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I'd say that when I happen on to a website with that white text on black
background thing, I say to myself 'let's get outta here as soon as
possible'. Trying to interpret info that is in that format tends to give me
a headache.
As to why anyone would design info in such a way: I would guess that
people who do that are much enamored of computer technology (and who isn't)
and also want to emulate the reverse type and sculpted typography that you
can see on real-world products such as brand and product names. That kind of
design belongs to and works well in that world. But it's not for the PC and
Internet world. When I see a small shiny plastic object in my home I expect
to see, occasionally, a logo or a product name, etc. But when I surf the
Web, I don't like to happen upon a website that attempts to chisel and
sculpt info into my skull. Jim Jones http://www.tinyurl.com/4arjc
-----Original Message-----
> 2. If it has truly necessary information, I try "select all" to
> see if some sort of reversal improves legibility. If that
> fails I try copying the text and pasting it into Emacs or
> some other editor. Perhaps instead I try opening the website
> with lynx; or maybe I edit the HTML source, correcting the
> colors, and save it onto my own machine so I can try reading
> it as it should have appeared.
>
I take a similar approach, although I generally just highlight sections
of the text I want to read. Generally I see this behavior on
non-commercial websites when I'm browsing from home (generally browsing
individual or "artsy" web sites to get design ideas for personal
projects of my own). If there's ever a very large chunk of text I want
to read, I will select all of it, then switch over to Open Office Writer
and "paste without formatting" to drop the text in as black on white so
I can read it clearly.
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