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Isn't most of the text on the page grey? It's not white, it's rgb(215,215,216). And the background is not black. Some worse examples are shown, but then the message comes across as "don't use grey unless you know what you're doing, like I do, because I'm using grey while I tell you not to use grey, but mine is okay."

Maybe aside from the unset option, something more specific about a minimum contrast threshold would be useful. Ideally the author wouldn't be breaking below that threshold themselves while explaining it.

The article could have been more useful if its point was just 'use sufficient contrast'. As it is, the article is overly prescriptive, and feels like trying too hard to be sensational or cute.

For an opposing view, https://ianstormtaylor.com/design-tip-never-use-black/

I was reviewing a confluence page which was reviewed my many stakeholders. Something bugged me to an excruciating extent about the content of the page: something was off at some parts of the text. I inspected the page and it turns out the font color somehow changed to a mildly grayer color than black. This was likely due to a copy-and-paste that has gone wrong.

Stupid rule. In that case, why ever change a color?

Just stick to ensuring WCAG 2 AA rating. If your awesome design isn’t AA there better be a good reason. If it is, everything’s fine.

Everyone should just use something like DarkReader to make these problems go away. Web devs who fiddle with the colors are annoying, but at least they are easy to ignore.

Dark/charcoal grey is better than pure black for text. But it's still dark enough that most people would call it black.

More generally use a contrast checker on any pair of colours that are likely to be in juxtaposition and need to be legible.

Helpful of the website to demonstrate the problem in situ in its tag links and code comments! (Maybe just in dark mode?)

Black text on a gray background is how the web was intended to be experienced.

I created a ycombinator account after years of resisting, just to respond to this post. Stop creating web pages with huge-ass gutters/margins.

If you are concerned about design you would realize your page looks ridiculous and borderline illegible on modern screens (that are not phones). Text color is an issue, but layout is worse.

Well, as long as you're not going to decide to make the dark background lighter to accommodate the brighter text...

But I would be in favor of sites using variables more so that personal customization is easier. But often this goes against their desire for "branding".

I appreciate the grey "LIKE?" text above the likes counter. Really drives the point home.

> I actually believe increasing contrast for everyone improves the information density of our content.

You used css to change the pointer. So instead of the I-Beam I had to use a regular pointer to select that text. Information density is nice but information access shouldn't be compromised either.

Aside from that, while this is true, I'd think you'd then want something better for your users than "font-family: system-ui".

Screen brightness is a pretty important contributing factor. If you have this problem a lot, verify your screen is bright enough. ( Regardless of his point )

A related piece from 2022 that gets a bit more into the why, readability and Accessibility Guidelines evolution etc.

Please Stop Using Grey Text (2022)

https://tangledweb.xyz/please-stop-using-grey-text-3d3e71acf... (https://archive.is/QictZ) [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31420938]

Increase Your Font Size First (2026)

I’m looking at gray text on an off-white background right now :P

This takes me back to "contrast rebellion" back in 2011:

https://contrastrebellion.com/

Yes, I wish sites that use grey text should be investigated as part of the US disability act.

People with even minor sight issues can have a hard time with sites designed that way. When I run across a site like that I usually try it in lynx, if the site does not work in lynx, I block it on my system so I would not waste my time with it.

While we're wishing, let's bring back serifs. I, for one, would like to be able to tell the difference between AI and Al without context clues, and using an inherently lossy font is the opposite of "readability".