title: The impact of color combinations on the legibility of text presented on LCDs.
abstract: The paper investigates the impact of text and background color combinations on the legibility of text presented on LCDs. The legibility of 56 elementary color combinations was tested by 308 participants. The first task required the participants to identify 21 uppercase alphabetic characters selected and presented in conformance with a Snellen chart in various color combinations. For each color combination, the number of correctly identified characters was recorded as a visual performance measure. In the second task, participants subjectively rated the legibility of color combinations on a ten-point Likert scale. The results show that neither the Le Courier legibility table nor the CRT legibility table is appropriate for LCDs. A new legibility table is proposed for LCDs where the highest ranked are contrastive color combinations with positive polarity whereas for CRT displays, the highest ranked are contrastive color combinations with negative polarity. The findings of this study can be used to determine the best possible color combinations when developing content displayed on LCDs.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Tržaška cesta 25, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia. Electronic address: iztok.humar@fe.uni-lj.si.
authors.forename: Iztok
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Humar
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana, Kardeljeva ploscad 17, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia. Electronic address: miro.gradisar@ef.uni-lj.si.
authors.forename: Mirko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gradisar
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana, Kardeljeva ploscad 17, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia. Electronic address: tomaz.turk@ef.uni-lj.si.
authors.forename: Tomaž
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Turk
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana, Kardeljeva ploscad 17, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia. Electronic address: jure.erjavec@ef.uni-lj.si.
authors.forename: Jure
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Erjavec
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D003116:Color; D032882:Comprehension; D016288:Computer Terminals; D003626:Data Display / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008027:Light; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Color combinations; Legibility; Liquid crystal display