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Thread: Too much red?
Number of posts in this thread: 4 (In chronological order)
From: Tim Beadle
Date: Thu, May 24 2007 2:20AM
Subject: Too much red?
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Hi,
I'm currently working on a site that the designers have (rather
naively in my view) translated the print brand colour of 100% Yellow,
100% Magenta into rgb #f00.
This wouldn't be so bad as small design accents, but the site calls
for large blocks of colour in the page header and section headings. On
my screen, I'm finding that the large swathes of red make for
uncomfortable page viewing; another person spoke of the colour
"vibrating" when she looked at it. Others, when viewing the site for
the first time have expressed negative reactions to the colour.
The site was designed on a Mac, but I'm using a PC; I'm aware of the
differing colour temperature and gamma between the two platforms. Most
of our site audience use PCs.
Can anyone point to any studies or guidelines that definitively state
that using large blocks of #f00 is a bad idea?
Best regards,
Tim
From: Gareth Dart
Date: Thu, May 24 2007 3:30AM
Subject: Re: Too much red?
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I'm afraid I can't cite any studies, but I can cite personal experience:
any large block of red (red on blue in particular, I find) seems to
'vibrate' to me, as your reviewer has already said.
I'm not alone: a very quick search on 'color vibration' did turn up
this:
http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/accessibility/color.html#vibrate.
G
-----Original Message-----
From: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
[mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf Of Tim Beadle
Sent: Thursday 24 May 2007 09:11
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: [WebAIM] Too much red?
Hi,
I'm currently working on a site that the designers have (rather naively
in my view) translated the print brand colour of 100% Yellow, 100%
Magenta into rgb #f00.
This wouldn't be so bad as small design accents, but the site calls for
large blocks of colour in the page header and section headings. On my
screen, I'm finding that the large swathes of red make for uncomfortable
page viewing; another person spoke of the colour "vibrating" when she
looked at it. Others, when viewing the site for the first time have
expressed negative reactions to the colour.
The site was designed on a Mac, but I'm using a PC; I'm aware of the
differing colour temperature and gamma between the two platforms. Most
of our site audience use PCs.
Can anyone point to any studies or guidelines that definitively state
that using large blocks of #f00 is a bad idea?
Best regards,
Tim
From: Austin, Darrel
Date: Thu, May 24 2007 12:40PM
Subject: Re: Too much red?
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> Can anyone point to any studies or guidelines that
> definitively state that using large blocks of #f00 is a bad idea?
Ever see a TV commercial with an all-red background or 100% red text on
a white background? If using a tube TV, your TV will actually make
noises and the you will definitely see the 'dancing'.
As such, I'm sure it's a symptom folks on lesser quality CRT monitors
would also see.
The other issue is contrast. 100% RGB values are intense and about as
high-contrast as you can get. Contrast is good, but too much is jarring.
I always prefer #900 (or at least #c00) when having to use large blocks
of red. It's more akin to what you'd get on paper intensity-wise.
-Darrel
From: Tim Beadle
Date: Fri, May 25 2007 3:20AM
Subject: Re: Too much red?
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On 24/05/07, Gareth Dart < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> I'm afraid I can't cite any studies, but I can cite personal experience:
> any large block of red (red on blue in particular, I find) seems to
> 'vibrate' to me, as your reviewer has already said.
>
> I'm not alone: a very quick search on 'color vibration' did turn up
> this:
> http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/accessibility/color.html#vibrate.
Gareth,
Thanks for that info - very useful. The designer has seen the colour
in situ on my screen now, and agrees that it's too bright.
Regards,
Tim