Member-only story
Don’t pick the wrong background colors!
Afterimages are a pain in the eye for your readers
The other day, I received a long newsletter that made my eyes water. It featured a bolded black font on a bright neon-green background. The words swam before my eyes. After reading for a few minutes, I looked away and saw only red. Literally. The vibrant background made the copy hard to absorb and created an afterimage.
An afterimage is a visual illusion in which retinal impressions persist after looking away. The afterimage may be positive, corresponding in color or brightness to the original image, or negative, being of colors complementary to the original, as happened to me. In other cases, the lightest areas of an image appear darkest, and the darkest places seem white. These phenomena can be very unpleasant for many people.
Primary colors and their afterimage hues:
yellow < > blue
magenta < > green
red < > cyan
Avoid these colors and black as backgrounds, especially when choosing a vibrant shade and pairing them with darker font colors.
Your audience wants to engage with and absorb your content with the slightest distraction possible. And even the best content will leave your readers…
