Comments on: bgcolor follies

By: CSS Drive Web Design Resources -> Search Results

CSS Drive Web Design Resources -> Search Results — Mon, 11 May 2009 03:39:23 +0000

[...] bgcolor follies If you forget to set your site’s background color, your visitors may do it for you. A mini-photo gallery. Collect your own! Categor(ies): Date: 06/18/2007 http://www.zeldman.com/2007/06/18/bgcolor-follies/ User rating: thumbsrate.displayscore(2248, “”, “April 04 2007 12:50:01″, “7352324.81.9.223″) [...]

By: Anyone

Anyone — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:39:41 +0000

This also applies to block elements other than the body. Basically anytime you set a font color also set a bg color for that element. Many developers forget this when using bg images and forget to set a fallback color for when images are turned off. Which is truly an accessibility issue. If you are careful about that you shouldn’t need to set a bg color for the body. Then let the use decide what color they want the white space (if any) to be.

By: Will Peavy

Will Peavy — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 12:23:11 +0000

I disagree. If a user wants to view whitespace on web sites with a fluorescent green background, then I want them to view my sites with a flourescent green background. … I see this issue as similar to using px vs em for fonts. If an IE user wants to view fonts at a certain size, I’m not going to try to make it more difficult for them to view fonts at the size of their choosing by using px.

By: Websites with no background-color * Dexagogo

Websites with no background-color * Dexagogo — Mon, 05 May 2008 16:54:11 +0000

[...] Zeldman has sparked an internet controvesy with this damning post revealing the dirty little secret many major websites and web designers would have hoped had gone [...]

By: Jason King

Jason King — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 07:01:03 +0000

I tested a few of my websites, was feeling smug because I’d set the background-color on all of them, then ouch! Found a couple I’d missed.

Thanks Mr Zeldman, won’t do it again.

By: Paul Buchhorn - Online Marketing News

Paul Buchhorn - Online Marketing News — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 16:12:25 +0000

ohh its real :D dont knwo that somethink like this is possible

By: Dan Johnson

Dan Johnson — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 08:04:18 +0000

Just a thought:
When setting up a new CSS, why not use this at the top of the file:
html * {
background-color: #ff00ff;
color: #00ff00;
}

It might be a good reminder to set color values when you have something that ugly staring you in the face.

By: Dan Johnson

Dan Johnson — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 04:26:25 +0000

This issue is related to another one that many sites neglect (but zeldman.com does not neglect!): bacground/text colors for form elements. My linux desktop setup uses black background and white text. When I visit some sites, the forms are not usable at all because they style the text black, but leave the backgrounds to default. Thus I get black text on a black background in the form elements.

When it comes to styling a web page, never assume anything on behalf of the client defaults.

By: Jeffrey Zeldman

Jeffrey Zeldman — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 13:35:53 +0000

Is it just me? I think that if a visitor has reset the default background, didn’t he do it for a reason? I prefer to allow them the freedom.

Your brother can override any background color setting by choosing “Always use my background color” in the Preferences section of any web browser. So your objection to setting a background color doesn’t stand up.

Per WCAG 1.0 accessibility standards, you must ensure contrast between background and foreground. To do so, you must set a background and a foreground. There is no way to comply with this accessibility guideline if you don’t set both the background and the foreground.

If you set a foreground color, you must set a background color. Period. End of story. Case closed.

By: tom alberts

tom alberts — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 15:09:09 +0000

I do NOT follow this practice.

My brother has a minor vision disorder.
It is not bad enough to require screen readers or other tech.
All he needs to do is set the default background to some non-bright or comfortable color.

The suggested practice disables his quick and easy fix.
He is then required to find some other fix or leave the site.

Is it just me? I think that if a visitor has reset the default background, didn’t he do it for a reason? I prefer to allow them the freedom.

By: Emma

Emma — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 17:30:16 +0000

It’s a matter of “Damn, I forgot to set that bg property, but yea, I can blame it on accessibility.” The background color is not part of accessibility, it’s part of the design. If the user needs his favorite color as a background, he can always choose to ignore the background color that you specified in your page(most browsers have that particular option) and/or load his own stylesheet.
Everybody can forget that at some point, we’re not robots. But don’t blame it on accessibility.

By: aljuk

aljuk — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 15:23:33 +0000

I fundamentally disagree with the notion that allowing the user to alter one’s design makes a site “more accessible” as some respondents have stated. If I create a design, then that’s how I want it to look, period. That has nothing to do with marking up properly, using alts for images, specifying fonts with ems and percentages, sensible use of contrast etc (all those things which make a site truly accessible). The issue of background colour and text contrast is a basic aesthetic and practical design consideration, and, as a designer, when I set those I do it for a reason, and not to have a viewer come along and change it. “Who cares if the end result is hideous to you as the site’s creator?”… er… as the site’s creator I care. If I didn’t, I’d be in a different line of work.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 12:49:31 +0000

Thank you, sir! I checked my sites and found one that I missed. It was the only one with a white background. It never actually crossed my mind that someone would change their background color.

Thanks for the tip!

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 05:11:20 +0000

I always set my brower background colour to a really bright, lurid orange. No-one in their right mind would use that! (a)

By: Mike Cherim

Mike Cherim — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 13:32:31 +0000

That’s long been one of my pet peeves. I have my browser background set to #ffffcc so I see lots of site that forget to specify. They assume white, but you know they say about assuming.