Color Blind Test FAQ

You see 19 circles of colored dots, each hiding a digit from 0 to 9. After a warm-up plate, each plate tests one cone type: the digit and background differ only in what your red (L), green (M), or blue (S) cones detect. Read the digit and the next plate on that axis gets subtler; miss it and it gets stronger. Where each axis settles becomes your 0–100 cone score.

Yes. The full test, the cone scores, and the saved history are free, with no sign-up, download, or email gate. The site is supported only by anonymous analytics.

Classic Ishihara plates (1917) are fixed images designed for printed paper and only screen for red-green deficiency. The EnChroma test scores each cone with cone-isolating colors. This test combines the two ideas: Ishihara-style dot plates generated fresh every run, cone-isolating colors for all three cone types including blue, and an adaptive staircase so the test spends its time near your personal threshold.

About two minutes. There are 19 plates and each one has a 10-second limit, so the longest possible run is just over three minutes.

Single digits keep answering to one tap or keypress, which matters on phones and keeps the timer fair. With ten possible digits, a lucky guess is right only 10% of the time, and the adaptive staircase re-checks every axis several times, so guessing cannot carry a score.

No. Every plate is generated in your browser when it appears — new dot layout, new digit, new base color — so you cannot memorize answers, and retaking the test is a genuine re-measurement.

Each score shows how subtle a color difference you could still read for one cone type. 80–100 is typical, 60–79 suggests a mild deficiency, 35–59 moderate, and below 35 strong. A low red score points to a protan deficiency, a low green score to deutan, and a low blue score to tritan.

They name which cone is affected. Protan involves the L or “red” cone, deutan the M or “green” cone — together these are red-green color blindness — and tritan the S or “blue” cone, called blue-yellow color blindness. “-anomaly” means the cone works but is shifted; “-anopia” means it is missing.

When your red and green scores are within about 12 points of each other, the test cannot tell reliably which cone is the weaker one, so it reports a red-green deficiency without picking a side. Retaking the test often separates them.

Probably not. Inherited tritan deficiency is rare, and the blue axis is the most sensitive to screen settings — night mode, blue-light filters, and warm color profiles all eat into it. Disable those, retest, and try another device before drawing conclusions.

You missed the warm-up plate, which almost everyone can read because it differs in brightness as well as color, and all three cone scores were low. That usually points to a dim screen, a filter, or a distraction rather than your color vision. Fix the setup and retake it.

Good enough to screen, not to diagnose. Plate tests like Ishihara catch the large majority of red-green deficiencies, but phone and laptop screens are not color calibrated, so scores can shift by around ten points between devices. If you score below 80 on any axis, retest on another screen and then see an optometrist for an anomaloscope or Farnsworth test.

Yes, and comparing runs is one of the best uses of the History panel. Take one test without glasses, then one with them, under the same light and on the same screen. Glasses such as EnChroma can raise scores for some people with anomalous trichromacy; they do not restore a missing cone.

Inherited color blindness cannot currently be cured. Gene therapy has restored color vision in animal studies, and filter glasses can improve contrast between some colors for anomalous trichromats, but neither is a cure in people today. Acquired color vision loss can sometimes improve when its cause — such as a cataract or a medication — is treated.

The test calculates cone-isolating colors for a standard sRGB display. Real screens vary in their primaries, white point, and brightness, so the colors are slightly off-target on each one. Differences of five to ten points between a phone and a laptop are normal.

If any score is below 80 on two separate screens, yes — especially if you need accurate color vision for work, such as aviation, electrical trades, or driving professionally. An optometrist can confirm the type with an anomaloscope or arrangement test. See one promptly if your color vision has changed recently, since that can signal an eye or health condition.

Red-green color blindness is inherited on the X chromosome, so it affects roughly 1 in 12 men (8%) and 1 in 200 women (0.5%) of Northern European ancestry, with somewhat lower rates in other populations. Blue-yellow deficiency is rare and affects men and women equally.

Yes. The plate and keypad fit on one phone screen in portrait. Turn brightness all the way up and hold the phone at a normal reading distance.

Your last 12 results and your sound setting are saved in your browser’s local storage on this device only. Nothing about your answers or scores is sent to a server. Clearing site data, or the Clear history button, removes them.

Any current browser with JavaScript and canvas support: Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari on desktop, Android, and iOS. If plates do not appear, update the browser and allow scripts for this site.