Has anyone done a usability study on the color of a heading row?
(Black with white text vs. Gray with black text - which is preferred?)
Either one looks ok on the screen, but gray has problems when photocopying.
Any comments?
Avoid shading. Usability is poor. There are several problems.
First, digital printers don't print gray, they print a pattern of
black dots on a white background. When you add this to text, the dots
from the "gray" break up the outlines of the letters, making them
harder to read.
Second, using a gray background means lower contrast. Lower contrast
is less legible.
Third, it is difficult to get a satisfactory shading percentage.
Different printers can have very different ideas about what "10%"
shading is. Even if you like the results from one printer, the output
from the next one may be too dark, or even invisibly light.
If you want to make the heading row different, use a different font,
or different size, or any of the other conventional schemes.
Bob S