Welcome to InContrast, a website specifically for people who use a high contrast color scheme on their Windows desktop.
Who uses high contrast color schemes?
For most people, the color scheme they choose to use on their computer is simply a matter of personal preference. However, for many people with visual impairments it can be critical in making their computer accessible. Many users with low vision need high contrast between text and the background to be able to read information on a computer monitor. Commonly they may need a particular color scheme, such as white text on a black background, to prevent the background from 'bleeding' over and obscuring the foreground text. Others consider the default Windows color scheme legible, but find that it causes eyestrain over longer periods of use.
Does a high contrast color scheme solve everything?
Unfortunately not, and that is the reason the InContrast website was created.
The main problem is the inability of an increasing number of software applications to correctly display a high contrast color scheme. In general, software applications will do one of four things:
- Automatically inherit and display the high contrast color scheme.
- Provide an option to select whether to use the application's own default color scheme or an alternative one (either the default system color scheme or a predefined one).
- Will only display the application's own predefined color scheme.
- Make a total mess of handling the colors, often resulting in white text on a white background or black text on a black background.
Sadly, an increasing number of software applications are now doing one of the latter two options.
How can the InContrast website help?
If you rely on a high contrast color scheme, software that fails to inherit and display it correctly can be very difficult to use, if not impossible.
Quite often, you do not know how a particular piece of software will handle a high contrast color scheme until you have bought and installed it. This can be a time consuming and costly process, particularly as many vendors will not offer a refund or exchange on software once it has been opened. Our goal, therefore, is to create a list of how different software applications handle high contrast color schemes.
How you can help
To make our list as complete and comprehensive as possible, we need people to submit their own experiences. So, if you use a high contrast color scheme, please let us know how the software that you use has handled it. With your help, we can hopefully make the InContrast website an invaluable resource.