bigfunky, thats what I had thought also, i.e. black backgrounds being better. I am curious as to the actual mechanism by which eye doctors consider black backgrounds to be worse.
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Reducing Eyestrain
- Thread starter DataCruncher
- Start date
its been 2 days since I changed my entire interface to white / pastel background colors from black -suprisingly my eyes feel soo much better / aren't red anymore ! IDk if I still would consider getting those glasses, but Oh man I wish I testing this out earlier, sure the black back ground gives a good contrast, but its soo harsh on my eyes.... soo far its been 2 full days and my eyes were feeling so much better than before...
are sample pairs available in optometrist office or glasses shops so you can try before you buy?
Quote from DataCruncher:
bigfunky, thats what I had thought also, i.e. black backgrounds being better. I am curious as to the actual mechanism by which eye doctors consider black backgrounds to be worse.
One of the main components (I am pretty sure) is that your background (walls, etc) should have a similar colour to your main screen colour.
If they have the same colour/brightness then your eyes don't keep refocussing short/long and strain is lower. This refocussing is low level and you may not be conscious of it or of seeing anything because you are doing it. That suggests that you want the wall behind your computer to be free of distractions like pictures etc.
So if you want a black background for your charts you should have a black wall too.
Regarding the comment that the white seems too bright. I found that for the first week after I changed (maybe turn your screen brightness or contrast down slightly) but you seem to get used to it and then it seems fine.
Stop looking at porn
Quote from neveral0ne:
its been 2 days since I changed my entire interface to white / pastel background colors from black -suprisingly my eyes feel soo much better / aren't red anymore ! IDk if I still would consider getting those glasses, but Oh man I wish I testing this out earlier, sure the black back ground gives a good contrast, but its soo harsh on my eyes.... soo far its been 2 full days and my eyes were feeling so much better than before...
Exactly.
The black background is great contrast and you might think it's easier on your eyes, but it's much worse.
Hence the reason newspapers, magazines, etc are light background, dark text.
Quote from kiwi_trader:
One of the main components (I am pretty sure) is that your background (walls, etc) should have a similar colour to your main screen colour.
If they have the same colour/brightness then your eyes don't keep refocussing short/long and strain is lower. This refocussing is low level and you may not be conscious of it or of seeing anything because you are doing it. That suggests that you want the wall behind your computer to be free of distractions like pictures etc.
So if you want a black background for your charts you should have a black wall too.
Regarding the comment that the white seems too bright. I found that for the first week after I changed (maybe turn your screen brightness or contrast down slightly) but you seem to get used to it and then it seems fine.
thanks for the interesting info. I'm looking for the best firefox theme that fits these principles.....if anybody sees a great one please share
Kiwitrader makes an excellent point about the overall environment being important on what causes and affects eye strain. As exemplified by the Philips TV sets that have a dynamic ambient light source to reflect off the wall behind the screen to reduce eye strain when viewing with the lights off. While obviously some people have found a white background to be better, some people have found a black background to be better. In this regard I have no doubt that an eye specialist would advise to do whatever works.
- Much like the joke about the man with high blood-pressure and stress levels who went to see his doctor. The doctor suggested that if he plays golf he should quit, and if he doesn't play, he should start.
I find the comparison with books and magazines a little incongruous. Obviously historically they have been published that way because it's a hell of a lot easier to print black ink onto white paper than to print white ink onto black paper. Even with modern printing techniques, printing inverse text inevitably results in the ink bleeding into the text and distorting it - apart from the extra cost of all that ink. Also, paper doesn't have the effect of emitting light, as a white monitor does. Just not a fair analogy is what I'm saying...
- Much like the joke about the man with high blood-pressure and stress levels who went to see his doctor. The doctor suggested that if he plays golf he should quit, and if he doesn't play, he should start.
I find the comparison with books and magazines a little incongruous. Obviously historically they have been published that way because it's a hell of a lot easier to print black ink onto white paper than to print white ink onto black paper. Even with modern printing techniques, printing inverse text inevitably results in the ink bleeding into the text and distorting it - apart from the extra cost of all that ink. Also, paper doesn't have the effect of emitting light, as a white monitor does. Just not a fair analogy is what I'm saying...
Quote from DataCruncher:
are sample pairs available in optometrist office or glasses shops so you can try before you buy?
Not sure about sampling, maybe you could order a pair, use it for a week, and then decide??....no idea
I bought a pair, cuz my eyes were killing me. I had already turned the brightness down, had grayish colored charts, and still looked like I was high as kite. I wasn't happy with the first pair, the lenses were too small, I was peeking over the top and sides. So I sent them back, exchanged them for the "Shredder" version . Really pretty cool, clarifies the screen quite well, and my eyes are much better. Of course nothing will relieve all of the strain, but the Gunnars certainly try. At $139, they may be too pricey for some folks. But I figured I was worth it. My only complaint is they arent as comfortable as my regular sunglasses, sigh.