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Something I expected to see in this thread--but didn't--was the assertion
that blue is a difficult color for reading. (Although maybe this is so
commonly known that is doesn't bear discussing.)
One of my classes covered documentation design and included an extensive
section on the physical aspects of color and vision. Two years later, I'm
really fuzzy on this (sorry Prof. Williams!) but I'm sure of the conclusion.
I *think* it has to do with the rods and cones in the eye and where they're
placed. The rods, which detect blue(?), tend to be distributed peripherally
and are less concentrated in the center of the retina, so that blue is more
difficult to perceive directly. (Note: this is one the red/green/blue
scale.) So colors with a high blue value and low red/green values are less
effective for large blocks of text.
Hopefully someone will offer corrections or alternative viewpoints to this
position.
Personally, I like a very dark blue, just as a change from black.
Sella Rush mailto:sellar -at- apptechsys -dot- com
Applied Technical Systems (ATS)
Bremerton, Washington
Developers of the CCM Database
