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← Annoying Bits, Explained

Colour · accessibility

Can I use white text on this colour?

Sometimes. The useful question is not whether it looks readable to you, but whether the contrast is strong enough for the text size you are using.

The annoying bit

It looks readable to you. You just want to know if it actually passes.

In plain English

Contrast depends on the two colours together. White text can be excellent on a dark colour and fail badly on a bright or pale one. Larger text has a little more room than small body copy, but checking beats guessing.

  • Check the actual foreground and background colours together.
  • Test body text and large text separately.
  • If it narrowly fails, a slightly darker background can be enough to fix it.

Do the job

Enough explaining.

Check the contrast