Why do some people have a different font/colour for all their posts?

[VRracingfan]

I couldn't find a better section for this so I thought I'd put it here.

I don't quite understand it myself? There are several people that will always make sure all of their posts are a different font, a different size and a different colour to everyone elses which makes it much more difficult to read than your standard font, size and colour poster on the forum. It is often difficult for those of us who suffer from colourblindness to distinguish certain colours, those of us with dyslexia and some of these graphological choices make it harder for your standard user on a forum to read. I don't have dyslexia or colourblindness (I have friends who do) and they find it harder to read certain fonts/colours/sizes and so do I, but to a lesser extent.
This isn't an attack on the people who do this, I am just wondering why? I am just clarifying that as tone can often be misinterpreted over the internet.

I am doing an essay on internet forums for my A Level in english language which is one reason why I am asking, but also I am curious. I've got a couple of ideas as to why this is but I don't want to say just yet in case people get the wrong end of the stick and see it falsely as an attack on them.

Thank you for your help!

 

[Liquid]

Personal aesthetics?

I'd considered giving my posts some razzmatazz but at 5,000+ posts it would be a bit silly to start now.

Each to their own, y'know.

 

[Carbonox]

I suppose it's pure aesthetics, however only a select few around here seem to do it to make sure they're distinguished from the rest of the posters. Even I would probably post like this all the time, but I just can't be bothered to put all the font tags and such on every post of mine. To each their own, I guess.

 

[Famine]

There are several people that will always make sure all of their posts are a different font, a different size and a different colour to everyone elses which makes it much more difficult to read than your standard font, size and colour poster on the forum.

Mine's done for the opposite reason.

Black-on-white (or vice versa), or close equivalents (black on light grey, as an example) are not naturally easy to read. You read using the very centre of your retinas (the fovea), where there's the highest density of cone cells (about 70/micrometre) and lowest density of rod cells (just about none). Cone cells distinguish colours from one another, rod cells distinguish light and dark (and are much more sensitive to it).

That's not to say colour is automatically easier to read than black - strong, primary colours, particularly bolded and red, are quite the eyestrainer. The fovea does contain lots of yellow pigment though, making blues that little bit more natural than other colours (it's part of a natural phenomenon of lenses called "chromatic aberration" - different colours are focussed on different parts of the retina).

I tend to, on long posts with significant information, debold my text except for headings. That's just for stylistic reasons - it's hard to emphasise headings properly if everything else is emphasised. I don't tend to change the font as that's really only a personal choice of style. I like Calibri and Gill Sans but they don't work well at 12pt. Verdana too - but that's close enough to the forum's native font.


As for how it started... I first got "into" the GT community on GT3Times and that board had a very dark grey background and burgundy text that I found quite difficult to read at times, so I went for a bold cyan (again with the blues!). When I came here I tried to find a nice, soft, easily-perceived colour to stick with the same theme.

 

[Schwartz]

Well. That doesn't happen every day. Or in fact ever before. In fact in fact, at this time, only one other member broke through 30,000 posts... It has been over nine years in the making and, in that time, I've gone from member, to pest, to moderator, to admin and always with the indigo (dark colours are more easily perceived by the cones clustered at the centre of your view [like when you read] than simple darkness - for those of you who ever wondered but didn't ask or search). There are days I think about giving it up - usually days filled with Infractions and bannings - but GTPlanet is, in my head, my house. Or at the very least a mate's house and I'm mooching off him. Pass a brewski, bro. GTP would probably be the very last internet site I gave up I've seen the rest of the internet - it has textspeak and e-thugs. And Mumsnet. Brrrr. I feel like such a postwhore, even though it's taken 3,355 days to get here

Son of a bitch! Tree'd by Famine. Now I feel useless.

 

[Jimlaad43]

Are you able to change it so you automatically write like that, or does every post need colour and font changed.

 

[Schwartz]

Are you able to change it so you automatically write like that,

No.

or does every post need colour and font changed.

Yes.

 

[Liquid]

or does every post need colour and font changed.

Yes.

 

[daan]

Forty two thousand, eight hundred and eighty-one times.

 

[Ross]

Hey Famine, is GTPedia written in bold indigo?

