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Tried black text on a dark gray background for a client's flyer - massive fail
I was designing this flyer for a local coffee shop in St. Louis last week and thought a charcoal background with black text would look sleek. Looked fine on my screen but when I printed a test copy, the text basically disappeared (ugh). Swapped it to white text on that same dark gray and it popped way better, even my 60-year-old neighbor could read it from across the room. Has anyone else made that mistake where you think a color combo is cool but it bombs in real life?
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shanenguyen1d ago
My wife tried something similar with a recipe blog header last year. Used light gray text on white background thinking it would look soft and vintage. Couldn't read a single word on her phone screen, had to start over from scratch. Sometimes what looks good on a big monitor just doesn't hold up in the real world.
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gonzalez.phoenix1d ago
That 50% of users browse on their phones stat is real. I work at a coffee shop and see people squinting at menus all day. Your wife probably stared at that design on her nice big monitor thinking it looked perfect. But phones wash out contrast like crazy especially in sunlight or with a screen protector on. Four years ago I helped a friend redo her Etsy shop banners and we tested them on three different phones before launching.
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