Theme background and contrast causing vision dificulty and headaches.

[Exodist]

I have tried different settings on my monitor ASUS 27" LCD. Even choosing a lower contrast view mode the almost-white on white bleeds out. Much like the effect you would get keeping your eyes open to long stairing at a light bulb. I get the after glow effect in my eyes which leads to my eyes and head hurting. Highly request a darker ambient theme that will ease eye strain. The orange colors are good, its the to much white part that is overpowering making it harder to focus on the text and other images.

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

To me it seems more a matter of the brightness or "reddish" hue of the orange, but I'm honestly not sure. I'd posted a screenshot at the forums:

http://ubuntuforums.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=217714&d=1336738531

I'd like to see it with a lighter orange, maybe just be able to try it for a couple of days, to see how it works for me.

As it is I can't use the forums for more than a couple of hours without getting a screaming headache :^(

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

Here's a comparison with the Ubuntu wiki:

http://ubuntuforums.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=217971&d=1337066515

You'll notice that the orange is just mellower and easier on the eyes ;^)

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

I thought I should also add my reasoning for preferring Ubuntu-White as pictured in the link in comment #1. I suffer from a seizure disorder resulting from brain injury and one of the triggers is "photo-sensitivity".

As a layperson I can't give a competent medical explanation but one of the triggers is as simple as looking through horizontal/Venetian blinds. Even the slightest movement (we seldom stand perfectly still) starts a "visual scrolling" effect that has largely the same effect as a flickering fluorescent light. With two or more boldly colored "bars" as you now have just repetitive searching and scrolling can also trigger such seizures for me, luckily my seizures are currently well controlled with Neurontin.

To better explain this just imagine you open the forum main page, quickly scroll to the desired section, scroll again to the desired thread, scroll again to the desired post, etc, etc. The repetitive scrolling of the vastly contrasting colors is a trigger. It's not as extreme as a flickering light, the Venetain blind effect, or a passing train (that's the worst) but it is still a minor trigger, and even one seizure is one too many!

So this truly is an accessibility issue. I realize it's unintentional but it truly makes the forums risky to use for me and potentially others with such seizure disorders :^(

[s.fox (silver-fox)]

I prefer the toned down orange on the wiki to the bright orange used on the forums. The bright orange just gives me a headache. On the wiki they use #d05630 as the base orange, but on the forum it has #dd4814.

I would also add that on the wiki they have diagonal stripes to help ease the colour.

I have attached an image showing the difference between the hex codes.

[2cute4u (mistywillows)]

This problem is so severe that I won't risk returning to the forums until there is a serious reduction in the bright orange.

technoviking claims that everying needs to be how it is to meet the branding requirements, but I think he is misinterpreting the guidlines. As I read it the black on white logo is allowed and so is reducing the orange.

The most simple fix is to officially declare the forums as a mix between enterprise and community, and eligable for a mixed color scheme..

Otherwise there needs to be clarifcation and revsion of the commminity branding requirements.

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

I agree with s.fox, first saw the comparison here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=11937388&postcount=261

That along with restoring the Ubuntu-White theme to eliminate the two solid bars at the top of the forum threads should make things OK ;^)

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

I know it's a bit rude but I subscribed the accessibility team because I'm getting slammed on the forums, basically being called a liar which I'm not (unless I'm playing poker) so I hope for an affirmative comment.

This is a serious issue, not something imaginary as KiwiNZ at the forums would like us to believe. I'm also amazed that (s)he had two doctors on speed dial to dispute my claims of photo-sensitive seizures. That has my blood boiling!

[Mike Basinger (mike.basinger)]

A background image has been added to the top orange header to tone it down some, and have reactived Ubuntu-White.

[Mike Basinger (mike.basinger)]

Please file separate bugs for each area of problem. Thanks!

[2cute4u (mistywillows)]

Thank you for reacivating the ubuntu white, it helps, but there is still too much orange, for the site to be comfortable. on the ubuntu-white theme there are a few more things that could be done that, apear to me to be consistent with the guidlines

catagory links could be #333333 or #000000
some butons could be #77216F
the navbar could have the stripe-texture in the background

[Alan Bell (alanbell)]

tagging it a11y is better than subscribing the team.
There are colour filters available in compiz that will allow you to adjust things across your whole system to tone colours down or invert them or do other things. Might not be the right solution in this instance, but if there are people having vision difficulties triggered by colours I thought I would make you aware of that facility.
You can also do user CSS to adjust things to your personal preferences and submit patches based on the design guidelines. Generally for accessibility things should:
React well to ctrl+mousewheel to change font sizes and reflow the text (it does)
Have good contrast in the body text, and reasonable contrast in decorative/small runs of text. (it is OK)
Smaller font sizes need more contrast than a big headline
Read OK in Orca (not perfect perhaps, but it is OK and no worse than the old theme)

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

@ Alan Bell,

I'll remember that about adding the tag "a11y", thank you much, and apologies for doing things wrong.

Personally I seldom use Compiz as I've found the "flatness" of either Metacity or Openbox preferable but I have noticed that KNOPPIX makes fairly good use of Compiz, but it's still just too much for my visual acuity.

@ Mike Basinger,

I'm quite happy with this newest iteration of both the Ubuntu and Ubuntu-White themes :^)

I looked a bit last night but I was dopey because I did something dopey ............. I dismounted my tractor w/o setting the brake and ran over my own foot :^(

Bright huh? No real harm done, just badly bruised. But today I've given things a much closer look and I really think this looks good ;^)

Many thanks to all for their hard work.

[2cute4u (mistywillows)]

The ubuntu-white theme has been removed, but there's a new stylish theme that solves this problem:
http://userstyles.org/styles/65909/ubuntuforums-improved

It's actually pretty good looking, and doesn't cause headaces. The downside is that you have to install stylish to use it, so it only works in firefox and chrome.