does yellow paper really work?!

synchro

i was wondering
its just i as in a lecture there the other day and there was a this german guy using nothin but yellow a4 pads for everything(not that he being being german has anything to do wit it !)
anyway replies welcome!

Maccattack

work for what?

RE*AC*TOR

Yes, yellow paper works. The ink stays right on it. Haven't tested it with pencils though - so who knows!

ApeXaviour

I think (according to that geek in road-trip anyhow) it's supposed to be easy on the eyes and thus calming or stress-relieving or something. I don't use it, colours annoy me. Plus stress makes me work harder

snorlax

i allow this so long as it sticks to a psychological discussion about the effects etc of yellow paper. please continue...

ApeXaviour

http://ask.yahoo.com/20031008.html wrote:

"The yellow legal pad -- a must among lawyers, executives, students, writers and thinkers of all sorts -- was devised specifically because yellow was thought to be a color which stimulated the intellect."

Apparently the idea was adopted to the guys who invented post-it notes. White being considered a "harsh" background and so less easy on the eyes..

I'd like the original poster to elaborate on what (s)he said when asking "do they work". Do they work in what regard? Calming? Stimulating intellect? Helping lawyers become a bigger drain on society?

Can anyone find any studies conducted in this or is it merely a propagated myth?

snorlax

yellow is the colour of intellegence and concentration, or at least that is it's supposed effect in colour psychology.

DrIndy

If you are dyslexic, it can be easier to read if you have better contrast rather than black on white. Black on yellow or for some black on pink or blue is easier.

Hagar

I always thought the reason that legal bods used yellow paper was so that nothing they wrote was "in black and white"? Some sort of legal loophole/precedence perhaps?

Victor

Yellow and red are warning colours for animals, blues and greens are less threatening. However, greens, expecially in confined spaces, make us uneasy.

Yellow contrasts better than white against black. Hence many road warning signs are black & yellow.

Separately, try looking at a bright computer screen and then look away into the darkness. You won't be able to properly determine some colours for several seconds.

Of course some people just like yellow paper.

John

Victor wrote:

Yellow and red are warning colours for animals, blues and greens are less threatening. However, greens, expecially in confined spaces, make us uneasy.

I know what you're getting at as regards yellow and red being warning colours but only in certain contexts and only for certain reasons. A black and yellow stingless hornet looks like a wasp so predators will avoid them. Red is another posionous organism warning but in flowers if you see one that is red it is because birds find it incredibly attractive (bees don't because they can't see red). I don't really think colours have much of a built in meaning on their own.

As for yellow paper, as Indy said there are various reading disorders (including dyslexia) where printing on different coloured paper to white makes it easier to read. My girlfriend has this thing where when she looks at a page she sees rivers running through the text (looking down the page along the spaces between the words if you know what I mean). On white paper this makes reading for her really difficult. On other coloured paper it's fine. She wears yellow tinted glasses for reading books and stuff.

100gSoma

LMAO @ Hager

Chaude

It depends on what do you mean with "work". Well, I always thought green would distress...
Edit.: Oh, and why did you mention that he is a German, if it wasn't important at all?