Background and font colours to reduce eye strain
论题张贴者: Philippe Locquet
Philippe Locquet
Philippe Locquet  Identity Verified
葡萄牙
Local time: 11:32
English英语译成French法语
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Aug 27, 2021

I have started looking for what are considered the best options to reduce eye strain but there are not that many, and I don’t see a big number of options in CATs.
I personally like a dark grey on white bkgrd or white on dark grey bkgrd.
Dark themes, like those trending now, seem to be hard on the eyes too if there is a big contrast (i.e., white over black bkgrd). On mobile devices they preserve battery but are not that good at reducing eye strain.
So ideally, you would need
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I have started looking for what are considered the best options to reduce eye strain but there are not that many, and I don’t see a big number of options in CATs.
I personally like a dark grey on white bkgrd or white on dark grey bkgrd.
Dark themes, like those trending now, seem to be hard on the eyes too if there is a big contrast (i.e., white over black bkgrd). On mobile devices they preserve battery but are not that good at reducing eye strain.
So ideally, you would need 1 of the two colours involved to have a lower contrast (see this article: https://uxmovement.com/content/why-you-should-never-use-pure-black-for-text-or-backgrounds/).
Then the next question is “which is best for translators”. True, we get to see a lot of information: different colours for different match scores, and in the text grammar and spelling live checking. And on top of all this, the high contrast of tracked changes when editing. More colours than Disneyland…
For long work hours, what do you feel is best?
I found this article testing options here for writers: https://glarminy.com/2016/10/29/eye-comfort-writers-editors/ but I’m not sold on the colours they chose…
Be well
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Ezequiel Flores
Ezequiel Flores
Cosovo
Spanish西班牙语
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Beside colors and background, check you display too Aug 27, 2021

Hi Phillipe,
I prefeer to use black/gray backgrounds, to reduce brightness on my eyes, but that it's a personal choice. Besides colours and fonts, did you check your screen? Recently I did a lot of investigationon the matter and I found that some displays have something called PWM flickering, which is a cheap technology who manufacturers uses to regulate screen brightness and may cause eye strain. Newer/better displays regulate brightness with another technic that doesn't cause eye strain
... See more
Hi Phillipe,
I prefeer to use black/gray backgrounds, to reduce brightness on my eyes, but that it's a personal choice. Besides colours and fonts, did you check your screen? Recently I did a lot of investigationon the matter and I found that some displays have something called PWM flickering, which is a cheap technology who manufacturers uses to regulate screen brightness and may cause eye strain. Newer/better displays regulate brightness with another technic that doesn't cause eye strain. Recently bought a BenQ display with Eye care features (Flicker-free, Blue-light filter, IPS panel ) and I can say my eyes are more comfortable with it.

Hope this helps
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Philippe Locquet
Daryo
 
Philippe Locquet
Philippe Locquet  Identity Verified
葡萄牙
Local time: 11:32
English英语译成French法语
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主题发起人
PWM Aug 27, 2021

Ezequiel Flores wrote:

Hi Phillipe,
I prefeer to use black/gray backgrounds, to reduce brightness on my eyes, but that it's a personal choice. Besides colours and fonts, did you check your screen? Recently I did a lot of investigationon the matter and I found that some displays have something called PWM flickering, which is a cheap technology who manufacturers uses to regulate screen brightness and may cause eye strain. Newer/better displays regulate brightness with another technic that doesn't cause eye strain. Recently bought a BenQ display with Eye care features (Flicker-free, Blue-light filter, IPS panel ) and I can say my eyes are more comfortable with it.

Hope this helps


Thanks for this, interesting aspect I hadn't looked at. I haven't got this issue and already use blue light filter on the monitor etc.
For those who want to test this, I found this link:
https://iristech.co/pwm-flicker-test/
Read it all and then click next to where it says "You can open this in your own browser"
My screen came back clean.

BTW, ProZ uses a low colour contrast: yellowish background and black or burgundy red, this is quite a good reading experience although to some it would look like dated colours. I like it.


 
Adieu
Adieu  Identity Verified
Ukrainian乌克兰语译成English英语
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If you can get the hardware and your CAT tool supports the settings Aug 27, 2021

AMOLED screen, black background (physically off pixels, no backlight), high contrast font color of your preference

 
Anton Konashenok
Anton Konashenok  Identity Verified
捷克共和国
Local time: 12:32
French法语译成English英语
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Visual contrast Aug 27, 2021

Philippe Locquet wrote:
BTW, ProZ uses a low colour contrast: yellowish background and black or burgundy red, this is quite a good reading experience although to some it would look like dated colours. I like it.

