Color Variations in Screen Text: Effects on Proofreading.

As the use of computers has become more common in society, human engineering and ergonomics have lagged behind the sciences which developed the equipment. Some research has been done in the past on the effects of screen colors on computer use efficiency, but results were inconclusive. This paper describes a study of the impact of screen color configuration on operators' ability to detect typographical errors in text. Participants included 97 undergraduate business students, divided into 3 ability levels--beginning (N=20), intermediate (N=32), and advanced (N=45)--based upon their reported keyboarding experience. Color configurations tested were white text on blue, blue on white, amber on green, and green on amber, all common color configurations in popular word processors. Screen areas were defined in quadrants, moving from upper left (1) to upper right (2), and then lower left (3) to lower right (4). Significant differences in the impact of color configuration were found in advanced and beginning level keyboardists, but none was found in those of intermediate skill level. Results suggested that more errors go undetected in the lower half of the screen, quadrants three and four. The best color configurations for error detection in these two quadrants are W/B and A/G, both light characters on dark backgrounds. These results have direct implications for instructors of proofreading. (Contains 15 references and 5 tables.) (SWC)