The impact of color combinations on the legibility of text presented on LCDs

Abstract

The paper investigates the impact of text and background color combinations on the legibility of text presented on LCDs. The legibility of 56 elementary color combinations was tested by 308 participants. The first task required the participants to identify 21 uppercase alphabetic characters selected and presented in conformance with a Snellen chart in various color combinations. For each color combination, the number of correctly identified characters was recorded as a visual performance measure. In the second task, participants subjectively rated the legibility of color combinations on a ten-point Likert scale. The results show that neither the Le Courier legibility table nor the CRT legibility table is appropriate for LCDs. A new legibility table is proposed for LCDs where the highest ranked are contrastive color combinations with positive polarity whereas for CRT displays, the highest ranked are contrastive color combinations with negative polarity. The findings of this study can be used to determine the best possible color combinations when developing content displayed on LCDs.