Just the opposite: of all colour combinations, black on yellow has a very high visual contrast, second only to blue on white, and it's good because the higher is the text contrast, the lower is eye fatigue.


Tina Vonhof (X)
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
 
Hans Lenting
Hans Lenting
荷兰
正式会员 (自2006)
German德语译成Dutch荷兰语
CafeTran Espresso Aug 28, 2021

Philippe Locquet wrote:

I have started looking for what are considered the best options to reduce eye strain but there are not that many, and I don’t see a big number of options in CATs.


CafeTran Espresso's GUI can be configured to your needs via Themes, Colors and Fonts:

1

2

3

Here I've set the font color for the segment editors to dark grey:

Screen Shot 2021-08-28 at 08.15.58


[Edited at 2021-08-28 06:21 GMT]


Philippe Locquet
 
Philippe Locquet
Philippe Locquet  Identity Verified
葡萄牙
Local time: 11:32
English英语译成French法语
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Nice! Aug 28, 2021

German Dutch Engineering Translation wrote:
CafeTran Espresso's GUI can be configured to your needs via Themes, Colors and Fonts:


That's great, thanks for the pictures! Nice feature indeed.
Which setting do you find best for you? Grey + white? I like it quite a bit.


 
Tina Vonhof (X)
Tina Vonhof (X)
加拿大
Local time: 04:32
Dutch荷兰语译成English英语
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Interesting Aug 28, 2021

Philippe Locquet wrote:

That's great, thanks for the pictures! Nice feature indeed.
Which setting do you find best for you? Grey + white? I like it quite a bit.


That's interesting. I have trouble reading grey on white and also white letters on a colored background. I prefer black letters on a pale color background, such as here on proz.

The street names in my city and also the big direction signs on the highways have white letters on a green background. It makes going places difficult.



[Edited at 2021-08-28 15:00 GMT]

[Edited at 2021-08-28 15:04 GMT]


Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Philippe Locquet
 
Philippe Locquet
Philippe Locquet  Identity Verified
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Local time: 11:32
English英语译成French法语
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Perception Aug 30, 2021

Tina Vonhof wrote:

That's interesting. I have trouble reading grey on white and also white letters on a colored background. I prefer black letters on a pale color background, such as here on proz.



[Edited at 2021-08-28 15:00 GMT]

[Edited at 2021-08-28 15:04 GMT]


Thank you Tina! This makes me think that a variety of e-pub readers allow you to choose a pale color background too.

And regarding signs on the road, I guess the goal is to make them stand out, especially a night when the light they receive is from your own vehicle. Such difference can also be seen on ProZ: the menus are also with higher contrast colors (the green is not as aggressive as road signs though).

This conversation is getting very interesting indeed, it seems some people would rather high contrast and some others the contrary. So maybe there isn't a specific color context that is better for many but rather it depends on the person's perception.

Now I wonder: I eyesight correction a factor? I wear glasses and my preference is lower contrast. Do folks that don't need correction prefer higher contrast?


 
Hans Lenting
Hans Lenting
荷兰
正式会员 (自2006)
German德语译成Dutch荷兰语
Ms Word Aug 31, 2021

Not a CAT tool, but widely used by translators: Ms Word for Mac now offers a better Dark mode:

https://prodmediacdn.blob.core.windows.net/media/2021/05/dark-mode-quick_Mac1.gif


Philippe Locquet
 
Wolfgang Schoene
Wolfgang Schoene  Identity Verified
法国
Local time: 12:32
正式会员 (自2007)
English英语译成German德语
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Hi Hans Sep 1, 2021

German Dutch Engineering Translation wrote:

Not a CAT tool, but widely used by translators: Ms Word for Mac now offers a better Dark mode:

https://prodmediacdn.blob.core.windows.net/media/2021/05/dark-mode-quick_Mac1.gif


Thanks for mentioning this. I have version 16.27 (19071500) of Word for Mac but no such switch mode command in the ribbon. Is this some sort of hidden command?


 
Jan Truper
Jan Truper  Identity Verified
德国
Local time: 12:32
正式会员 (自2016)
English英语译成German德语
the work environment matters Sep 1, 2021

Philippe Locquet wrote:
For long work hours, what do you feel is best?


I work in a dark room, curtains closed.
In this environment, light green or light orange-brown font on black or dark grey background work best for me.

I go snow-blind if I have to look at white page backgrounds.


Philippe Locquet
 


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Background and font colours to reduce eye strain







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