Abstract: With channel capacity as the dependent variable, an experiment was carried out to investigate the optimal choice of colors used on CRT for both target and background purposes. 8 colors (black, blue, green, light blue,red, purple, yellow, white) were combined into 56 pairs of different target──background color matches as the independent variables. By comparing the visual performance measured under each color match condition, the authors obtained the following results: from the ergonomic view, two tendencies that darker colors were better than lighter colors when used as background colors,and lighter colors better when the target──background colors matched properly,the information transfer efficiency increased significantly. The optimal target──background matches were those with greater contrast such as white──black,yellow──black, green──black.

Key words: channel capacity, target color, background color, visual performance