which gray is best for print?

[Gary Kline]

{ After spending hours looking for a used ThinkPad....}

On Sat, Sep 06, 2008 at 01:53:46PM +0200, Polytropon wrote:
> On Fri, 5 Sep 2008 20:36:45 -0700, Gary Kline <kline at thought.org> wrote:
> > 	So you're saying that the "white" on my [monster] CRT is not the
> > 	same as on a future LCD Display?  rats:)  
> 
> Exactly. And compare the "black", too, best way to differentiate
> with CRT and LCD side by side with a fullscreen color "black".
> 

	Isn't it dark-gray, tho? or as "black" as a dark tube gets,
	rather than "true-black"?


> 
> 
> > --I can't see much
> > 	difference in my new laserjet from my HP500 DeskJet, but then it
> > 	wasn't a main concern ... .
> 
> Human perception is another thing. Just because *I* can't notice
> something, it doesn't imply that (1) others can't and (2) it isn't
> there. In order to make a human person *feel* the change of a
> sensory input is linear (e. g. the light intensity increases), you
> need to increase the actual input in a logarithmic way.
> 
> http://www.neuro.uu.se/fysiologi/gu/nbb/lectures/WebFech.html
> 

	tHis I'll check out; you've piqued my curiousity, even tho this 
	gets further from whatever I was talking about:-)  ...Not only
	are the psychological varioations, but neurophysiological ones as
	well.  And gender diffs too.  My better two-thirds says that I
	may as well be color-blind, and she's probably right.  What I
	will avoid is having some *Ugly* combos like black on dark blue.
	No, I am Not kidding.  Or yellow typeface on White bg.  It's like
	the shriek/skreek of chalk against a blackboard.  Makes my skin crawl.

> 
> 
> > 	I took all 5 quarters of physics, like most of us, but never got
> > 	far into optics.
> 
> Physics comes in 5 quarters? 5 * 0.25 = 1.25... :-)
> 
> 
> 
> >  And certainly, nothing like *this*.
> 
> I learned about this when I studied psychology and computational
> visualistics, but the RGB vs. CMY stuff (additive and subtractive
> color combination) was part of the basal school education in the
> GDR.


	You got me there, man.  I took plenty of psych courses over the
	years, but nothing involving computation.  Congrats.


> 
> 
> 
> >  the
> > 	quality of my writing is much more important that the colors of
> > 	typeface or background.
> 
> I really applaud this attitude. You won't find them very often
> across the web, sadly, because "style is more important than content".
> I've seen things, man, ...
> 

	Hm. About the only time form/style can top function/contact,
	IMHO, is when you're being forced to watch a very nicely 
	stylized ad.  {On the web.}  I've seen a couple.  O/wise, the way
	a piece works wins.  I listened to an interview on NPR several
	months ago who said that, "I think of people who don't watch web
	advertisement as thieves," or sometime similar.  Isn't a primary
	function of the web to allow *us* to control what we see? 


> 
> 
> >  But this is an interesting side-bar.
> 
> It's a very important topic to know about when you're doing DTP
> stuff. Exact color calibration is very important in this field.
> So you can understand why there's still a niche market for quality
> CRT monitors and quality printing devices. Of course, color
> temperatures and other settings like contrast and brightness
> are to be considered, too.
> 

	Sure, but I'll happy leave this niche to people more qualified.
	I'm below the bottom/barrel here.

> 
> 
> > 	Really!  So far, in my tests [staring at a CRT], I find an
> > 	off-white reads most easily against a very dark blue. 000033;
> > 	or whatever 333366 is.  Still experimenting.
> 
> it's very individual how colors are percepted. If someone with
> deuteranopia looks at certain color combinations where others
> may say: "Looks good!", they could say: "I don't see text there."
> 
> At least for printed material, black on white is good, and it
> even can be used for projection media (beamer).


	i May be off on this one, but I'm seeing more dark grays on my
	ink+paper journals.  Hard to tell since with the years sight
	loses sharpness as our lenses become sclerotic and full of gunk.
	Which all goes back to the original point:: what's the best
	--oh, no-- what *are* the best combinations of off-white and
	darkgray, bluegray, or almost-black-bluegray?

> 
> When I was at university, some guys put up a presentation with
> black text on dark bluie background, 10pt serife font. Bah!
> Unreadable in the last row.

	didn't i mumble something like this above?  25 years ago my eyes
	were much better, but not That much.  i hope someone complained
	... seriously.

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

-- 
 Gary Kline  kline at thought.org  http://www.thought.org  Public Service Unix
        http://jottings.thought.org   http://transfinite.thought.org