Oftentimes, I'll have my browser settings so that I have certain colors for all webpages. But when I don't, I'm noticing something:

When I type in a a post, I notice the text is black on black, meaning you can't see what you're typing.

Is it just me? I'm just curious.

You mean in the textbox you type replies in? Well, the text is black when it's being typed, for me, but it's not black-on-black. The textbox has a blue background the same shade as the rest of the site, so it's easy to see the black text on it. :blink:

Huh. What shade of blue are you seeing?

Is it a really really really dark blue? If so, perhaps my visual impairment is causing it to look black.

The whole site background appears black. Well when I put my face directly on the monitor, it might be a really really dark something.

The whole site appears black? It's supposed to be a sort of medium-blue. Here, I'll take a screenshot. If it's a problem with the site having a conflict with your browser, you should be able to see the colour properly from the image:

Interesting. The screenshot appears black or the really dark whatever. Now that I'm on how I have my browser set for colors, let me take a screenshot and show you what I'm seeing, because when I have my browser set to show colors I have specified, the background is what I would consider to be a dark/navy blue.

You've been putting up with the dark colours all this time? :o I didn't know you could get a browser that could be set to display different colours - I don't have much experience with Firefox. I would have suggested trying to load the website in IE but if the screenshot I showed you isn't working either...

The colour I'm seeing of the site is a more turquoisey blue - sort of a really dull turquoise - and not quite so bright. Less saturated; more grey, kinda. However, I wouldn't describe your screenshot as dark blue either, to me it's quite a rich, royal blue, heavily saturated and bright - I really don't mean to offend by discussing it, and I hope you don't mind me bringing it up, but you mentioned a visual impairment; what does it entail?

Well, yes. :) To be honest, pretty much the only reason I have my browser set to my own color scheme is because I can't see a thing when I'm typing an SotW post otherwise.

Would you say that the royal blue you're seeing on my screenshot is lighter or darker than what I'm seeing without my specified settings (that I see as near black but you see as turquoisey)? If you see it as darker than the site is normally, and I see the normal site color as darker than when I have my colors specified, that would be weird.

I tried opening SotW up in IE...even before seeing your post. Same scenario.

You say the color in my screenshot is heavily saturated. Could it be a setting on my computer perhaps that's making the colors seem different?

My visual impairment entails, firstly, only having vision in the right eye. The right eye has a visual acuity of 20/200 (when someone gives a visual acuity, like 20/20, 20/200, 20/400, etc., that means that the right number (20, 200, 400, etc.) is how many feet away a 20/20 person can see an object from, where a person with less vision (the higher the right-hand number, the less vision you have) can see it from 20 feet away from the same object), and has a cleft (a part that's essentially missing) from the front of the eye all the way to the back. Usually, though, I don't find I have problems seeing colors. Usually, if I see something as near black, others will agree with me. When I say something is emerald green, others will agree.

I just checked in Photoshop the colour of the royal blue against the turquoisey colour that I see in the site and found that they're actually very similar in shade. They're both about the same level of darkness. The difference between them appears to be that the royal blue is a different hue (the turquoise has, as its name suggests, more green in it!) and that it is also more saturated.

And if it's not a problem with your vision - I can't see how it would be that either now that you've described it - then the only thing I can suggest is that it is more likely to be your computer settings; I'm guessing it's the fault of the monitor brightness. So errr xD Let's see if this works. I am fairly sure there are other ways to alter brightness within the computer but this one is the one I'm thinking of. Do you have a little button anywhere on your monitor that says something like 'menu' - or, more likely, has a little picture of a sun near it?

Yes, I have a button that actually brings up brightness options when I press it.

It'll probably look very strange to increase the brightness if you've been used to the dark colours for a long time, but give it a shot. I guess what you're aiming for is to try and make at the very least the text visible when you type a reply here.

Another setting you can alter is contrast, which may work better come to think of it; it'll keep the dark parts dark and the light parts light. In your menu options somewhere there should also be an icon that looks like a circle with a line down the middle; one side of the circle is shaded and the other isn't. Try upping that.

If that doesn't work, you might have an option called 'Adobe Gamma' on your computer. If you click your 'control panel' folder, have a look for it and follow the instructions that come up, it may help to fix your colours.

I'll keep looking for more ideas if none of those help. :D

Okay, I'm going to go ahead and do that. But first, just to satisfy some curiosity, here's a screenshot of the reply box as I see it without my specified settings. Does this screenshot look dark to you, or normal? Can you read the text I have typed?

