Convert Colors Into Greyscale For Better Readability

Font and background colors as well as images can make it sometimes really hard to read text on specific websites especially for color blind users or those with limited eye sight. Most websites use colors for links and headings only while some use it to accentuate the site’s design while some use to many colors and backgrounds to make it harder than necessary for some users to read.

Washer is a lightweight application for the Windows operating system that resembles software magnifying glasses with the difference that it is not magnifying the text but converting the colors to greyscale. It displays a window with a see through rectangle that will turn colors in the rectangle into grey making it easier for the eye to read. The window can be dragged around on the screen with the color conversion being instantly.

The program has been designed for ease of use. It can be used right after startup and the only options available are to switch to color mode and to exit the software program. The main problem that some users might run into is the fact that the window of the program cannot be resized. It will always use the same size which looks to be in the region of 4xx to 3xx. This usually means that the user has to move the window fairly regular around on the computer monitor as most websites and applications make use of a larger area to display their information.

Related Articles:

Author: Martin Brinkmann, Wednesday April 22, 2009 -
Tags:color blind, color blindness, greyscale, Software, washer, windows software

Responses so far:

1. Rarst says:

   April 22, 2009 at 2:51 pm

   For actual reading reading I think it’s better to use page trasnformaing bookmarklets. I did post on those while back and now using Readability extensively while reading blogs. :)

   But for non-browser or other purposes grayscale filter does make sense I guess.

   Reply
2. OAlexander says:

   April 25, 2009 at 6:30 pm

   A bookmarklet as per Rarst:

   javascript:(function(){var newSS, styles=’* { background: #FFF ! important; color: black !important;Font-Family:Verdana,sans-Serif !important }A:link, A:link * { color: #008 !important }A:visited, A:visited * { color: #808 !important }A:hover, A:hover *,A:active; A:Active * {color:#C04 !important;background:#FFD !important} body {Padding:10 20 !important} PRE{Font:300 10px Lucida Console !important}’;if(document.createStyleSheet) { document.createStyleSheet(%22javascript:’%22+styles+%22′%22); } else { newSS=document.createElement(‘link’); newSS.rel=’stylesheet’; newSS.href=’data:text/css,’+escape(styles); document.documentElement.childNodes[0].appendChild(newSS); } })();

   Can be adjsted to all sorts of desires. On the linkbar it is a one-click solution and affords immediate visibility!

   Reply
3. Rarst says:

   April 26, 2009 at 12:56 pm

   @OAlexander

   Tried you bookmarklet right here and doesn’t work for me. :( In IE either, status says “error on page”.

   Anyway I am quite content with using Readability, had you tried that one?

   Reply