Based on T369667#10019802.
There are as many as 3 instances that I came across in the past week where there was a need for a text color token that would:
- be far enough from the body text color to let users filter certain portions of text while they're reading – @color-subtle fails this;
- fit within AA for both light and dark mode (gray-500 / #72777d / @color-placeholder narrowly fits AA on pure white background but fails in dark mode).
Something like @color-subtle, but subtler. (A change to @color-subtle itself would be too radical I guess?) An additional thing to consider is whether the value of @color-placeholder would need to be changed to the value of this proposed token (@DTorsani-WMF at T369667#9994715: "placeholder and disabled text does not need to technically pass contrast ratio standards in the same way, they do not need to be accessible" – they do not need to be, but would it hurt?).
What makes @color-subtle worse is that it's really close and not contrasting with @color-visited in light mode (#6b4ba1).
The mentioned 3 instances are:
- @DLynch's comment at T369667#9994838:
color-placeholder color-subtle gray-500 / #72777d gray-600 / #54595d For myself, I'll miss the lighter color because the dark gray is so indistinguishably close to body text that it no longer lets me filter the timestamps out while I'm reading, but I acknowledge that accessibility may trump personal taste here.
- My own experience with Convenient-Discussions; e.g. I prefer the left to the right – on the right, the numbers stand out too much and intermix with headlines:
@color-placeholder | @color-subtle |
- @putnik's edit https://ru.wikipedia.org/?diff=139268140 (edit summary translation: "lighter color for ref-info in dark mode to meet contrast requirements; in general, it could just be --color-subtle color in all modes")
Context: T360494