CLIMagic 2012 Survey Results

Light on Dark is the big winner here. No surprise.

What terminal color scheme do you use

Color Scheme	Responses	% of Total
White on Black	292	28.2%
Light Grey on Black	163	15.8%
Green on Black	123	11.9%
Default on Default	112	10.8%
"NO ANSWER"	76	7.4%
Black on White	53	5.1%
Light Grey on Dark Grey	25	2.4%
White on Dark Grey	22	2.1%
Dark Grey on Black	17	1.6%
Black on Light Grey	12	1.2%
Light Grey on Dark Blue	11	1.1%
Dark Green on Black	10	1.0%
White on Dark Purple	9	0.9%
Orange on Black	9	0.9%
Black on Yellow	8	0.8%
Yellow on Black	6	0.6%
Cyan on Black	6	0.6%
White on Dark Blue	5	0.5%
White on Purple	4	0.4%
NA on Default	4	0.4%
NA on Black	4	0.4%
White on Default	3	0.3%
Light Grey on Dark Green	3	0.3%
Blue on Black	3	0.3%
Black on Brown	3	0.3%
White on Dark Green	2	0.2%
White on NA	2	0.2%
NA on Dark Blue	2	0.2%
Light Grey on	2	0.2%
Green on Dark Grey	2	0.2%
Default on Black	2	0.2%
Dark Grey on Light Grey	2	0.2%
Black on Black	2	0.2%
Black on NA	2	0.2%
Yellow on Dark Grey	1	0.1%
Yellow on Dark Green	1	0.1%
White on White	1	0.1%
White on Light Grey	1	0.1%
White on Cyan	1	0.1%
White on Blue	1	0.1%
Red on Yellow	1	0.1%
Red on Default	1	0.1%
Red on Black	1	0.1%
Purple on Black	1	0.1%
Orange on Light Grey	1	0.1%
NA on Dark Purple	1	0.1%
Light Grey on White	1	0.1%
Light Grey on Default	1	0.1%
Light Grey on Dark Red	1	0.1%
Light Grey on Dark Purple	1	0.1%
Light Grey on Cyan	1	0.1%
Green on Default	1	0.1%
Default on Yellow	1	0.1%
Default on Light Grey	1	0.1%
Dark Grey on Yellow	1	0.1%
Dark Grey on White	1	0.1%
Dark Blue on Dark Purple	1	0.1%
Dark Blue on Dark Grey	1	0.1%
Dark Blue on Black	1	0.1%
Brown on Yellow	1	0.1%
Brown on Light Grey	1	0.1%
Blue on Default	1	0.1%
Blue on Dark Grey	1	0.1%
Blue on Dark Blue	1	0.1%
Black on Purple	1	0.1%
Black on Orange	1	0.1%
Black on Cyan	1	0.1%

Below are color schemes grouped into "shades" to give an idea of whether dark on light or light on dark or vivid colors are more popular. Nearly everyone (except for 2) who answered "Default" for one of the colors below didn't answer the Terminal Emulator type question. Most of them where Ubuntu or Mac users, so you can guess that they use gnome-terminal or Terminal.app. So they would more likely count as black on white.

The grouping was done like this:

sed -r -e 's/^(Black|Brown|Dark [A-Za-z]+) on/Dark Shade on/' | \
sed -r -e 's/^(White|Light Grey) on/Light Shade on/' | \
sed -r -e 's/^(Red|Blue|Cyan|Green|Yellow|Orange|Purple) on/Vivid Color on/' | \
sed -r -e 's/on (Black|Brown|Dark [A-Za-z]+)$/on Dark Shade/' | \
sed -r -e 's/on (White|Light Grey)$/on Light Shade/' | \
sed -r -e 's/on (Red|Blue|Cyan|Green|Yellow|Orange|Purple)$/on Vivid Color/'

It probably wasn't fair that I didn't include many light shades in the list of choices, but the number of choices was becoming so long that I thought people might skip the question.

What color scheme do you use? (grouped)

Color Scheme	Responses	% of Total	Average Experience (years)
Light Shade on Dark Shade	534	51.6%	9.78
Vivid Color on Dark Shade	155	15.0%	10.15
Default on Default	112	10.8%	9.54
"NO ANSWER"	76	7.4%	9.56
Dark Shade on Light Shade	69	6.7%	13.45
Dark Shade on Dark Shade	35	3.4%	10.06
Dark Shade on Vivid Color	13	1.3%	17.38
"NO ANSWER" on Dark Shade	7	0.7%	8
Light Shade on Vivid Color	7	0.7%	7.5
"NO ANSWER" on Default	4	0.4%	7.5
Light Shade on Default	4	0.4%	12.25
Light Shade on "NO ANSWER"	4	0.4%	17.5
Vivid Color on Default	3	0.3%	4.67
Light Shade on Light Shade	3	0.3%	10.67
Default on Dark Shade	2	0.2%	11
Dark Shade on "NO ANSWER"	2	0.2%	17
Vivid Color on Vivid Color	1	0.1%	4
Vivid Color on Light Shade	1	0.1%	11
Default on Vivid Color	1	0.1%	18
Default on Light Shade	1	0.1%	6