Some colors are invisible until overlayed

[kofkof]

Hello,

Recently, some colors in my Mac OS 10.7 have become transparent (or white, I don't really know). For example :
- any zebra striping is invisible (e.g. Finder in list view, any file opening Dialog, Thunderbird's message list, etc.)
- in Thunderbird, in the "new message" window, the area containing the "from" address, "to" address and subject doesn't have its usual gray background anymore, it's now white.
- in some websites, some colors are transparent. For instance, I can't see any zebra striping here : http://www.financefi.fr/trackers/liste.php (tested with Firefox, Safari, and Opera)
- I am running Windows 7 in a virtual Machine, with the same problems (the above webpage's striping is invisible in IE9).

BUT, these invisible colors get revealed when I hover above them with any semi-transparent overlay, like any other windows' drop shadow (see screenshot below), the background of the app switching area (Cmd+Tab), etc.

Can it be related to my upgrading from 10.6 to 10.7 two weeks ago? I can't tell for sure when it began exactly...

Thanks for any help!

 

[kofkof]

Up.
If you think there's a better place to ask about this, please tell me.

 

[Simplicated]

Sorry, I just have to say it's either there's something wrong with the monitor's color profile or there's something wrong with your eyes. I can clearly see the zebra stripes on both of my machines.

 

[kofkof]

Thanks for you help, Simplicated!

either there's something wrong with the monitor's color profile

I'm not expert on this subject. All I can say is I've tried every available display profile in the Monitor/Color/Display profile pref pane, and none resolved the issue. Is there anything else you think I could try?

or there's something wrong with your eyes. I can clearly see the zebra stripes on both of my machines.

It's a problem with my Mac, I know the zebra stripes are visible on other machines (that's the reason of my writing here). But I'm sure you can see it in the screenshot I posted above, (which should exclude a problem with my eyes )

Edit: Sorry, I was wrong. Now my contrast is ok, I see that the screenshot did not show anything wrong if you had the contrast ok on your machine...

 

[Jolly Jimmy]

Check the contrast in System Preferences > Universal Access.

 

[kofkof]

You've put the finger on it! Seeing this pref pane (for the first time, I confess), I realize I may have inadvertently pressed the Ctrl+Alt+Cmd+. shortcut one day and raised the contrast. I've set it back to normal, and everything has come back to normality
Thank you, Jimmy.