TIL I was picking the wrong contrast ratio for dark mode for like 2 years

Honestly I always used 4.5:1 for everything in dark mode thinking that was the gold standard. Then last week a client with bad astigmatism sent me a screenshot of my app with yellow text on a dark gray background and said they couldn't read a single button. Took me a whole afternoon to figure out that WCAG recommends 7:1 for body text in dark themes because of how light text bleeds on dark screens. Has anyone else found that the standard ratio just doesn't cut it on actual dark backgrounds?

2 comments

2 Comments

dixon.anthony6d ago

That 7:1 ratio for dark mode made me wonder, have you tested how it holds up on OLED screens versus standard LCD panels? I found the deeper blacks on OLED actually make the same ratio feel way harsher on my eyes late at night. Seems like we're all just guessing until someone figures out a per-display standard.

willow_anderson857d ago

Oh man, I feel this in my soul. I spent a whole year using 4.5:1 on everything and wondered why my eyes felt like they were being stabbed after an hour of reading. Turns out I was basically using recommended contrast for like, a sunny day but not for my own dark room browsing at 2am. I swear the design world loves pretending one size fits all when it clearly doesn't. So now I just bump it up to 7:1 and tell people I'm being extra "accessible" when really I'm just saving my own eyesight. Maybe I should just start using paper books and give up on screens entirely.