Color Arrangement Test
A very well known and established type of color blindness tests are hue discrimination or arrangement tests. This type of test uses the fact that colorblind people mix up colors along the so called confusion lines.
What do you have to do? Arrange the colored squares in the correct color by picking the most similar color from the choice below. You can order them by dragging the color squares into the upper boxes. Start with the pilot, which is already set.
You should be aware of that any type of online color blindness test is very dependent on your display settings and ambient light. You should visit your local eye specialist to get a correct diagnosis. If you take the test under different conditions you will recognize that the results can vary.
The test above simulates the D-15 dichotomous test which was introduced by Farnsworth in 1947. It aims to divide people into two groups. Slightly colorblind and not colorblind people which pass the test and all others who fail it.
Major: Major Radius
Minor: Minor Radius
TES: Total Score of Error
S-index: Selectivity Index
C-index: Confusion Index
Colorblind people will arrange the colors not in the correct order but parallel to one of the three confusion lines: protan, deutan, and tritan. Vingrys and King-Smith developed in 1988 a scoring method based on color difference vectors. This way it is possible to quantify the type of color blindness by you personal confusion angle and the severity through the confusion index.
- Confusion Angle: The angle identifies your type of color vision deficiency. An angle above +0.7 degrees points towards a protan defect, between +0.7 and -65 a deutan defect and bellow that a tritan defect.
- Major and Minor Radius: The ratio of those two numbers results in the S-index.
- Total Error Score: Combining the two radii into a score of total error. The TES ranges from around 11 up to about 40 for strong vision deficiencies.
- Selectivity Index: This ratio shows the parallelism of the confusion vectors to your personal confusion angle. A low ratio—below 2—can either mean you have no color deficiency or you ordered the squares randomly. High numbers—up to 6 and even higher— show high parallelism.
- Confusion Index: The ratio between your major radius and the major radius of a perfect arrangement. People with normal color vision or slightly colorblind persons have a ratio below 1.2. The higher this number grows—up to above a ratio of 4—the more severe is your color blindness.
The table below shows some average results taken from a study with 120 colorblind and not colorblind people.
| Angle | Major | Minor | TES | S-index | C-index | |
| Normal | +62.0 | 9.2 | 6.7 | 11.4 | 1.38 | 1.00 |
| Protanopia | +8.8 | 38.8 | 6.6 | 39.4 | 6.16 | 4.20 |
| Protanomaly | +28.3 | 18.0 | 8.2 | 20.4 | 1.97 | 1.95 |
| Deuteranopia | -7.4 | 37.9 | 6.3 | 38.4 | 6.19 | 4.10 |
| Deuteranomaly | -5.8 | 25.4 | 9.6 | 27.5 | 2.99 | 2.75 |
| Tritan Defects | -82.8 | 24.0 | 6.4 | 24.9 | 3.94 | 2.60 |
161 Responses to “Color Arrangement Test”
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March 11th, 2009 at 14:44
*applause*
Fascinating.
Angle 6.6
Major 37.6
Minor 7.8
TES 38.4
S-index 4.84
C-index 4.07
Result: Above ‘Strong’ Protan Vision Defect.
March 11th, 2009 at 17:50
Which study is the table data (of 120 subjects) you cite from? Thanks.
March 11th, 2009 at 19:30
Very interesting, First time I have seen this test.
Ty
March 11th, 2009 at 20:37
Jason, the numbers are taken from the original paper of Vingrys and King-Smith, who proposed the moment of inertia for scoring the D-15 test: A quantitative scoring technique for panel tests of color vision
March 12th, 2009 at 13:04
Once again I have fun in this site. Ok, I’m not special, just deuteranomal.
March 12th, 2009 at 15:02
This says
Angle:61.9
Major:9.2
Minor:6.7
TES:11.4
S-index:1.38
C-index:1.00
According to the detailed results I’m not colour blind yet I know I am red/green…
Did I cheat? I compared the next in sequence to the previous one by hovering the square over the previous one until I decided the one I’d picked up was the closest match.
A colleague did the test who isn’t colour blind and he flew threw it, was able to know which was next straight away.
March 12th, 2009 at 22:20
I’m sorry, but I really don’t understand what I’m supposed to do.
