The purpose of the experiment was to investigate the effects of chromaticity combination on reading speeds and subjective preference ratings for small Chinese characters. The experiment was 7 (text chromaticity) x 7 (background chromaticity) split-plot design. Analysis of variance showed that the text chromaticity was not significant, but background chromaticity was. The findings suggested that achromatic color was the most effective background chromaticity with lower reading time and had a higher preference rating; however, the highly saturated short-wavelength blue was least effective.