I've got a smaller banner ui (think 300 x 300px) which currently has solid black text on a white background. The text corresponds to new article titles, so it's really hard to place color on them that really applies to everything. The titles change every couple of seconds, so readability is a must. Black text on a white background makes it really easy to read, but it looks really boring and unprofessional. The entire square is just white with black words.
Is there anything I can do to spice it up, while maintaining the readability?
I tried changing the color to an off white, but it wasn't noticeable. I also tried adding a textured background of noise with a slight motion blur and then a texture of paper to make it seem more real, but it just was distracting and hard to read.
Here's an example: