Colorscheme effects

Question

I noticed that a while back a question was asked about personal preferences in terms of color schemes for Vim (What is your favorite colorscheme FOR PROGRAMMING in Vim?). Though the author did note that colors can have an effect on your eyes equal in effect to ergnometric keyboard on hands, the question seemed to end up essentially being "vote up you're favorite colorscheme."

Is there any research out there concerning the long term of effects particular color schemes?

(I'm interested in research on effects on the eyes, not studies on preferences.) Although I find darker schemes more aesthetically appealing, I've heard that whites are easier on the eyes. If I'm going to be staring at a screen 8 hours a day for the next 30 years of my life, I'd love to be made aware of any research that will point in me in the direction of something that can save my eyes.

Answer 1

Staring at this screen for years has given me a mild case of the Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS), and for a little while it made my life pretty miserable. Eventually I learned that I was doing terrible things to my eyes on a daily basis, and implemented a few tricks. Now it's rarely a problem at all.

My color scheme of my Visual Studio is one of the tricks.

For me, dark backgrounds with light foregrounds are the only way to go. It really made a huge difference.

My Visual Studio looks a bit like this (image from Scott Gu's blog):

I also wrote a little application called EyeSpy that beeps every so often to remind me to blink and take breaks. This is much more important than the color scheme, and something that developers really do need to be aware of. Not only does staring at the screen all the time cause repetetive stress injuries, there's also a tendency to stop blinking that can dry your eyes out. Just getting up and walking around once every hour or so will make a huge difference, although that is probably an absolutely bare minimum.

When my eyes get dry (usually because I failed to listen to EyeSpy and take breaks) I use a brand of eyedrops called Blink. They seem to be the best one for me. My doctor, a specialist in CVS, showed me a technique for applying them where you tilt your head back, roll your eyes down so that you're looking towards your chin, and try to apply the drops to the top part of your eye. Because of the way the drainage works in your eyes, this part of your eye tends to become especially dry, and doing it this way is (surprisingly) a lot better. Although it's a fact that by the time your eye is dry, you're already in trouble, because the damage is done and the surface of your eye has become abraded.

Lighting is also very important. I don't use an overhead light at all. Instead, I brought in floor lamps that I position to indirectly light the room. I've also got a lamp on my desk. I keep it behind my monitor.

One last thought: for years, I went to eye doctors with this terrible eye strain and they told me I had perfect vision, acted like I was maybe a little bit crazy, and rushed me out as quickly as possible. This was incredibly frustrating since something was obviously wrong. If you feel like you have these types of problems, make sure you find someone who knows about and understands CVS. It's a new condition, and as of a few years ago, most eye doctors don't seem to understand it.

Just pay attention to how you feel and adjust as necessary. Hopefully this information will help somebody. :)

As for scientific research, there's some good information in White (Light) vs. Black (Dark) Backgrounds: Health Effects. Note that it does not all focus around eye strain, a lot of it has to do with retention and so on.

Answer 2

Contradicting Brian MacKay's answer, I've actually heard the opposite: that a black background and white letters are easier on the eyes, and this is because with screen displays when you see the color black what you are actually seeing is a lack of light (zero illumination) and the color white is the complete opposite (full illumination).

This makes black letters difficult to focus on and tiring to the eyes because you are focusing on a lack of light while being bombarded by the full intensity a white background all around it.

This is not the case with real paper for the obvious reason that black ink is a real colour, in fact it is all colours combined, but since there is no such thing as black light computers must simply turn off the illumination when they wish to display the color black.

It is not exactly official research, but I hope that helps.