Although changing a background on a Web page to a bright color or distinctive background can add excitement, these backgrounds can also make it difficult to read Web pages. In general, it is best to use dark text on light colors and subtly textured backgrounds. Here are some examples below.

Light Text on Dark

Skip TextAlthough changing a background on a Web page to a bright color can add excitement, these backgrounds can also make it difficult to read Web pages. In general, it is best to use dark text on light colors for long passages.

This light green text on dark green would cause eyestrain if an entire article were formatted this way.

More Acceptable Dark Text on Light

Skip TextAlthough changing a background on a Web page to a bright color can add excitement, these backgrounds can also make it difficult to read Web pages. In general, it is best to use dark text on light colors for long passages.

However, even this dark green text on lighter green should be used only for short paragraphs. An entire page of this could be difficult to read.

Problematic Strong Texture

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This is a not-so-good Celtic background texture – Although changing a background on a Web page to a bright color or distinctive background can add excitement, these backgrounds can also make it difficult to read Web pages. In general, it is best to use dark text on light colors for long passages and subtly textured backgrounds only.

In a visual browser, this text is almost illegible because of the strong contrast and rapidly changing colors in the background image.

A Subtler Texture

Skip TextThis is a much more subtle Celtic background texture – Although changing a background on a Web page to a bright color or distinctive background can add excitement, these backgrounds can also make it difficult to read Web pages. In general, it is best to use dark text on light colors for long passages and subtly textured backgrounds only. Here are some examples below.

The background image is more subtle, almost invisible, and is lightly colored.In small passages, legibility would be acceptable.

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