Request: Better color & print management of web pages

[kharvel]

Dear Chimera developers,

I have used Chimera once or twice for about 2-3 minutes. I am unable to use it fully because it does not have very good color and print management functionality.

Most people view web pages using the color scheme associated with the web page in question. And most websites invariably use a white or light background with dark text scheme on the mistaken assumption that this is the best color scheme since it closely matches the white background and black text on papers.

However, a monitor is NOT like a paper. It is more similar to a very bright light bulb that you stare at for hours. It is quite difficult on one's eyes when reading black text on a very bright light bulb that is my monitor. Therefore, for years, I have always forced my browser to render a BLACK background and WHITE text on ALL webpages, overriding the webpage's default color scheme. All versions of Mozilla since 1.0 are very good with user-defined color rendering and I would like to see the same functionality with Chimera.

My user-defined color scheme has decreased the strain on my eyes considerably and I have no trouble reading text on webpages anymore. I am currently using Mozilla 1.2.1 at both work (Windows NT) and home (OS X 10.2.2). I would like to move to Chimera on my Mac but it lacks a good user-defined color management functionality. When I ask Chimera to force-render black background and white text on all webpages, it does not do it properly and the color is a bit messed up on some webpages.

Chimera developers, I respectfully ask you to provide better user-defined color management functionality that will allow me to migrate to Chimera from Mozilla.

There is another less important issue associated with Chimera. Chimera, like Mozilla, does not have a comprehensive print functionality that adjusts for the difference between the user-defined color scheme and the ideal color scheme for printing on a paper. Let me give you an example:

I use black background and white text when viewing webpages on a monitor. But do I want the same color scheme when viewing it on paper? NO! On paper, I want white background and black text since a paper is not a light bulb.

In order to print webpages using Mozilla, I always have to change the color scheme from black background/white text to white text/black background so that the browser will print it correctly. If I don't change the color scheme, the browser will print with a black background and white text which wastes a LOT of ink and makes it more difficult to read the paper.

I respectfully ask the Chimera developers to develop a functionality (perhaps a print option in preferences) that forces the browser to print all webpages with a white background and black text regardless of the color scheme used by the browser. This functionality is already available in the iCab browser.

Thank you for your time and attention.

- an enthusiastic Mozilla user.

[maurerc]

The reason black text is more legible on paper is that the optical flare in your eye spreads light out from the white parts into the black. Where this spreads from masses of white over thin black lines, it makes the lines lighter, but where it spreads from thin white lines into masses of black, it blurs the edges of the lines. That makes text harder to read. This holds on a video screen as well as on paper. If you find that reverse video is easier to read on a screen, then you probably do not have the screen or your surroundings set up appropriately. The intensity of white on the screen should be lowered and/or the light in the room raised so that the screen is no brighter than a sheet of paper next to it.

[misterjingles]

I believe that is the first time I have ever heard someone say that white text on a black background is easier on the eyes than black text on a light background. I have several people complain about white on black but not the reverse.

Also, do the Chimera developers even read these boards?