Question

Today, we’ve several IDE/Editor for programming: visual studios, vim, gvim, emacs, eclipse and so on. Whatever we use, we’ve some color preferences for background and foreground. While most of us are satisfied with the default settings, some do customize the IDE/Editor, choose colors of their taste for various kind of label/name/text.

So I basically want to know, do the color-preferences have adverse effects on our eyes? What do you think is the best color-scheme (healthy for eyes) that one should choose for various kind of label/name/text?

My favorite color-scheme is:

Background : Black
Text       : White (only variables are white)
Classes    : Dodger Blue
Macros     : Pink
Interfaces : Dodger Blue (slightly dark) 
Method     : Orangish Red
Strings Literals : Scarlet Red  

Nowadays, I’m very much concerned about this. If there are some recommendations (after some research), then please do tell me. 🙂

PS: I’m not looking for personal opinions, rather recommendations with some research!

Answer 1

Here’s a 9 page pdf summary.

The Effects of Computer Use on Eye Health and Vision

The color of computer screen characters may also affect their ease of visibility. The
color of the characters can affect how the eyes focus on the screen and may bring
about the development of harmless, but annoying, after-images for some individuals.
Monochrome, or single color, displays often provide more legible images for word
processing or data entry/acquisition tasks. Negative contrast computer displays (dark
letters on a light background) generally provide a more legible image than positive
contrast displays (light letters on a dark background). Either black characters on a
white background or white characters on a black background have been found to be
more visible than green, yellow-orange, blue or red characters. 20

The summary consists of a lot of hand-waving, but the sources used to create the summary might have some recommendations based on research,