For a very technical site documenting code, sharing code snippets, and documentation, I have been told that using dark fonts on light backgrounds is recommended for people being able to read the information clearly as possible.
While, for my eyes and designing skills, dark backgrounds and light text works way better for me. A few clients have said that that does not work at all for the type of site which I have created.
Which would work better for a technical site: dark backgrounds with light colour fonts or light backgrounds with dark fonts?
Answer
Rather than the other answers that just express personal opinions let me direct you to this article that in turn cites some actual research which I will quote here as well:
However, most studies have shown that dark characters on a light background are superior to light characters on a dark background (when the refresh rate is fairly high). For example, Bauer and Cavonius (1980) found that participants were 26% more accurate in reading text when they read it with dark characters on a light background.
The explanation for this they provide is
People with astigmatism (aproximately 50% of the population) find it harder to read white text on black than black text on white. Part of this has to do with light levels: with a bright display (white background) the iris closes a bit more, decreasing the effect of the "deformed" lens; with a dark display (black background) the iris opens to receive more light and the deformation of the lens creates a much fuzzier focus at the eye.
I have to admit that I am surprised this is the case as I have light astigmatism and yet still prefer white on black, so there definitely is some preference factor here still, but it seems that black on white is actually better which I always believed to be an artifact from printing times when it was and is cheaper to print black on white. (auch, as one of my applications is white on black in android style).
Added side note, the 50% statistic is plain wrong, I have just looked at a fair number of studies and all sources I have just seen are givings numbers below 35%. Add to that that not everyone with astigmatism has a problem with this (e.g. I) and you get to the point where you are talking about less than 25% of your users probably. Is that a lot? Definitely, but it does put it into perspective.
Overall giving the user the choice might still be a good idea, although maintaining 2 separate designs never is fun. An alternative is directing them to screen inversion tools. True, it's not the nicest solution, but it can at least solve the issue for those with extreme astigmatism.
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