Comments on: 12 Typography Guidelines for Good Website Usability

By: 5 Common Web Design Mistakes – And Better Options - WrightIMC

5 Common Web Design Mistakes – And Better Options - WrightIMC — Fri, 24 May 2013 20:09:24 +0000

[...] 12 Typography Guidelines for Good Website Usability [...]

By: Tim Suliman

Tim Suliman — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 20:22:00 +0000

Regarding number 9, it should be noted that the background color makes a difference. As a person who is red/green colorblind (Color Vision Deficient is the hot new term), red and green text aren’t invisible, but I have trouble differentiating them from other colors. Also, it should be noted that putting pure red or pure green items on a gray background does not always produce expected results. That’s because gray isn’t neutral on a screen the way that it is in print. Grays on a screen are usually made by using equal parts of red, green, and blue, so when you put a pure color on top of it, you can cause problems where things clash or are indecipherable.

By: Peter Fransen

Peter Fransen — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 18:11:00 +0000

Hi Peter,
I keep hearing people claim that dark text on a white background is better than the other way around. Yet, I’ve never found any research backing that up. The little research that I’ve found usually claims that it doesn’t really matter and that any preference one way or another is just that: a personal preference. If you have any information on the topic (other than articles starting with “It is generally accepted that…” or “Everybody knows…”), I’d be glad to hear about it.

By: Andrew Gill

Andrew Gill — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 08:30:00 +0000

11. Numbers are a complexity as they have an impact on internationalisation. The following variations are acceptable in different countries

1,000,000.00 1.000.000,00 1,000.000,00
Note that in testing I have seen people from South America confused by $10.00 scanning through and assuming the price was $10000 or $1000 because of the use of the period made them assume that the 0 was there or that the period was in the wrong place rather than a decimal character.

In terms of black on white and white on black, sometimes it is a choice of context, if a website is generally read in a well lit room then black on white is fine, and if it is to be read in the dark e.g. in a professional video editing suite then white on black is often superior.

White on black actually offers higher contrast and so for someone with poor visual contrast white on black can be very helpful. Additionally it can be beneficial to have white on black if you are viewing in a mobile context as the higher contrast can be view better if the screen is is being viewed in bright light.

However, for people with normally or good visual contract ability white on black can “give you a headache”. In fact many find black on white too high contrast and you will find many websites using a very dark grey (#222,#333) instead of black because of this.

By: Fransgaard

Fransgaard — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 22:36:00 +0000

Good article. I wonder if 02 about sans-serif font is still true… probably still is but for how long?

By: Justin Mifsud

Justin Mifsud — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 21:10:00 +0000

Hey Peter! Nice to hear from you! Yes definitely agree. Whilst contrast is essential (as per guideline no 10), I totally agree with you that given the chance, contrast should be a dark text (ideally black) on a light background (ideally white) rather than the other way round. Thanks for contributing.

By: Peter Donker

Peter Donker — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 20:59:00 +0000

I’d like to add another: use dark font on light background (preferably black on white like this site) for your body text rather than the reverse. If you don’t think this is important try reading an article on dpreview.com. It gives me a headache.