March 12th, 2009 at 22:54
Thank you for the reference. Has anyone proposed cutoff ranges for the C-index to classify severity (or are there standard deviations around those C-index means anywhere?).
March 13th, 2009 at 1:37
I know I have strong protanopia; this confirms it once again. I would have liked to be able to look at the plot of my colour patch placements again, though. Couldn’t go back to that.
P.S. Thank you for the great website. Colour blindness is poorly understood and we need something like this for others to be able to understand.
March 13th, 2009 at 2:28
And after taking it five times, I have protanopia thrice and deutanopia twice. I think it is accurate.
March 13th, 2009 at 16:49
Well then, so far, deutan once and protan once. The time I was happiest with my color placement was protan; they were alllll wrong. Strength bar was full.
This confirms my result of I don’t know what the heck I have, other than that it’s severe. Will mess with it a few more times.
March 13th, 2009 at 16:52
Oh, and, one more thing… what colors are we arranging here? It looks like it’s from blue to brown from my perspective; is that accurate at all?
I realize I’m asking the wrong test group here, but hey. ^.^
March 13th, 2009 at 18:48
Just wanted to agree with Donald, would be great if we could navigate between the arrangement chart and the more detailed results.
File under: Ideas for future upgrades.
March 13th, 2009 at 19:14
Thank you having this site. Usually you find only the test with the coloured dots with hidden numbers in them to test. I like that you do beyond that for testing. I never do well the tests I mentioned above. I am female and I have 7 sister of which only 6 have colour deficiency as I do as well. The one brother does not have a colour problem. It will take me some time to grasp all the info you have here but I’ll try! Best regards, Brenda
March 14th, 2009 at 6:51
Hi,
That was my results
Angle Major Minor TES S-index C-index
61.9 9.2 6.7 11.4 1.38 1.00
According to this test result I am not colorblind, But reall I am mild Deuteranomalia. Hope it is usefull for next virsion of your tests
Thank you for the great effort
Ahmed Rabei
March 14th, 2009 at 12:19
Thank you for this test. It’s great. Doea anyone know if Dyslexia and colour blindness are related? And do ChromaGen glasses help?
March 14th, 2009 at 22:19
I have taken this test online about a dozen times and I pass this test but cannot pass the Isahara test (with the numbers in dots). Is this common for someone is deficiency is not very bad? Thank you for the website this is great.
March 15th, 2009 at 20:13
Sean, yes that’s right. Even some people with normal color vision fail the Ishihara plates test. In contrast people with weak color blindness will pass the D-15 test.
March 15th, 2009 at 22:03
Well thanks for your quick response. My dream in life has always been to be in law enforcement and I thought my dream was dead until I found out that some police agencies accept the farnsworth D-15 if you cannot pass the Isihara. I wish this was an excepted practice a lot earlier however now I donot need to surrender my dream thank you for the informative website.
March 17th, 2009 at 4:31
Very Nice! Another brilliant project!
March 17th, 2009 at 13:56
Well here, the colors just dont drop in the box. They fly down straight. I’ve tried three browsers
March 17th, 2009 at 14:03
I can get it to work in firefox, but it doesn’t load at all in Safari.
March 17th, 2009 at 14:45
just realized it works in IE
March 17th, 2009 at 14:47
Angle Major Minor TES S-index C-index
22.9 14.8 8.7 17.2 1.69 1.60
respectively.
Not prefect, right? And it still says i am not colorblind (which i theoretically am to some extent since i fail the ishihara text). So am i colorblind????
The order was 1,15,2,3..and normal from there on
I easily passed a similar D-15 test in university of vienna website. It had brighter hues.
With this i spent quite a lot of time, often guessing.
March 17th, 2009 at 21:07
Chetan, it was tested with IE7, IE6 and Firefox. Couldn’t test on Safari.
Your order has just one major error. The range for “not colorblind” goes up to a C-index of 1.60. I would say you are slightly protanomalous.
March 18th, 2009 at 4:52
I’ve taken it several times and every time it says i have a deutan color deficiency the severity bar was full
March 22nd, 2009 at 15:47
My results
Angle -12.1
Major 27.7
Minor 7.5
TES 28.7
S-index 3.68
C-index 3.00
Am I deuteranope or deuteranormal?
