NOTHING IS QUITE AS PAINFUL while Web surfing as opening a page of white text on a yellow background. This contrast faux pas is made primarily by beginning web designers and is avoidable. Good color contrast between text and background is essential in making a web page more readable and enjoyable for your users.

White and black make a good pairing and designers use it often. Yellow and black offer an even better combination, however, it's annoying to read a page that looks like a road sign.

Black text on a white background is very readable and easy on the eyes. The flip side, white text on a black background, can have a nice effect, but is troublesome for text below 16 picas. 

When you don't want your text to stand out, it may be a good idea to use similar colors. This technique is often used for navigational buttons and for minor text. Be careful though. PCs tend to be darker than Mac's and your text may just disappear on your user's screen.

If the text is secondary to the main point of your page, then low contrast colors may also be used. Be careful, if the user's computer settings are different than yours, the text will be unreadable. Test your site on a Mac and PC to make sure all text is visible.

Wow! High contrast can be really effective... in small doses. Use it only as headers or to bring attention to a particular part of your site. If over-used, your reader will be overwhelmed and not likely to return.

Color contrast is extremely important when designing your site. It can bring your reader back or send them away for good. Remember though, web surfers look at pictures and read text later. Even a page with excellent text contrast but without any pictures will send them running faster than green text on blue.

Jason Reisenauer
Graduate Student
SDSU Educational Technology