I always enjoy looking at the results of any poll Darren Rowse puts onto his Problogging.net site considering the large reach the site has. In the most recent poll, he asked his readers whether they preferred light or dark backgrounds. Here were the results:

Not surprising to me to see that most people preferred light backgrounds but I thought it was interesting that 36% said it depended on the design. I have a little bit of experience in the struggle of light or dark backgrounds. The initial design of WPTavern.com featured a dark color scheme with a dark background. To be honest, it felt like I was looking in a black hole. Quite a few other people didn’t like it as well, especially when they were located in a well lit room. So, I changed the site around to more of a brown color scheme but because of the shades of brown I used, it didn’t turn out well well. Thankfully, I finally stumbled across a color scheme which works and the background doesn’t suck up all the color.

Personally, I prefer light text on a dark background but I know the majority of people prefer black text on white. What do you prefer?