Our eyes are attracted to shiny things. You know that when you take a walk in the park; the glint of the sun from a gum wrapper lying in the grass draws your attention. Or you look up at the sky on a clear, moonlit night - that big white orb is what catches your eye. Even the stars play second banana to the brilliance of the moon. Our eyes are attracted to light.

And yet in a presentation situation, many of us put black text on white screens. I want you to think for a moment about what that's doing to the audience. It's been described as trying to read the lettering on a switched-on light bulb. After a while, it makes the audience stare back at us like "deer caught in the headlights." To a presenter, this is referred to as "white death."

Since the object of attention is letters (not the background), it seems to make more sense to make those objects white. In other words, support graphics and text should be placed on a dark background.

My extensive experience in television supports this hypothesis. But I wanted more concrete support. I searched the internet for additional information and studies on the subject. Here's what I found:

Our eyes are naturally attracted to light.

Light waves enter the eye through the pupil and strike the back of the eye, called the retina. The retina is lined with a series of light sensing cells known as cones and rods. When they get hit with light, a chemical reaction occurs which sends electrical impulses to the brain. The brighter the light (for example, white), the more intense the electrical impulses. The brain then interprets the intensity and in this case, tells us the light is "white." No light, no stimulus.

So, by using black text on a white screen, you're actually asking your audience to read what they don't see! Our brains have to calculate the dimensions of the area that doesn't reflect light and turn that into meaningful information. That's additional work the brain has to do to understand the black text.

Meanwhile, a highly reflective screen blasted with white light is continually stimulating the cones and rods in our eyes. Over time, it will start to hurt your audience's eyes and decrease their concentration. You don't want to make it any more difficult than necessary for them to absorb your message!

White light "bleeds."

Black letters on a white background are affected by adjacent, projected, white light. The letters appear to become thinner. That's because the bright, white light "bleeds" onto them. They aren't actually thinner. However, they appear to be thinner. That makes them harder to decipher, or read.

The other effect of a white screen on small, black text is that is reduces the desired contrast. The black letters are somewhat overpowered by the reflected light and actually become dark or medium grey. The smaller the letters, the more pronounced the effect.

On the other hand, when you reverse out type (make it white on a dark background), the very opposite happens and the white type appears bolder. On top of that, white type optically appears closer to us (above the black background). This is the effect you want to create as a presenter. It makes it easier to see the white text.

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