That looks normal and I can indeed read the text. However, if I were to lower my monitor brightness, then I probably wouldn't be able to - in the same way, if you were to increase the brightness of yours, you should be able to see the screenshot I posted earlier properly too. I think. :lol:

I really hope this fixes the problem. If it does, then it makes me wonder why computers even have a setting that allows you such a low level of contrast/brightness. :P

Well, here's something interesting: Brightness and contrast were already as high as they'd go. I went into the control panel as you said, and played with a couple things there.

And, fortunately, it now looks very very similar to your screenshot (which, incidently, my first screenshot looks similar to the royal blue you described, and my second screenshot looks much like your first (which looks like what my screen looks like now).

Best of all? I can read what I'm typing!!!!

Thanks, Emily. I think the problem is solved. :)

Glad to be of help, and that you've got it all sorted. :D I'm relieved I remembered about the control panel settings.

I always worry that I'm actually seeing websites and things differently from everyone else, which is a pain because of my digital paintings; what may look good to me might look rubbish to others. :P There really ought to be no settings at all to alter, but I suppose that would be unfair because some people do have trouble with their colour vision and might need their screens changing.

Oh dear.

I'm afraid I'm back to setting my own color scheme. The site looked good, but everything else in the browser (think the toolbar) looked "washed out". I went into the color settings and hit "restore defaults" and it brought me back to a black SotW, and a toolbar you can actually see. So it seems that since that's what happens when I tell it to restore defaults, I'm assuming that's how it's supposed to be? I do know SotW isn't supposed to be black/near black. Even with the color settings I had when SotW looked similar to what it is supposed to, I could see color tinting where I should be seeing white.

Hmmmmm....looks like I'm back to the drawing board. lol

Awh jeez, that's a shame! :(

Just a thought - does your computer have any other trouble displaying... well, blue things? Plucking at straws here. :P

Hmm, what do you mean by that?

Are there any other websites that appear really dark, but are possibly actually blue? :P It's really a last resort suggestion but maybe your computer has difficulty displaying that colour. I've never heard of anything like it, but...

In comparison, what are the emoticons like for you on this site?

You've got me so curious about what's causing the problem, I'm gonna end up asking about this on a technical forum somewhere at some point, no doubt. :lol:

Hmm, not that I know of, but I don't think I frequent any other sites that are supposed to be blue.

Emoticons appear to be yellow.

Now with my current gamma/brightness/contrast setting, the site has sort of an algae green look.

Do you know what those settings are *supposed* to be on a computer?

By the way...one thing that looks different every time I play with the settings is the user group key on the users online list. Can you tell me what colors they're supposed to be? Like for example I know Skah is blue, but what shade of blue should it be normally? Din'dea and Kargroth both look to be different shades of green. Shades of each color seem to change a bit each time I play with the settings.

Emoticons certainly should be yellow. =/ Hmm. I suppose algae green for the website is... getting there, no? :P

I have no idea what the settings on a computer are supposed to be for gamma etc but I have this:

Brightness: 85
Contrast: 65
And my gamma is controlled by a wizard program so I just did whatever it told me. :lol:

Oh oh I thought of something though! Another thing you can try is locating your monitors menu button again and tweaking your RGB stuff. If you have such a setting to control! On mine, the 'red', 'blue' and 'green' filters can each be controlled separately to alter the colour of your display (the icons of mine after I press 'menu' are R+, G+ and B+). So if it isn't displaying blue very happily, maybe you could up that. Worth a shot, although it's a long shot.

As for the user group colours, I see them like this:

Skah: Like blue sky on a really sunny day xD
Kargroth: Bright lime green
Amarth: Blood red
Din'dea: A sort of mossy, forest green
Isa'fea: Golden yellow
Mod: Baby blue

Okay, now I've got the pack color key looking the way you said. But I'm not sure I'd call the site turquoise...does sort of a steel or slate blue/gray make sense?

Let's see...the toolbar doesn't look faded out, I can see what I'm typing, I'm not sure if it's "right" (although the colors of the key look very very close to what you described if not exactly as you've described), but maybe I should leave well enough alone? lol

When I say turquoise I'm possibly a bit misleading come to think of it. :P I know that in terms of hue it's closer to green than it is to say, royal blue, because I looked at the hue in Photoshop. However, you're right, I should really have described it as slate or steel blue, as most people would. So yep, that phrasing booboo was my fault. :lol:

Well, in that case... it looks like you've quite probably sorted it! :D

Wow. Cool. :)

Now if I can keep the almost irresistable urge to play with settings at bay to get it just right because I'm an absolute perfectionist, I won't mess it up and have things all weird again. :)