Dark Websites

[Hikaru Kagi]

Hi, I have been working on a site for quite some time now, and I've been looking at the major websites out right now like: Google, Tumbler, Reddit, Digg, Facebook, and a few forums that I visit often, such as this one. The one thing that I've noticed from all these websites is that they are light colored, but the website that I am working on is a dark website, and I have been trying to figure out a way to get it to a light-colored theme, but they just don't seem quite right... I guess my question is, when I open my site to the public, would the darkness turn them away? Could I become popular within a few years (or more) with a dark site? Also the my site is not concerning any dark topics, it's actually anime related.

[SpacePhoenix]

You could take into consideration what genre the anime is, for example anime that is space themed could perhaps have a darker colour scheme, perhaps a star field background with a base background (for when images aren't available) of black or very dark grey.

[Hikaru Kagi]

It's for all the anime genres.

[ralph.m]

my question is, when I open my site to the public, would the darkness turn them away?

It depends, but personally I dislike dark sites (light text on a dark background) as I find it hard on the eyes. But some people find it makes text easier to read. Sites with a dark background can look very nice, but try not to make the background too dark. Often a soft shade of gray with some noise is very nice. But if you background is black or near to it, I won't stay on your site.

[Lieto]

I d say general rule is - if it has a lot of text it shouldnt be dark, else it might.
Another option is creating a dark background and large light content area.

[Hikaru Kagi]

That's basically what the website has, the dark background (and the dark background is an image gradient with a background color for the rest of the page) and the container for the actually content had a light background.

[Lieto]

It might be fine i guess, adding more contrast is sometimes good, but use is smartly. For example gold looks good on black, bright colors will look good on dark etc. If you just want a gradient maybe you can get away with something lighter. Anyhow... as long as its dark letters on light background i think it wont irritate 90%+ of your visitors

[Hikaru Kagi]

Gotcha, thanks to everyone for the wonderful advice

[vajra]

Most of the people dont like the dark back ground of the site.I also dont like the dark back ground because i always face difficulty to read out the text .So you should set your site's back ground white .You can see that sitepoint forum site is looking so beautiful and easy to use.
You can also get better ranking in the google if your site is user friendly.

[Stevie D]

Many of my websites have used white/light text on darker (well, mid-range) colours, and I've not had complaints, except from the occasional person who expected them to print the same way and thought I was in cahoots with HP cartridge salesmen One key factor is to make sure your text isn't too small. That's good advice for any website, but even more so on light-on-dark designs, where people would have to strain more than usual to make out small text, so you probably want to bump the size up slightly compared with a dark-on-light design to keep the same readability.

[Stevie D]

You can also get better ranking in the google if your site is user friendly.

Yes and no. Google doesn't set out to assess whether a site is "user friendly", particularly in terms of the visual display. To be honest, Google really couldn't care less what your site looks like.

If your site is user-friendly then you're more likely to get people linking to you because they rate your site highly, which will impact on your position in Google, but it's unlikely to have a direct impact.

[TechnoBear]

You might also find it helpful to check the contrast between your background and text to help ensure it will readable. I love this tool: http://www.visionaustralia.org.au/info.aspx?page=628 It's available for Windows and Mac. (The Windows version runs no problem on Linux under Wine. )

[benbob]

There is a fairly easy and totally reliable way to find out: ask your users. No amount of theory and "expert opinions" can replace real answers from real users.