Thoughts on Ye Olde Colour Theory

So I was reading through a Metafilter thread on animal testing that diverged wildly, briefly, to a discussion of Web page design and color theory.

In the thread, a poster linked to this Web page (the authors are Canucks, so they use British-style spellings throughout), which is a little oldish but a good read on how different combinations of background and text colors affect readability. Here's a quote:

"Yellow and black is the highest contrast color combination, but contrast is not the same as readability. There is a trade-off between contrast and readability: too little contrast makes things hard to read, but too much contrast creates so much vibration that it diminishes readability."

Makes your eyes hurt, don't it?

The article goes on about other color combinations, many rooted in old computer terminal displays such as:
Amber on Black -- I kind of like this, I've used terminals with this combo

Green on Black -- the authors like this, though I think it's horrible

Red on Black -- and of course, red on black, which you will see on some vampyric Web pages, which kind of makes sense, since it makes my eyes bleed.

Personally, I'm a traditionalist and stick with good old black text on a white background.

When it comes to selecting color combinations for your blog, there's a lot of psychology and personal preference involved, so do what looks good to you, though it's always nice to get a little background on what works and doesn't work for others.

Thanks -- Joe