Opinion: White vs Black Background

[wickedstangs]

All,
What are your take on a White vs Black Background for forums?

Just noticed on the big board list that all the top sites are mostly white???

 

[LPH]

I actually leave a site if there is a dark background. This is a general silly thing about my personality so please do not be offended but I tend to relate a dark background to a teen thinking they are being "cool" and "hackerish" ... so I close the tab quickly on any site with a dark background.

 

[Adam Howard]

You forget the 3rd option.... Neutral color.

Using XenForo.com for an example.... All the white background is actually heavy on the eyes. But dark backgrounds don't help either.

But I do agree most people prefer a lighter, closer to "white background" ..... Even though people like me can't exactly see it to well at 2 AM.

At the very least, I usually change my background to #F7F7F7 or #F5F5FF and it helps a little.

This is one of the reason why I usually stick to Social as our system default style.

 

[alegeek]

My board has a dark theme, I've tried introducing light themes but they never seem to go down well with my membership.

I'd prefer to switch to a lighter colour scheme, but I have to respect what my users want

 

[Crayo]

My board is dark. I want to move it to a light-based theme, but my members will bite my head off if I do that it seems. I want White because it's probably more user-friendly, and it's more neutral than any one side of the spectrum which inevitably results in SOME not liking it.

 

[Gazhyde]

My default theme is based on the default so it's light, but have a second dark theme for those who thought it too bright.

Not too much aggro running both.

 

[wickedstangs]

My board is dark. I want to move it to a light-based theme, but my members will bite my head off if I do that it seems. I want White because it's probably more user-friendly, and it's more neutral than any one side of the spectrum which inevitably results in SOME not liking it.

wow, who's theme are you using your site looks very nice..

 

[Shyuan]

I have two skins for my forum, light and dark Basically they are Artodia's Soft and Black Responsive. Despite providing Tapatalk for my users, I also let them choose to browse the forum via their mobile's browser and they are able to choose either light or dark theme to their preferences. i.e. use dark theme during the low light situation and vice versa.

 

[TPerry]

I actually leave a site if there is a dark background. This is a general silly thing about my personality so please do not be offended but I tend to relate a dark background to a teen thinking they are being "cool" and "hackerish" ... so I close the tab quickly on any site with a dark background.

Yay and nay.
Like, if you think of demons, do you think light or dark? Same way with some game forums (like Black Ops/Black Ops 2). I personally think a darker forum style would work better with them than something lighter. I guess it primarily depends on the theme of the site.

 

[mistypants]

The few times we have implemented light styles for our site, we were met with user outrage, ha. Gaming communities tend to favor darker styles, I find. I do like light styles and dark styles equally (just depends on how well they are executed!). I like to offer both a light and dark style just to accommodate everyone.

We actually ran a survey a few years ago concerning the design of the site. One question was if the users preferred light or dark styles--67% preferred dark, 11% white, 22% had no preference.

 

[Shelley]

Fixed and fluid styles have their place in designs in that some styles call for a fixed design whilst another design calls for fluid. Same rule applied with colour, each style/design as it's place for colour usage/implementation.

 

[Dragapult]

Depends entirely on the content/theme of the page. Also sometimes I prefer a different background based on ambient lighting of the room, time of day, etc. And it also depends how everything else on the page looks, too.

 

[Crayo]

wow, who's theme are you using your site looks very nice..

We made it ourselves .

 

[Biker]

All,
What are your take on a White vs Black Background for forums?

Just noticed on the big board list that all the top sites are mostly white???

As you age, reading dark sites becomes a nightmare. Especially those where you can tell the admin is very young and would prefer a "cool" look over readability.

If you're going to have a dark background, you have to ensure the text is easy to read. Nothing makes me leave a site faster than seeing a black background and blue text.

 

[wickedstangs]

with minerskinz closing I decided to change the look on one of my sites. And go light... So far so good.

Its much easier to read!

 

[Shelley]

As you age, reading dark sites becomes a nightmare. Especially those where you can tell the admin is very young and would prefer a "cool" look over readability.

If you're going to have a dark background, you have to ensure the text is easy to read. Nothing makes me leave a site faster than seeing a black background and blue text.

You can still have a very readable dark style if you deploy appropriate colours and good gradient usage. I see what your saying though if your referring to those high contrast dark themes but dark styles can still retain good readability for the ageing sector.

*remembers some of the old vb styles with black and lime colouring* *Cringes*

 

[Matthew Hawley]

I prefer light styles. Easier to read.