Talk:Reverse video

Disambiguation
A disamg was suggested for this page. Thoughts? Yanksox (talk) 02:35, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

I think the confusion was that folks thought this was a film or video effect. I have added 'computer' to the first line to clear this up. I don't think, on balance, that a disam is needed. BlueValour 03:09, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

Compatablility with text-only/non-graphical browsers
One problem with this article is the example - it would not show correctly in a browser such as links. Maybe replace the example with an image, that can be downloaded to the reader's computer in the case of a text-only browser? JaMiE P 02:43, 3 August 2007 (UTC)
 * I don't know what the example looked like back in 2007, but links is capable of displaying inverse video. It's a standard feature all terminal programs inherit.

Its actually WRONG?
This discussion is now moot. The text has been changed.

I remember old computers; the default configuration was dark background, bright characters. If you wanted to do reverse video you swapped it - bright background, dark characters (which is the way almost all default configurations are now ). As evidence check out this picture of a VT100 screen from wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VT100. An IBM PC too has that as the default configuration - dark configuration, bright characters: http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/pc25/images/6705PH01.jpg

For additional proof here is an extract from the VT100 manual on how to change the configuration: http://vt100.net/docs/vt100-ug/chapter1.html#S1.2.1 SCREEN BACKGROUND ''The screen background feature of the VT100 allows the operator to determine the background of the screen. In the normal screen mode, the display contains light characters on a dark background; in the reverse screen mode, the display contains dark characters on a light background.''

So, I reckon the meaning of reverse video in the old days - 1970s, 1980s - was bright background, dark characters on terminals. The default was dark background, bright characters. Over time, that has become that old reverse video configuration has now become the DEFAULT configuration on display devices but I've never had to explain reverse video nowadays so I don't know if that term is even used now.

When did it change ? It wasn't with the IBM PC as the picture shows. I reckon its when Windows came in; as evidence if you look at the DOS Prompt window in Windows that by default is old style - dark background, light characters.

So I'm saying this sentence is particular in the text is wrong: On older computers, it was sometimes used on specific letters, words or phrases to highlight them.

In fact, ALL text was display in dark background, light characters.To highlight, you "reversed the video" i.e. bright background, dark characters. Skthetwo (talk) 19:30, 22 June 2010 (UTC)

Default
"Reverse video (or invert video or inverse video or 'reverse screen') is a computer display technique whereby the background and text colour values are swapped, like this. On older computers, this was the way text was displayed by default."

What on earth? If it's the default it's not swapping but normal text, as bg and text colors are normal. 212.68.15.66 (talk) 07:41, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

Accessibility
"People suffering from visual impairments such as ocular toxocariasis may find it more comfortable and less tiring to the eyes to work with a predominantly black screen, since modern operating systems usually display a lot of white in a normal use"

This sentence seems to imply that, the reason why people with ocular toxocariasis prefer black screens is that modern operating systrems usually display a lot of white. Is that the intended meaning? Although I know nothing about the condition, I suspect that their preference for black screens is independent of the colour schemes of modern operating systems. 87.238.84.65 (talk) 16:46, 18 November 2011 (UTC)