Ask HN: How did low contrast text become so pervasive?
9 mr-pink 11 6/30/2025, 3:38:35 AM
It seems like black on white text is now truly verboten for whatever reason on at least 70-80% of websites.
can anyone explain the benefits? to me, everything looks faded out, and rather than my eyes being able to pick up the letterforms I just perceive a field of gray and have to rely on plug-ins to get easily discernible text back.
If they ask for something outside WCAG, I say no, that doesn't meet the standards required and do not ask if they want to respect the standard.
I learned to stop asking permission to use my professional judgement when I went to a boss with an active password/login leak that was risking an important dataset and his response was "if it hasn't leaked, let's just not worry about it and leave it"
What do you know, the next morning he was informed of a leak and I was approved to fix the issue. The leak was not real, of course.
On the other, there are lots of articles explaining that black on white will cause readers discomfort so recommend camouflaged light grey on dark grey, or vice versa, as better.
Some say that black on white is harsh on the eyes, but something like 10:1 should be fine.