A copywriter can spend hours creating a message that captures the essence of your business and persuades readers to enquire or buy. But even the best brochure or website copy can be negated by ineffective graphic design. An example is reverse type. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, reverse type is when light coloured text is used on a dark background – for example, white text on a black background.
Advertising pioneer and innovator David Ogilvy believed that reverse type should not be used. In Ogilvy on Advertising he wrote, ‘Advertising agencies waste their clients’ money repeating the same mistakes. I recently counted 49 advertisements set in reverse type in one issue of a magazine, long years after research demonstrated that reverse type is difficult to read.’
Robert Bly, copywriting authority and author of The Copywriter’s Handbook, agreed with Ogilvy when he wrote, ‘Never do anything to make the copy difficult to read. Type should be set in black against a clear white background – not a tint, not white on black, not in color.’
Ogilvy’s and Bly’s opinions on reverse type are supported by research. Colin Wheildon, editor of an Australian motoring magazine, tested the assertion that reverse type is difficult to read and lowers comprehension. He published his findings in Type & Layout: how typography and design can get your message across – or get in the way.
Here are Wheildon’s results that show how much reverse type can lower comprehension.
Colour combination Comprehension (percentage of readers)
Good Fair Poor
Text printed black on white 70 19 11
Text printed white on black 0 12 88
Text printed white on purple 2 16 82
Text printed white on royal blue 0 4 96
From these results you can see that reverse type lowers comprehension levels of text – so if you want readers to understand your message, don’t use reverse type for large amounts of text.
Another test conducted by Williams Sonoma, a major US gourmet food and cookware catalogue, found that its sales increased by 33 per cent after simply switching the type in one catalogue from reverse to black text on a white background.
After listening to the experts and reviewing the research, it is clear that it’s best to not use reverse type in your printed publications and websites. Although it might look stylish, it decreases the effectiveness of your copywriting.
2 Responses
Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.
Thanks for sharing this as it is an important issue for every business, organisation, copy writer and graphic designer. As a person who has been involved with all of the above, I would like to share my opinion. I do not accept that, as a blanket rule, reversed colour text should be avoided.
Any “black and white” (hehe – no pun intended) blanket rules ring alarm bells for me as I strongly believe each layout should be approached individually. How boring would all the printed matter and websites in the world be if we applied this blanket rule as you have specified? Even your own website utilises reversed text in a few places, to pleasing effect.
I acknowledge that there are some people who believe, and some studies that might show, reversed text in some cases is not as effective, but these are hardly scientific or comprehensive enough to state the claims you have made. Personally, I do not think that light words on dark backgrounds are harder to read than dark words on white backgrounds, and I also disagree wholeheartedly with the claim that dark text on faint coloured backgrounds is also harder to read. There are so many factors when it comes to readability and I do not agree that all dark text on coloured backgrounds are hard to read. Indeed your own article is on a grey background, not white, and it didn’t bother me one bit.
Perhaps with the ageing population, some organisations need to be more aware of readability issues, but to make blanket rules like this is just plain silly.
Go Amanda … I agree with you.
All design projects need to be treated individually, and yes most designs might work better with black text on white BG, but people also need to factor in the need for good design. A great designer will know exactly how to lift important copy elements off a page and factors such as colour, size, contrast with other design elements all come into play.