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Date:      Fri, 5 Sep 2008 22:38:59 +0200
From:      Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de>
To:        Gary Kline <kline@thought.org>
Cc:        FreeBSD Mailing List <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: which gray is best for print?
Message-ID:  <20080905223859.8ad56b37.freebsd@edvax.de>
In-Reply-To: <20080905200601.GA81339@thought.org>
References:  <20080903231439.GA98955@thought.org> <20080905170804.GB20329@melon.esperance-linux.co.uk> <20080905200601.GA81339@thought.org>

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On Fri, 5 Sep 2008 13:06:01 -0700, Gary Kline <kline@thought.org> wrote:
> 	I'm still open to the bg color.  The display white is not true,
> 	paper-white.  Anyway, pretty sure the ink+paper publishers have
> 	their own [[ BETTER ]] ideas.  I'm looking for what looks good on
> 	the web.

You can't look at the Web, you're looking at a monitor or at a sheet
of paper. :-) The same color may look different on
	* a CRT type monitor
	* a LCD type monitor
	* a hardcopy done by a color laser printer
	* a hardcopy done by a color ink pee printer
	* ...

This is due to the nature that these devices use different color
spaces (RGB, composed additively, CMY, composed negatively), and
most of them even aren't calibrated. GRB and CMY are parts of the
CIE specified space (see CIE diagram), but they don't have all the
colors in common. There are colors you can show on a CRT, but you
cannot print them 1:1.

Anyway, the best reading contrast - black on white - looks boring
on the web, and it stresses your eyes (too much light reflected /
emitted). Furthermore, if you select a dark color for the background,
LCD type monitors (that have a minimal light emission even if the
color is pure black) may look too light, while a CRT type monitor
may display the color as dark as you intended (because when it's
black, the CRT does not emit any light, unless, of course, the
base brightness is needlessly adjusted above the zero point).

So much for physics, kids. :-)


-- 
Polytropon
>From Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...



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