PDF text contrast
Silktide asks you to confirm that the text in your PDF documents has enough color contrast against its background to read comfortably. This cannot be measured automatically inside a PDF, so each document is flagged for a manual review.
Why this matters
PDFs are often long-lived, high-stakes documents - forms, reports, policies - and unlike a web page, a reader cannot restyle a PDF to make faint text readable. People with low vision, and anyone printing or reading on a poor screen, depend on the document's own contrast. The same minimums apply to documents as to web pages.
How to fix it
This check is a prompt to verify each document by hand:
- Open the PDF and look for text with weak contrast: gray body text, colored text on colored panels, and text placed over images or decorative backgrounds.
- Check suspect color pairs with a contrast checking tool. The should be at least 4.5:1 for regular text, or 3:1 for large text (at least 18 points, or 14 points bold).
- Fix problems in the source document (Word, InDesign, or similar) and re-export the PDF, rather than editing the PDF directly.
- Once you are satisfied the document is fine, the finding.
How Silktide tests this
- Every PDF document found on your website is flagged for manual review.
- Silktide does not attempt to measure contrast inside PDFs automatically - PDF files do not describe text and backgrounds in a way that allows reliable automated measurement.