Best Color Scheme For Coding, Easiest On the Eyes?

Marzubus writes "I tend to do a lot of code editing in vim and sometimes get the 'burning eyes' or headaches. I have been trying to find a background / foreground combination for my terminal sessions which is easiest on the eyes but cannot seem to find any real data on this subject. Does anyone know of a study / data on this topic?"

Black on Black

[jhouserizer]

A black foreground on a black background has always given me the least eye pain.

Pink on Green

[QuantumPion]

Pink text on green background.

This combination is so vibrant that it burns the code into your brain, allowing you to better visualize your program.

That, or give you a seizure.

Re:Pink on Green

[syousef]

Pink text on green background.

Let me guess, you taught HTML for dummies courses using Hotdog and Netscape Navigator Gold in the mid to late 90s.

Re:Gentoo

[mowall]

The default vi colors on a fresh Gentoo install are absolutely beautiful

Could you check what they are and post them please? I'd like to try it but don't have that kind of time.

Re:Green on Black

[okvol]

Using green on black also helps to warp your brain to where you will think like old-style programmers. I've used several: Blue on light blue (C64 style), gold on black, purple on a pale blue, and more. You want some contrast, but not too much. And, chose colors that fit your personality. I remember someone who loved the "hot dog stand" colors in Windows 3.1!

Re:Probably not colors

[intx13]

If your monitor's refresh rate was equal to the ambiant lighting's refresh rate, you could almost guarantee a headache

Maybe you should stop programming in raves! Turn off the strobe lights - my light bulbs don't refresh!

Re:Pink on Green

[SQLGuru]

Don't forget that he was a huge fan of flashing text to grab attention. And since you wanted people to see your whole page, it was all flashing.

Layne

Re:Probably not colors

[funfail]

Seems you never worked in a fluorescent lit cubicle.

Re:Probably not colors

[tenco]

Edison, is that you?

Re:Probably not colors

[DrLang21]

Apparently you only use DC powered lights.

Re:Probably not colors

[Bandman]

weird. I meant flicker. Damn you flickr for corrupting my spelling!

Flashing text is best...

[clickety6]

...it's only on the screen for half the time, thereby giving your eye the other half of the time to relax from reading.

Re:Probably not colors

[ebh]

It should be OK if you stay in the chill room.

Re:Yelow on Blue, look at the old monitor designs

[Bonobo_Unknown]

I bop away like stevie wonder when I code

Re:Pink on Green

[Dachannien]

Pink text on green background.

Hey, stop ripping off my MySpace page!

Re:Probably not colors

[H0p313ss]

Back when I had a CRT, I could see its flicker at 65 Hz, but almost no one else could see it. I think we Slashdotters and computer geeks have superhuman eyesight.

The first rule of supergeekdom is we don't talk about supergeekdom.

Re:Probably not colors

[radimvice]

but back in the pre-GUI days, white on blue was pretty soothing

...ahh, I fondly remember those days, when seeing a soothing white-on-blue screen appear didn't yet cause me to instinctively start cursing and reach for the power switch...

Re:Probably not colors

[D Ninja]

I sell my old tech to my parents all the time. I like to teach them the value of money.

Re:Probably not colors

[differentialman]

some of us aren't willing to trade our extra screen space to alleviate massive headaches and temporary insanity

Re:Peanuts

[Rogerborg]

DON'T DO IT; that's the Brown Note [wikipedia.org].

Re:Peanuts

[Snodgrass]

I went on an on-site tech call once. The little company I worked for supplied the computers to the local school district.

While I was there, the "head computer guy" kept yammering on about all the problems they'd been having with the computers, but I'd only found one with an actual hardware problem.

Anyway, I was getting ready to leave and he started pointing at a monitor (CRT) and saying "look at this! See? This is what has been happening!" I looked at it, but couldn't see anything wrong.

"Right there!" he said, pointing, "See how it's jiggling around?" It was then that I noticed the bag of Cheetos in his hand. I told him to stop chewing for a second and see if the problem went away.

It did, and so did he. I left without seeing him again, I think he was a little embarrassed. :^)

Re:Probably not colors

[arth1]

Where is the "old world"?

A hop and a skip, a splash and a flip, across the pond. :-)

Re:Peanuts

[binaryspiral]

Funny you should mention "never seeing a CRT again"... I was just in the phone room with the Nortel PBX for our campus - hooked up to a terminal with a orange phosphor CRT monitor.

To show you how green our school is, someone hand scrawled on the CRT's front bezel "Turn this off when you're leaving... this ain't no fancy shmancy Energy Star monitor" with a big arrow pointing at the toggle power switch.

Re:Maybe not a thing for cubicles..

[freemywrld]

I'd be more worried about the fact that "things" are judging you...