The forum posting buttons render as light yellow text on a white background in my browser (netscape on linux). It is completely illegible. I make a plea to all web designers out there. Text should be black unless there is a really good reason for it to be something else. The background should be light.

In this case it appears to actually be a bad choice of background for the table cell the "post" button is in. If you explicitly set backgrounds, then you must also explicitly set text colors to contrast and test on multiple browsers.

Using Netscape 6.2 I don't have the problem you describe. The colors are very pleasing and readable.

Newbie

Newbie (not)

You're right about keeping the contrast between text and background as high as possible.

However, I will point out that this is one of the things that makes those of us who design websites absolutely nuts - we have to test the pages with Navigator, IE, and (soon, probably) Opera, on Windows and Mac, and (soon also, given the way things are going) Linux...it's hard to keep up.

Oh, for the old days, when the stuff we designed just came off a printing press and looked the same to everyone who saw it...

Redstone

Oh, but in those old days (and still going strong) you had to account for waterless printing, stochastic printing, and hexachrome printing. Oh, and then there was paper absorption, dot gain, dot shape, fiber direction, bleeds, traps (now should it be spread or choked?), custom inks, ink orders, ink starvation, protective varnishes, rosettes, line screen values, line screen angles, puckers, dry time and humidity. Then comes the bindery. Wait! I didn't even begin to talk about prepress.

Having spent 50% of my career in print and 50% in web, I've decided the web is vastly simpler.

>Oh, but in those old days (and still going strong) you had to account for waterless printing....puckers, dry time and humidity. Then comes the bindery. Wait! I didn't even begin to talk about prepress.

Not to argue, but with browser software, it's like having a new version of a Heidelberg press every six months, and having the traps you set in Quark come out different on each new model.

Or, maybe one model of press ignores the overprints you set in Illustrator, and another doesn't.

You see what I mean. Once you learn how to do work for offset printing, the fundamental rules don't change from one brand of press to another.

Redstone

Redstone,

I am one of those FANATICAL OPERA FANS and use it both at home and at work.

I have NO problems with text or fonts here on this wonderful website...but there is another one I visit that shows as yellow-on-dark-blue in IE, but black-on-dark-blue in Opera.

So, if anyone needs any validation done with the Opera browser, let me know.

JeffCoShark

Jeffco, I sent you a PM about Opera.

I like it too, by the way, and hope it's succesful, even though that would mean more testing work for me.

Redstone

Hey, Mozilla 1.0 is out!

slashdot blurb:
http://slashdot.org/

C|Net review:
http://www.cnet.com/software/0-3227884-8-20005816-2.html?tag=st.sw.3227884-8-20005816-1.arrow.3227884-8-20005816-2

NewsForge review:
http://newsforge.com/newsforge/02/06/06/164247.shtml?tid=11

Hi, Tweaker:

Thanks for pointing this out. Yep, as Redstone noted, webdesign involves compliance-testing on a number of browser versions and platforms. The problem you noted is contained within the DCScripts package that is an integral part of the CAUSS website. I'm afraid that changing the table cell background would be possible, but difficult. This may be fixed in a new version of the software.

DenverShark

We're looking in to a newer verison or update to DC scripts.

Until that time, we have to live with what we have.
To my knowledge, this is the first complaint regarding this area since the new web site was activated over two years ago.

Would it be possible to log on and view the site from another computer that has IE or Netscape?

I personally was in three different places utilizing various browsers and computers this last week, and experienced nothing as you indicate. One place was in a very small town in North Dakota at the public library. The connection reminded me of something just over 300 bps, but once logged on, everything was normal.


GreatWhite-BH (GW)
Texas Chapter - CAUSS

GW

Very odd.

I've been running Netscape under Linux (Mandrake to be specific) for quite a while and found the forum and the post buttons to be quite readable. Maybe I'm just used to it. I've recently started running Mozilla 0.98 and it looks pretty much the same.

I have had problems with forums on other web-sites however. On one I have to click and drag the mouse over all the text in order to make it visible. This problem went away once I upgraded from Netscape 4.7.

Anyway, welcome aboard and hopefully the posting problems you're experiencing will be resolved soon.

GS