 

[Guardian]

I only find it annoying when people write in very small text.

I actually do find that bolder colours, such as Famines, are a tad easier to read.

 

[Jimlaad43]

I only find it annoying when people write in very small text.

I actually do find that bolder colours, such as Famines, are a tad easier to read.

So if I were to do this, would you explode?

 

[Luminis]

Good thing that purple is rather close to indigo. That way, I can pretend to have known about the reason Famine brought up and claim to be using the purple colour for that reason

Nah, seriously, I just like the colour. It's a nice way to stand out, in my opinion.

 

[MatskiMonk]

Personally, I find text colours virtually impossible to actually distinguish. They all fall into 3 categories... RedGreenBrownOrange, Yellow, Bluish (dark or light). Without any clues (or view source) I honestly couldn't tell you what colour famines text was,.. or, usernames (premium or otherwise), post numbers, post count, Online Now!, visited links, unvisited links, or the userlist at the bottom of the page... but then I am quite colour blind. Computer text and standby/on/off LED's are two curses of the modern era as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Doog]

I just think it looks neat.

 

[Danny]

Straight-up attention-seeking in a 'my post and input is more valuable than others and should stand out' way.


[/stir]

 

[Omnis]

I do all my powerpoint presentations in indigo-on-white, swinging graciously from Famine's dangly parts in that respect. Makes me feel smarter.

 

[Small_Fryz]

Straight-up attention-seeking in a 'my post and input is more valuable than others and should stand out' way.


[/stir]

+1


[/stir+1]

 

[Dennisch]

And of course, Dion has to put all his posts up side down, so that the rest of GTP can actually read them!

 

[otakukid96]

I just sort of did it because I felt like it.

 

[Legendary]

Famine's is the most natural to read, and I honestly think that other people here have been using colour to stand out because he does. It's become more widespread the last few years and I think some of the later ones are for the reason Danny said:

Straight-up attention-seeking in a 'my post and input is more valuable than others and should stand out' way.


[/stir]

Attention seeking.

And personally, Doog, yours is impossible to read. I legitimately just don't even read your posts because it is such a ridiculous strain to my eyes to try and read the text when it has such little contrast against the background. Just throwing that out there.

 

[Casio]

Straight-up attention-seeking in a 'my post and input is more valuable than others and should stand out' way.

+1

While black on white might be scientifically harder to read than other colour combinations, people have been reading books for millennia without issue.

 

[Terronium-12]

I've been using shades of gray (hah!) for my color of choice for about as long as I can remember, in fact, the earliest that I actually can remember is when AOL was still hugely relevant. Why? Because I tend to find the constant bombardment of black on white drab and too uniform.

I've adapted it here at GTP not very long after I joined (you will find a couple of my first posts in the 'standard' format, same goes for my original account as well) and the rest is history, really. As for the font choice that's just personal taste and not much else.

 

[boiltheocean]

ＣＯＬＯＵＲＳ ＡＲＥ ＦＯＲ ＡＭＡＴＥＵＲＳ.

 

[Terronium-12]

And so is corner cutting.

 

[Legendary]

ＣＯＬＯＵＲＳ ＡＲＥ ＦＯＲ ＡＭＡＴＥＵＲＳ.

And so is corner cutting.

*Dog barking noises*

.

 

[interpunct]

I personally use the dark purple because I like having something unique about my posts. This is basically my way of compensating for not having the ability to put image signatures. If image signatures were possible in this forum I wouldn't be using this colour at the moment.

 

[Doog]

Famine's is the most natural to read, and I honestly think that other people here have been using colour to stand out because he does. It's become more widespread the last few years and I think some of the later ones are for the reason Danny said:

Attention seeking.

And personally, Doog, yours is impossible to read. I legitimately just don't even read your posts because it is such a ridiculous strain to my eyes to try and read the text when it has such little contrast against the background. Just throwing that out there.

Even with the new color?

 

[Beeblebrox237]

You know, I hadn't thought about it before, but after seeing this thread I might try posting in a certain colour, just for the fun of it. Good idea?

 

[interpunct]

You know, I hadn't thought about it before, but after seeing this thread I might try posting in a certain colour, just for the fun of it. Good idea?

Join the fun.