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Joltertoday at 9:54 AM20 repliesview on HN

To the author: please use a darker font. Preferably black.

I’m only in my 40’s, I don’t require glasses (yet) and I have to actively squint to read your site on mobile. Safari, iPhone.

I’m pretty sure you’re under the permitted contrast levels under WCAG.


Replies

kaszankatoday at 10:16 AM

Surprisingly only the headings (2.05) and links (3.72) fail the Firefox accessibility check, the body text is 5.74. But subjectively it seems worse and I definitely agree with you that the contrast is too low.

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shortformblogtoday at 11:31 AM

The problem is less the color than the weight. If it was 500 rather than 300 it would be perfectly fine.

argsndtoday at 10:10 AM

Safari’s reader mode is good for this. All you have to do is long press the icon on the left edge of the address bar.

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bencevanstoday at 11:03 AM

I found this to be a common theme in web design a while back, and in part led to an experiment developing a newspaper/Pocket-like interface to reading HN. It's not perfect, but is easier on the eyes for reading... https://times.hntrends.net/story/47762864

rrreesetoday at 10:58 AM

Your feedback is noted! I'll darken it down a few nootches and test it on mobile. Thanks for the feedback

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vovavilitoday at 10:05 AM

I instinctively use Dark Reader on any page with a white background so I was genuinely surprised by your comment at first.

readingnewstoday at 10:02 AM

Completely agree with this comment. Had to cut / paste it into vim and q! when done, was getting a headache.

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contravarianttoday at 10:26 AM

I'm also pretty sure 14 points font is a bit outdated at this point, 16 should probably be a minimum with current screens. It's not as if screens aren't wide enough to fit bigger text.

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giancarlostorotoday at 1:05 PM

I'm on my laptop and that font is too thin and too small. I'm in my mid 30's ;)

Aerroontoday at 1:23 PM

On my android phone it's perfectly legible. Moving my phone away it's only a tiny bit worse than HN.

Is this maybe a pixel density of iphone issue?

I wouldn't mind a darker and higher weight font though.

jasodetoday at 10:40 AM

macOS/iOS Safari and Brave browsers have "Reader mode" . Chrome has a "Reading mode" but it's more cumbersome to use because it's buried in a side menu.

For desktop browsers, I also have a bookmarklet on the bookmarks bar with the following Javascript:

  javascript: document.querySelectorAll('p, td, tr, ul, ol').forEach(elem =>  {elem.style.color = '#000'})
It doesn't darken the text on every webpage but it does work on this thread's article. (The Javascript code can probably be enhanced with more HTML heuristics to work on more webpages.)
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bayindirhtoday at 12:16 PM

The font is dark enough, yet the weight is too light. Hairline or ultrathin or something. It's eye straining.

specialptoday at 11:02 AM

>I don’t require glasses (yet)

One day try throwing a pair on you'll be surprised. The small thin font is causing this not the text contrast. This and low light scenarios are the first things to go.

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baqtoday at 10:23 AM

+1

Firefox users: press F9 or C-A-R

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dgellowtoday at 11:43 AM

Reader mode?

avazhitoday at 11:08 AM

Your iPhone has this cool feature called reader mode if you didn’t know.

As for mentioning WCAG - so what if it doesn’t adhere to those guidelines? It’s his personal website, he can do what he wants with it. Telling him you found it difficult to read properly is one thing but referencing WCAG as if this guy is bound somehow to modify his own aesthetic preference for generic accessibility reasons is laughable. Part of what continues to make the web good is differing personal tastes and unique website designs - it is stifling and monotonous to see the same looking shit on every site and it isn’t like there aren’t tools (like reader mode) for people who dislike another’s personal taste.

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raptor99today at 10:28 AM

Why don't you just go tell the WCAG on him yourself?

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JLCarvethtoday at 10:33 AM

> Please don't complain about tangential annoyances—e.g. article or website formats, name collisions, or back-button breakage.

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