March 22nd, 2009 at 15:56
I redid the test
my new results:
My results
Angle -14.3
Major 34.1
Minor 8.4
TES 35.1
S-index 4.06
C-index 3.69
Am I deuteranope or deuteranormal?
March 22nd, 2009 at 20:41
Paolo, unfortunately the test can’t tell you anything about that. It was designed to separate colorblind people from non colorblinds. But it can’t separate dichromats from anomalous trichromats.
March 25th, 2009 at 21:37
I had to take this test in the Macbeth Lightbox for my job (textile designer). I have worked with many people who were good artists, but were faking their color abilities. My husband is colorblind (both of his brothers are in varying degrees as well). As a designer, I find their interpretations of color interesting.
April 16th, 2009 at 17:04
Dear Daniel
I have taken this test online and I’m not color blind according to this test. but cannot pass the Isahara test .why that. can you help me to pass this test.
thank you
April 16th, 2009 at 20:22
Daniel,
Isn’t your test has lighter hues as compared to University of Vienna website.
What are the original shades or hue in Farnsworth d-15.
Is it more like your website or like the one on Vienna website.
I am asking this as I can’t do the test on your website.
April 16th, 2009 at 21:03
Ferdinando, please read more about this topic at Can I Pass One Color Blindness Test and Fail at the Same Time Another One?
Gurpreet, the original shades are printed and can’t transformed directly to display color schemes. But according to my information, my colors are closer to the real D-15 Farnsworth test.
April 19th, 2009 at 13:11
Well according to this I am not colour-blind when I have been tested for protanopia?!?!?!?!?!?
April 19th, 2009 at 13:23
THANKS DANIEL
Can i have your personel e-mail address.
April 19th, 2009 at 19:55
Dilantha, if you have any specific question just use my contact form. Thanks.
May 11th, 2009 at 22:46
I just took both your tests and was rated “not colorblind.” I also had a test with an optometrist’s chart. Same results.
I guess the only factor would be how accurate your monitor is and as you stated,the lighting conditions. It’s does very well for something outside a doctor’s office.
Thanks for posting it.
May 25th, 2009 at 13:43
Thank you very much..
i already understand that i’m color blindness. But i don’t know what type i’m since i tried your test.
haha..and than, i’m protan! i should say to you that it is first personal test which i’ve been taken.
I want to know, is it depend my monitor lighting?contrast or brightness?
And also i want to ask you, what different factor (range tonal) between normal vision and color blindness? because i’m a photographer and i want to arrange my tonal expression by my self.
Thank you very much.
June 22nd, 2009 at 0:21
I love this test, took this test many years ago with the little tills. Was happy to have pasted your color arrangement test with no errors. At age 56 I worry about my eyes still seeing color clearly. I often mix to match colors by eye with my work, geting close is not difficult with low chroma colors. High chroma colors can take a long time and I only get “close enough” most of the time.
July 6th, 2009 at 15:35
I really like this test mainly because it says I am not colour blind. I fail a lot of the Ishihara tests. I can see the colours I just can’t see the shapes – or at least not clearly.
I work in graphic design and have never had a problem with colour, but did ishihara at school and was told I couldn’t work in print or be a pilot. They were wrong about that!
I wonder about the validity of the Ishihara test now. The arrangement test is far more subtle and why would you base a test on recognising shapes? What if you’re dyslexic ??
…hang on a minute!
July 17th, 2009 at 14:10
i have done the test 4 times of which 2 times i am proved to be normal. thanks for this test.
August 2nd, 2009 at 19:26
[...] According to this color arrangement test, I have deuteranopia, the most common of all types of [...]
August 21st, 2009 at 19:41
GUYS! I kept failing miserably until a girl came by and did the test in front of me no problem!
The Chart goes from Blue to Purple at the end!
Now that I know that, I can pass it no problem and should be able to pass my police exam!!
September 2nd, 2009 at 23:13
OK so I have never been able to pass an Ishihara test. Passed this the first time without really knowing what I was supposed to do. I just put them in the order that looked the most right. Go figure.
September 3rd, 2009 at 23:57
61.9, 9.2, 6.7, 11.4, 1.38, 1.00
September 19th, 2009 at 6:44
Curious. I’ve been Ishihara tested by an opthamologist who confirmed deuteranopia. And been a laboratory animal in a university for a PhD student as an example of the same. My family enjoy it when I make related mistakes. Yet this test indicates my vision is just fine (all my stats were exactly the same as the “normal” line above), although it did take me several minutes of comparisons to get this right.
