Re: Default style

On Sat, Aug 11, 2012 at 7:02 AM, Glenn Maynard <glenn@zewt.org> wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 10, 2012 at 3:52 PM, Loretta Guarino Reid
> <lorettaguarino@google.com> wrote:
>>
>> I think the clearest conclusion is that the user needs to be able to
>> choose the styling. Not everyone finds the same style readable.
>
>
> UAs can allow users to select a different style, of course.  It's the
> specified defaults I'm concerned about.

>From the many conversations I've had with deaf people, a black
background makes it definitely easier to read. It's obvious why: the
eye gets to focus on the text alone and is not distracted by all the
different colors and objects that the text is overlayed on top of.

>From an aesthetic point of view, however, the black background is not
pretty. It also potentially obscures a lot of things. So, a somewhat
transparent background, but with an outline on the letters has been
chosen by more modern video players.

I just checked and YouTube running Flash seems to default to white
text with a black text shadow now, while YouTube running HTML5
defaults to white text on a black background. Fortunately, YouTube has
a simple keyboard shortcut to turn the background on/off, which
alleviates the difference.

What that means for browser defaults - I don't know. I tend to think
that a semi-transparent background as we have it is a good enough
compromise. Combine that with the possibility to have users change the
settings and I think we're good enough.

Cheers,
Silvia.

Received on Saturday, 11 August 2012 04:42:35 UTC