thought on black backgrounds.
Some people say that black increases readability by reducing the brightness of the light that you're staring into. Others say that black is a typical n00b choice and looks amateur.
The site I'm designing right now is yellow text (ffff00) on a black background. I haven't finalized these choices yet, and before I do, I'd like to put them out to the people who know websites. I wish I could post a link, but I don't have hosting yet, so it's on my home server (read: desktop w/ IIS) and I don't want to DoS myself.

Black is not always a bad decision when it comes to designing websites. At the moment, the main page for Apple's iPod has a black background with white text, and it looks just fine. It's all how you use it.

Maybe it's just me, but I would not use yellow text. Even on a black background, and especially if it is Times New Roman font, yellow text is a nightmare on the eyes. Yellow is the first color processed by the brain, so yellow will always stand out; this is why street signs and modern fire engines engines are yellow. When everything on a page is yellow, your eyes and brain does not know where to focus.

If you like using yellow, I would consider using it for the headings, such as <h1> or <h2>, and use plain white text for the main body text. This way your eyes are drawn right to the headings (e.g. important stuff), while the main body text is easier on the eyes.

[DotCom]

Hmmm black background... it really depends on your preference. I prefer white or grey because it looks cleaner. But if you're going for a "professional" look, black is a lot harder to work with. Though some people can make really awesome layouts that make black work well...

[tyguy2021]

There was a study done that stated people only look at a page for half as long, on average, if it has a black bg compared to a white one.