Web sites/pages all trending to difficult to read grey print.

[beachside]

No I don't mean my eyesight is fading, but what appears to be the trend as web sites are upgraded. I have noticed this over the last couple of years. RE.com is the latest and it gives me the *****.

I am guessing that this may have something to do with viewing web pages on smart phones, tablets etc. I do all my browsing on my laptop, which is usually connected to a descent size monitor on my desk.

I first noticed a couple of years ago on http://www.propertyobserver.com.au/ Looking at it just now as I have not been subscribed for a while it does not seem as bad as I remembered, but possibly because others are a lot worse now - or was it because they switched to pastel blue print?? I do remember the change and emailed Jonathan about it.

Then when Herron Todd White revamped their newsletters the same occurred there. At least they took on my suggestion (and possibly that of others) to make each section of Residential, Commercial and Rural a little easier to quickly distinguish by a different colour, but I did not have any real complaints about its format as I mentioned in feedback they request before the revamp. The new light grey print is a lot harder to read, wish they had not changed it at all.

Now RE.com has done it.

So what's the go? Why the light grey print instead of easy to read good old black? What is the default ink cartridge in printers for documents - black of course!

At least Somersoft is still easy to read!! Take note Sim . Actually, Sim can probably answer this question!

 

[skater]

Hehe, I've noticed this too on some pages.

 

[D.T.]

People print things out in this day and age?

 

[AlmostBob]

@media print{html{color:black;}}

is easy

but "designers" want things pretty,
architects want curved walls, despite the waste of space, extra material
and black roofs despite the temperature of 40deg

"The wheel, its the simplest machine that ever existed
Well you tell us what color it should be"

when it doesnt matter whether something works, as long as it looks good while it fails
You get this

 

[Sim]

Yes, it is a very annoying trend - I was complaining just the other day about the trend of mobile-first design completely ignoring anyone at the other end of the spectrum using a large screen ... more like a "mobile-only" design.

Images set to auto-scale with screen size but only tested on small phones or tablets and not having a high enough resolution to scale properly to a very large screen display - looks horrible.

Then they put in an image slider to swap between their "hero images" on their home page, but leave the settings to use high speed wipes, which might be fine on a small screen, but give you an instant headache on a large screen. Exactly like trying to focus on things out the window of a moving car or train as they whiz past.

Then there are the hero images which take up the entire "view port" (the viewable area of the browser), which might look great on your tablet or iphone, but look completely ridiculous on my large monitor.

Or the pages which make you scroll and scroll and scroll to try and find basic things like a Contact page. On a desktop browser. Which has plenty of screen real estate to let you get to where you want to go quickly without needing to wade through the designer's "art".

I fear there are too many people trying to do the cool new stuff without ever considering the usability or accessibility of what they are doing.

We were just getting to the point where accessibility was widely understood and accepted and in the space of a couple of years we've thrown it all out for the cool new stuff which might look pretty in some circumstances, but completely breaks all the rules in others.

Yes, this stuff annoys me.

Font colours too. They really annoy me. Contrast is important for readability - grey is never a good choice for anything except that content which is deliberately being made less important to add emphasis to that which is.

*sigh*

 

[Macca]

Must agree !! Extremely annoying when we have the back ground the same colour as print colour.

Baby Boomers have a lot of assets to recycle and old eyes lose there clarity of vision, this is why older people pick up a paper and hold it to the light on a different angle.

The same applies to pretty websites that don't contrast there text and background colours, people are not encouraged to stay at that site because it is too hard to read.

When we consider the importance of web sites in business today, it is plain silly when the colours chosen make it hard to read.

 

[beachside]

Boy, did I uncover a can of worms. I thought it may have been just me because I use old fashioned computers compared to smart phones and tablets. But it seems the grey print doesn't even work all that good on those. Is there actually any problem using good old black when viewing on the latest u-beaut gadgets?

 

[skater]

Is there actually any problem using good old black when viewing on the latest u-beaut gadgets?

Yep! It's not trendy!