1990/04/01 by Siegmund Pastoor · 123 citations
Environmental Science · Mathematics · Psychology · #Art #Artificial intelligence #Brightness #Chromaticity #Color perception and design #Color vision #Computer science #Computer vision #Contrast (vision) #Cyan #Hue #Legibility #Luminance #Mathematics #Multisensory perception and integration #Optics #Physics #Psychology #Urban Green Space and Health
paper · doi:10.1177/001872089003200204
published in Human Factors The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 32(2), 157-171 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 1990/04/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25
This study examined legibility performance and subjective preference for text/background color combinations displayed on a video monitor. Luminance contrast was fixed at two preoptimized levels, either with text brighter than the background (10:1) or vice versa (1:6.5). In Experiment 1, 32 subjects rated about 800 color combinations. No evidence suggested differential effects of luminance polarity or hue, with the only exception that cool background colors (blue and bluish cyan) tended to be preferred for the light-on-dark polarity. Saturation had the most important influence on ratings. Any desaturated color combination appears to be satisfactory for text presentation. In Experiment 2 a reduced set of 18 color combinations was investigated with a new sample of 18 subjects. Reading and search times as well as multidimensional ratings were evaluated. There was no evidence for an influence of luminance polarity or chromaticity on performance. Subjective ratings corresponded well with the results of Experiment 1.