Dark or Light skin?

[Scott]

This is something which I often wonder when making skins, do people prefer dark ones (say a black background) or a lighter one (white)?

Personally, I'd prefer a light one although it doesn't really need to be white background. A good mix of colours (this skin is an excellent example) goes a long way IMO.

Interested to hear your thoughts :)

[writespeak]

I like your avatar. :)

A dark background makes text much more difficult to read. It's enough to stop me from even trying to read forum posts. If a forum owner is more interested in some kind of effect than in people's ability to use the site, I'm on my way to the Back button.

I don't like completely white backgrounds either. My eyes are sensitive to light, and an all-white page will bring on a headache if I look at it for long. White is OK for the main part as long as other colours reduce the glare. Soft background colours like at this forum are even better. :)

Lois

[KimmiKat]

Same way here. I offer a dark skin on my mboard within the skin-selecter thingy, but I would never use it as a default.

[bear]

Definitely light skin. Dark makes things harder to read most often, and I find that once I leave the site, I realize I was straining.
Agreed, this skin is very easy on the eyes.

[Jan]

I don't stay long enough at a dark site to strain too much :)

[DavidL]

Wow, after seeing results to this poll I may have to make some changes.
/me goes to delete his header.psd and start over :(

[Aussie Bob]

I like light colored skins. IMO, thie FU skin is one of the best I've seen. Easy on the eye, yet with a little color to jazz things up a touch. Dark skins are too damn hard to read.

[3iHung]

even black is one of my favourite colors, for FU, I definitely go with light color.

[Mikey]

I prefer a mix of dark and light elements.

[Dude111]

even black is one of my favourite colors, for FU, I definitely go with light color.Black is OK as long as you make the text,etc a colour that is EASY to see!

Most sites i have ever seen with a BLACK BACKGROUND are disgusting,hard to read,etc....... (There are some sites with a dark skin that is OK due to the content looking OK in front)

I do prefer a light skin though :) (Except on 1 site im on,i use the default BLACK because its what i have always used there and it wouldnt seem the same using the VBB skin (Text is fine))

[immediate]

Definitely light, my friend. It's really not important stuff but you don't want it to hurt the user experience. Go with the tide.

[Sahisp]

I presume it might be similar to what vbulletins is. When you got the skin did it come with a XML file? That is what you need to install.