We read that we don't see;we don't read that we see

[manesiro]

We conveniently read black letters printed on white paper.The most of light is absorbed by black print and most of light is reflected by white page.Thus
we read that we don't see;we don't read that we see.

[Mellow]

Hmmm, I thought our pattern recognition was triggered more by edges than plain colour (or lack of).... does anyone know better?

[antoniseb]

I'm curious to know why this is in Fun&Games. It could be that Manesiro has an intent here other than simply posing the issue. For my part, I too have the impression that we see edges.

[Eric Vaxxine]

We conveniently read black letters printed on white paper.The most of light is absorbed by black print and most of light is reflected by white page.Thus
we read that we don't see;we don't read that we see.

I don't read any bits I cannot see. It's just a frame.

Can we talk about black letters on a white screen?

[Frog march]

Can we talk about black letters on a white screen?

does it involve llamas?

[Frog march]

I think the OP's point is quite poetic. Maybe that is why it is in fun&games.

[Rystefn K'ryll]

I may be wrong here, in general, but it certainly applies to me. I've read somewhere (I can't recall where, it's been many years, that the human eyes sees white against black much better than black against white. The reason books are printed that way is that it's vastly easier and less expensive to bleach paper then mark it with ink, than to ink paper and try to bleach out marks.

I, and all of my friends, agree that it's a lot easier on the eyes to look at white words on a darkened screen, from a strain and stress standpoint as well.

[Gigabyte]

Well that certainly settles that.

[Chuck]

I use the Windows command prompt window a lot and the old MS-DOS editor so I can have white text on a black background. That's they way it was on my TRS-80 so that's how I think computer screens should look.

[profloater]

I may be wrong here, in general, but it certainly applies to me. I've read somewhere (I can't recall where, it's been many years, that the human eyes sees white against black much better than black against white. The reason books are printed that way is that it's vastly easier and less expensive to bleach paper then mark it with ink, than to ink paper and try to bleach out marks.

I, and all of my friends, agree that it's a lot easier on the eyes to look at white words on a darkened screen, from a strain and stress standpoint as well.

I think the answer to that is it depends. Readability varies with font so much that some fonts are easier black on white and some the opposite. I once worked on very small fonts with controlled studies and at 6 point the most readably font (with serifs) was better black on white or black on yellow but some people e.g. with dyslexia, find it better if the contrast is lowered.

On a dark screen the black is actually the ambient condition which is far from true black.

The OP is being provocative surely, we see images which have edges, contrast and colours and our brains interpret them, the absence or colour of light is just as relevant to the image as the light is.

[Chuck]

The Windows command prompt screen looks a lot blacker than my TRS-80 looked.

[Sarawak]

The Windows command prompt screen looks a lot blacker than my TRS-80 looked.

Well, it's appropriate that it be darker.