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Best Color Scheme For Coding, Easiest On the Eyes?

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the that-looks-good-on-you dept.

Marzubus writes "I tend to do a lot of code editing in vim and sometimes get the 'burning eyes' or headaches. I have been trying to find a background / foreground combination for my terminal sessions which is easiest on the eyes but cannot seem to find any real data on this subject. Does anyone know of a study / data on this topic?"

15 of 763 comments (clear)

  1. Probably not colors by clang_jangle · · Score: 5, Informative

    I doubt that the colors will make half as much difference as the quality of your monitor, unless you've been using chartreuse on magenta or something. Not that I know a great deal about the technical details, but I have observed that many cheaper CRTs or LCDs seem to make my eyes hurt sooner than a more expensive one. Apple's monitors are excellent for this, BTW, but they do price them terribly high. These days I'd expect you can get something equivalent for less, though it won't be a $129 model. Also, in 2004 the same question was discussed at length here, probably at least some of that is still relevant.

    --
    Caveat Utilitor
    1. Re:Probably not colors by nikomen · · Score: 5, Informative

      I concur. A while ago I purchased a couple cheap LCDs. I noticed that the LCDs at my university were easier on my eyes than my home LCDs. I sold my LCDs to my parents who I knew wouldn't be on the computer for any long lengths of time. I bought a couple HP LCDs that were recommended to me and they make a world of difference. This isn't an ad for HP, just simply stating that cheaper LCDs probably cause some kind of eye strain compared to a little more pricey (yet not horribly expensive) LCDs.

    2. Re:Probably not colors by hansamurai · · Score: 5, Informative

      Great point, I have two LCDs at home, one is a six year old Envision monitor and then other is a three year old Samsung. The Samsung monitor looks worlds better and is much easier to look at for extended periods of time. It's one of those things I can't lay my finger on but it's definitely there.

      --
      Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
    3. Re:Probably not colors by tenco · · Score: 5, Funny

      Edison, is that you?

    4. Re:Probably not colors by spec8472 · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's quite possible that the old LCD display is a 6 bit (256k colours) panel, which to display colours which didn't fit exactly onto that colour space, flickers between two on either 'side'. It's called 'temporal dithering'.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dither#Applications

      Theoretically you shouldn't be able to notice this, but it's the same with low refresh rates on CRTs - some people can notice it directly, others indirectly through eyestrain.

    5. Re:Probably not colors by mysticgoat · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Not yet mentioned but often a problem are reflections.

      Turn the monitor off and look at the dark screen as if it were a mirror. If you can see anything recognizable, or there are definite fuzzy brighter areas, then reflection might be the culprit.

    6. Re:Probably not colors by Mick+Malkemus · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You SOLD to your own parents? I can't imagine that. Has America become so materialistic that we sell things to our own parents now?

    7. Re:Probably not colors by D+Ninja · · Score: 5, Funny

      I sell my old tech to my parents all the time. I like to teach them the value of money.

  2. Color Scheme Sampler by slifox · · Score: 5, Informative

    I've looked into this topic a few times in the past...

    Last time, I found a page that shows samples of hundreds of VIM color schemes:

    http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~maverick/VimColorSchemeTest/index-pl.html

    I don't use VIM (I use JOE), but the color schemes are easy to convert manually

    Whats nice is that you can scan through a _lot_ of schemes very quickly, and easily pick out the ones that work very well.

    1. Re:Color Scheme Sampler by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I read a study once that said that yellow text on a blue background was easiest on the eyes, and I've been using this for text-only frames in PowerPoints ever since. I used to get the occasional complaint that slides were unreadable, but I haven't since. I've noticed also that when looking at these slides for a while I don't get quite as much of the after-image effect as I do with white-on-black. Give it a try.

  3. Zenburn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Zenburn is a low-contrast colour scheme for low-light conditions. It is popular color scheme among programmers because it is very easy on the eyes.

    Legend says it was used by the ancients when they developed teh internets and our realm.

    * http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000682.html
    * http://slinky.imukuppi.org/zenburn/
    * http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=415
    * http://slinky.imukuppi.org/2006/10/31/just-some-alien-fruit-salad-to-keep-you-i n-the-zone/
    * http://termos.vemod.net/zenburn-for-konsole

  4. Black on Black by jhouserizer · · Score: 5, Funny

    A black foreground on a black background has always given me the least eye pain.

  5. Re:Yelow on Blue, look at the old monitor designs by Ihlosi · · Score: 5, Informative
    I never got a good explanation of why black on white is good (think original Apple Mac), vs. white on black is bad (original IBM CGA).

    You'll get it now: Depth of focus. Bright-on-dark results in a darker screen overall than dark-on-bright. This means that your pupils will open wider (to let more light in), which results in a smaller depth of focus (optics 101, ask anyone whose hobby is photography). And this, in turn, means that your eye has to re-focus more often.

  6. Three rules by barracg8 · · Score: 5, Informative

    This comes up on /. every so often, and I'm summarizing here the advice from a few people who (to me at least) sounded knowledgeable about the topic last time it came up.

    1. Use a strongly contrasting color scheme - this is obvious, black on white is easier to read than orange on red.
    2. Match the background color to the environment - staring at a bright monitor in a dark room is like staring straight at a light bulb - and the reverse can be true too (you get a halo around the monitor burning into your retina). Green on black is probably a brilliant color scheme if you do all your coding in a basement only lit by the blinkenlights of a router, but in a well lit office may not be as good for your eyes.
    3. Limit color edges. Okay, this is where I'm going to paraphrase other people really badly, but here goes. Your eye has separate RGB color cones, and effectively has to match a set of separate red, green, and blue images together. For some people, you can start to see optical effects when there is a strong contract change in different channels - your eye doesn't line up the images correctly, causing a blurry shadow around objects. This is not necessarily visually all the pronounced, but causes eye strain.

    Based on this advice I've switched to blue on light beige (#0000C0 on #FFFFC0). It has a strong contrast in two channels, no change in the third, and suits my office (reasonably bright, but lit with non-natural light). So far, this is working well for me.

  7. Peanuts by pragma_x · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A little slash-trivia here:

    You can also notice the refresh of a CRT if you chew on something hard, like peanuts, while staring at the screen. The crushing action of your teeth vibrates your head just enough to interface with the screen's refresh rate, causing the picture to "bounce" and shear in your field of view.