The short answer
White is the safest background for a team with mixed hair colours. In our test the weakest outline was 1.7:1 (grey curly hair), and dark hair stayed crisp at 5.4 to 5.8:1. That is the best result of the twelve backgrounds we tried.
How each person comes out
Person | Hair | Outline contrast |
|---|---|---|
Lotte | long blond | 2.2:1 |
Malik | black, curly | 5.4:1 |
Jun | black | 5.8:1 |
Ingrid | short grey | 2.0:1 |
Pieter | grey, curly | 1.7:1 |
When to use it
When you want the most neutral set: a team page with a lot of text, a staff directory, a clinic or a law firm. White also works in dark apps, where the portraits stand out against the dark sidebar.
Watch out for
On white screens the portrait loses its edge. In a light chat app, an email signature or on a white website the circle disappears and the faces float. If most of the places you use the photo are white, pick light grey or a soft gradient like Moonrise instead. White shirts blend in too, so ask people to wear a colour.
How to set it in Aaavatar
Put the team in one folder.
Open the folder menu and choose Default background…. Pick Color, click + and enter #FFFFFF.
Use folder background on N applies it to the portraits already in the folder. New photos in the folder get it automatically.
Choose Export set, pick Square, Circle or Rounded and a size: 512, 1024 or 2048 px.
Download the background
White, 2048 × 2048 px (PNG), for slides, email templates or anything outside Aaavatar.
How we tested
Five fictional people, framed to the same eye line and face size. For each portrait we measure the luminance contrast (the WCAG formula) between a thin band just inside and just outside the outline of the head, in the top half of the photo. Under 1.5:1 the outline starts to melt into the background; above 3:1 it stays crisp at any size. It is one simple measure on five people, not a lab study, but it matches what you see. The background is the exact colour you can set in Aaavatar.
See all twelve backgrounds side by side in the Background Lab.
