OT ergonomic VIM colors

[DCT Jared]

On Fri, 14 Nov 2003 11:04:02 -0600 (CST), Dave Hull wrote:
>On Fri, 14 Nov 2003, Jason Clinton wrote:
>
>> brad wrote:
>>
>> | I wanted to get a feel for what background and text colors everyone
>> | uses in their shell.
>>
>> Hal once told me that amber or IBM green on black was best in his
>> experience. I don't stare at consoles all day, so I don't have an
>> opinion. You're forced to read black on white on the web. :(
>
>I've expiremented with many color combinations over the years, but the one
>that seems to work best for me is green foreground on a black background. I'm
>looking at a command-line, text-based environment (no X Windows installed) 40
>hours a week, not counting the work I do at home using the same type of set
>up.

Do You See What I Mean?
http://virtual.inesc.pt/wuauc01/procs/pdfs/brown_final.pdf

<snip>
3. Cones containing the photopigment sensitive to blue are the most scarce, making up only two 
percent of the cones. This makes the eye least sensitive to the color blue, and therefore makes it 
difficult to distinguish two objects differing only in the amount of blue. However, the cones that 
are sensitive to blue are evenly distributed across the retina, making it a good color for 
background or large areas. Moreover, there is a yellowing of the lens of the eye as people age that 
causes the perception of blue to be blocked. Thus people lose their sensitivity to blue as they 
grow older, and they have trouble distinguishing light blue from white. 

4. The combination of certain bright colors, such as blue and green, blue and yellow, red and 
green, or red and blue, is very fatiguing because the wavelengths that produce these colors are 
focused at different distances behind the lens, and the eye must continually refocus
</snip>

User interface design
http://www.netnam.vn/unescocourse/se/32.htm

<snip>
Guidelines for the design of color user interfaces  ([Apple 1987]) 

· About one person in twenty is colorblind in some way. To avoid excluding such persons from using 
a program, color must not serve as the sole source of information. For example, highlighting an 
error in a text with red effectively flags it for most people, but is scarcely recognizable, if at 
all, to a red-green colorblind user. Another form of highlighting (e.g., inversion of the text) 
should be preferred over color. 

· Longitudinal studies have shown that black writing on a white background proves most readable for 
daily work. For a black background, amber proves the most comfortable to the eyes. Writing in red 
and blue proves least readable because these colors are at opposite ends of the visible spectrum 
for humans. Because of the extreme wave length of these colors, their focal point is not exactly on 
the retina of the eye, but in front of or  behind it. Although the eye automatically adapts to 
reading red or blue text, the resulting strain causes early fatigue. Experts recommend avoiding red 
and blue to display text. 

· Red serves as a danger signal. However, because the user’s eye is drawn to red, it would be wrong 
to employ red to mark dangerous actions. Color “support” in such a case would have the reverse 
effect. 

· Light blue on a white background is hard to read, especially for small objects or thin lines. 
Thus important things should never be displayed in light blue. Still, this  effect can be 
exploited, for example, to set grid lines in the background as unimportant. 

· In general, color should only be used where the task expressly requires it, such as in graphic 
editors. In all other cases color should be used at best as a supplementary means for highlighting 
, but never for mere decoration of a user interface. 
</snip>

THE BRAIN COMPUTER INTERFACE: A DYNAMIC INTERACTION
http://www.cogtech.org/CT99/mcmanemin.htm#EYE-COMPUTER%20ERGONOMICS

Techniques & Tools for Using Color In Computer Interface Design
http://www.acm.org/crossroads/xrds3-3/color.html
http://www.acm.org/crossroads/xrds3-3/color.html#tab1
(Table of Color Combinations for User Interfaces with Graphical Displays)

Using Color Effectively
http://mime1.gtri.gatech.edu/mime/papers/colorTR.html

-Googled by Jared