Low contrast on shapeoko.com main page

[Dave]

Just a heads-up... the white text on a super light grey photo background on the shapeoko.com main page is incredibly low contrast, which makes it difficult to read and the usability is impacted.

Low contrast text on shapeoko.com main page

low contrast.jpg (23.33 KiB) Viewed 1169 times

On my Macbook LCD as well as my desktop, there's a whole range of screen angles where you simply can't see that text at all. On the computer, you get a little help from the areas turning green when your cursor is over them... but on a tablet, you don't have that assistance. A little bit of a color change in the text, or a shadow below it, would make the page a lot more readable and easier to use.


(Partially related: The "CARBIDE 3D" text is missing the green highlight when your cursor is over it. BLOG, FORUM, CONTACT US, ORDER NOW, and PRE-ORDER all have it... it's just CARBIDE 3D that doesn't look selectable from the cursor.)

[Brian Stone]

If you scroll down it should smoothly transition to white text on a black background. The transition looks intentional, but perhaps the initial white color of the text is not intentional.

[WillAdams]

If you scroll down it should smoothly transition to white text on a black background. The transition looks intentional, but perhaps the initial white color of the text is not intentional.

That transition doesn't happen when using Safari.app 5.1.10 (on Mac OS X 10.6.8) --- probably not on other WebKit browsers of that vintage or older, though it does work on Chrome.

I've been meaning to look into installing the WebKit nightly on a regular basis, but can't quite bring myself to go to the effort.

[Dave]

If you scroll down it should smoothly transition to white text on a black background. The transition looks intentional, but perhaps the initial white color of the text is not intentional.

You're right. That helps, but unfortunately that doesn't seem to be universal... My Macbook shows the transition to black (edit: when using Firefox), but my iPad lets you scroll all the way down through the pages, and it's still just white text overlaying the page content. It's significantly worse on the iPad, actually, as so much of the follow-on content is pure white background.

[Dave]

My Macbook shows the transition to black, but...

That transition doesn't happen when using Safari.app 5.1.10 (on Mac OS X 10.6.8) --- probably not on other WebKit browsers of that vintage or older, though it does work on Chrome.

Whoops... I should clarify: I was using Firefox when I said "My Macbook shows the transition to black".

[Brian Stone]

If you scroll down it should smoothly transition to white text on a black background. The transition looks intentional, but perhaps the initial white color of the text is not intentional.

That transition doesn't happen when using Safari.app 5.1.10 (on Mac OS X 10.6.8) --- probably not on other WebKit browsers of that vintage or older, though it does work on Chrome.

I've been meaning to look into installing the WebKit nightly on a regular basis, but can't quite bring myself to go to the effort.

As a simple fix, it might be sufficient to change the text's color to a medium gray or a color between white and black, so it's at least visible if the transition isn't supported.