colour background

I started looking at font colours, but that soon became of limited interest. It was the background colours that seemed to be having the biggest effect.
We were using Sharps toffee papers as overlays, theatre Gels, coloured filters from the physics department.
After a while we started to use filters that had been developed by others.
Eventually in 1998 I started to work with University students at Westminster University. First with filters and then by changing the background colour on their computer screens. The process developed into a measurement process, where we recorded changes in reading speeds as we changed the background settings on the computer screen.
Over 10,000 people have now been through the process,  but it was very time consuming and was always going to be limited in its application.
Now as a mathematics based methodology it has been automated into an online service. It now becomes possible to find out just how big an effect it can have.
It is not just about reading faster. It is about

• how much fun you get,
• how much enjoyment
• how long you can read for
• how easily distracted you get
• how cofortable it is.

The next blog will be about.. sharing a book  at school and pretending you have got to the bottom of the page!