Readability - CD/web site

[David Loveless]

The reason that white on black is so difficult to read is that the
thin portions of the letter strokes are "absorbed" by the dark
backgrounds. There are numerous sources dealing with this topic, but I
would suggest reviewing the Review section of Robin Williams' (not the
actor) The Non-Designer's Type Book. Editing by Design by Jan White is
also very good on this topic.

If you want to avoid it in your own designs, make sure you use a font
with equal stroke widths. Your best bets are going to be Sans Serif
fonts, but even some of those have a big variation in stroke widths.

And I agree with Peter Neilson. If the website is unimportant, I look
elsewhere. White (or any color) on black is just not intelligent
design. The only site I consistently visit that is dark with white is
Mugglenet.com, but I'll admit my raving lunacy fanaticism craziness
when it comes to Harry Potter.

Dave