As you have almost certainly noticed by now, my website, unlike many, does not have a pure white background (at least in light mode). This is not a defect, nor a quirk of the template; it is an intentional choice made by me. This page is about the logic behind the palette.

A primer on eyestrain #

Eyestrain is the colloqual term for one’s eyes getting tired from overuse. It can be exacerbated by certain visual stimuli, and can manifest as a headache, blurred vision, eye pain, difficulty concentrating, or even muscle soreness. Below is a visual guide to things that can cause eyestrain.

Click to see a visual guide to eyestrain causes (Warning: eyestrain)

For those who cannot view the picture, or do not wish to, here’s a (less brightly colored) “cheat sheet” kunaigirl provided in the same post¹ as the above picture:

Although the examples of eyestrain kunaigirl are comparatively extreme (to the point where some people cannot comfortably view these things), eyestrain exists on a smaller scale as well.

The difference between book paper and “bright white” paper #

If you are one of the people within arm’s reach of both a novel (or other book made for long, semi-casual reading) and a piece of printer paper (with or without something printed on it), I would like you to do this for me: open up the novel, and put the printout inside like it’s a bookmark.

You should be able to notice that the book’s paper is less “white” than the printout’s!² So, why are they different?

With classical printer paper, the assumption is that the audience will read whatever’s on there once, and then set it down. It is bright white because it is agreed that’s a professional color to use, and it works well enough for the handful of pages people are expected to be reading on that paper.

Book paper cannot be bright white, because bright white is bright enough to cause eyestrain with large quantities of text. Thus, for a written text to be casually read for pages and pages, book publishers have accepted that off-white paper is easier for people to read text on than bright white paper – and that a professional look is best achieved in other ways, like a fancy book cover and a pile of endorsements.

So, where does that leave us? #

I have intentionally chosen to make my website’s default light mode into an eyestrain safe haven by giving it an off-white background. I have also tried to ensure that any pertinent secondary content is (somewhat) visually distinct from the main writing, although some people will almost certainly have to use position rather than color.