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Is there any scientific evidence that a particular background is the best for doing 2D design work, for architectural and mechanical plans? The main options are:

(1) Black - many drawing programs default to this; since unused pixels will be off, there will be no "bleed" from neighboring pixels; so there is an argument that this will be the sharpest and most highly defined background

(2) White - imitates the look of paper; might bleed color; potentially creates better contrast for some colors.

(3) Pale Yellow - supposedly this type of background creates an optically neutral field that is the least distracting to the eye; both white and black can be used as design colors

So, above I have listed some of the common considerations but it is not clear which factors might be dominant, or maybe it there is no "best" color. Is there any hard scientific evidence that identifies a particular background color as superior to the others?

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    For the finished product or during construction? During construction I often have several layers I can switch on or off to check different backgrounds. – Tetsujin Dec 6 at 16:36
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    I don't have the science but when I worked with CAD I used neither of your options; instead at the office we all had a grey background. Neutral, not so much contrast and not so bright - after all it's a monitor, not paper! That said, "best" will always be subjective, I'm not sure how your question will fare here. – Luciano Dec 6 at 16:43
  • @Luciano Best is not always subjective. That's why I asked for scientific evidence. – Tyler Durden Dec 6 at 16:52
  • @TylerDurden yes but in this case its rether meaningless, best as in optimizing for what factors? – joojaa Dec 6 at 17:19
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    I've been part of debates and the research for appropriate extant research on this topic in a number of firms... we found there were studies out there evidencing white as a background, though it emulates white paper, can add to eye strain; black, though lower on eyestrain requires mental gymnastics about onscreen versus printed out linecolour, grey can work but is often also a design colour for certain kinds of reno work, so we ended up in two different groups with a pale green, which had a 30% grey mix - enough value for easy contrast discrimination, far enough outside typical CAD colours. – GerardFalla Dec 6 at 17:50

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