I posted a small article about colors and texts on blogs, nothing unique but seeing how some people design their websites there sure are people who'd benefit from reading it. From my blog Using the Right Colors on Your Blog A common mistake among first time website and blog owners is the choice of colors used. Everyone looks at colors slightly differently and we all have a different opinion on which colors we like. That being said does not mean that you should choose the colors you use on your blog solely based on your personal judgement. On a blog where the focus is visual communication in the form of text, your choice of colors can really make or break everything. Color is more than an aesthetic feature in design and there are guidelines, based on human visual and cognitive mechanisms, that help you find color combinations that are both pleasing and kind to the eye. On a blog, where the focus should be on visibility and readability, there is a rather restricted set of colors you can safely use. “Brightness contrast†is the key to readable text on a blog and high brightness contrast is reached with some color combinations but not others. The highest brightness contrast is reached with black & white. The next highest brightness difference is black & yellow. This was researched back in the 1930s by Tinker and Patterson and the conclusions found then are still valid today. Color chart with examples of good and bad contrast brightness Black on a white background is the safest bet and by far the most commonly used color combination for text in all from books to blogs. While white on a black background has the same quality in terms of contrast brightness, it can be argued that the intense light reflection of white makes it less desirable. This is because our contrast perception is affected by polarity. A color is determined by the amount of light that is reflected back and pure white reflects close to all light that is thrown at it while pure black absorbs close to all light. Light text on dark background is called “positive contrast†while a dark text on light background is called “negative contrastâ€. Since human sensitivity to negative contrast is up to twice that of positive contrast this makes black text on a white background appear slightly sharper than white text on a black background, especially if the text is small. The large amount of light reflected by the white text makes it look “glowyâ€, like in this example: The examples shown here are extremes. There is still room to play with colors on your blog. As an example many find that darker grey on a white background or black on a light grey background appear more elegant than the pure black & white combinations. Various shades of grey and blue are excellent web colors, very soothing for the eye. As long as you are within the correct levels of contrast brightness you can find great combinations without resorting to the dull solution of pure white on pure black, your blog will be just as readable and it will look better.