October 8th, 2009 at 1:48
61.9 9.2 6.7 11.4 1.38 1.00
According to this test result I am not color Blind =)
October 9th, 2009 at 1:15
i new i was not color blind. That crazy book says I am. Now I would like to see a test online where we can self assess for night blindness.
October 15th, 2009 at 7:53
chyeahhh boii –> 61.9 9.2 6.7 11.4 1.38 1.00 not colurblind!!! =)
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:15
sicck
61.9 9.2 6.7 11.4 1.38 1.00
definately not colour blind : )
October 23rd, 2009 at 17:06
I don’t understand. I do really bad on ishihara tests, however I do very good on colour arrangement. I really don’t know what to do.
October 29th, 2009 at 4:27
I can’t even take the color arrangement test because there is a BIG GOOGLE AD in the way!!!
November 2nd, 2009 at 23:38
Angle: -86.4
Major: 29.0
Minor: 5.4
T.E.S: 29.5
S Index: 5.35
C Index: 3.13
Moderate Tritan
I took an ishihara test about a year ago and only missed 2 in each eye, yet they were the same two plates (at the back of the book). Is that just a slight color blindness instead of moderate?
November 15th, 2009 at 13:56
Angle – 61.9
Major – 9.2
Minor – 6.7
TES – 11.4
S-index - 1.38
C-index – 1.00
According to this test result you are not colorblind.
I also failed in Ishihara Test. I am red-green deficient or protanopic.
This is so frustrating because I am currently denied of a job just because I failed the Ishahara test. The job involves controls and monitors. And I swear I have an almost normal vision.
November 22nd, 2009 at 17:02
In many cases, people fail or make mistakes on the Ishihara plate test and then pass the arrangement test. This usually occurs when one has a more mild form of colour vision deficiency.
Hope I answered your questions.
November 26th, 2009 at 5:07
I’m also planning on a law enforcement career and the agency uses the Farnsworth D15 test. I’ve alway failed the Ishihara plates, but always passed the D15. I’ve only taken it online though.
Can I go to an eye exam place (ie. Pearl Vision or similar) or even to an eye doctor and ask to take a D15 test? Any place I’ve had my eyes checked was with the Plates. I found a doctor that will test and make contact lenses to “fix” your color vision. Patients come from all over the US and overseas so they can have them made, but it costs $8000. If I can definitely pass the D15, I’d don’t have to consider the Color Vision Corrected lenses.
November 26th, 2009 at 6:03
Alice is right. It is common to fail a book test (Ishihara or other since, as screening tests, they are meant to ‘catch’ all color defects (very mild to very severe). The Farnsworth D15 on the other hand is meant to fail moderate to severe color defectives, so mild color deficiencies will pass it. It is best to call various offices and ask if they have the test. If you are near an optometry or ophthalmology school they will surely have it plus the more sophisticated tests. Tinted glasses or contacts should never be worn to take color tests, they invalidate the test. They should only be worn for ‘personal’ use, to help with certain tasks (but can never be used to meet entry requirements to an occupation – it would be like giving a patient binoculars to test your distance vision). A new test would have to be designed to test the patient correctly.
December 16th, 2009 at 4:58
I’ve been told I have mild deuteranomalia because I’ve failed a Ishihara test book at a school screening.
I passed this test and took it twice, just in case it was a fluke.
After doing some Googling I’ve discovered, I don’t consistently fail all Ishihara tests. I looked at one test on my flat screen monitor and failed but passed viewing it on a CRT; the latter obviously has better colour output. This proves that you shouldn’t trust your PC’s display.
Which is the better test Ishihara or D15?
I don’t have any problem with colours in real life situations so I don’t consider myself to be colourblind.
Someone above asked whether colourblindness is linked to dyslexia? I’m dyslexic so perhaps I’m not colourblind and my cognitive impairment makes is why I fail Ishihara tests?
There again, maybe I’m very slightly colour deficient.
December 28th, 2009 at 23:37
-27.3 15.0 9.8 17.9 1.54 1.63 Oh, So does that mean I´m colorblind? How can I know if I pased the test?
January 14th, 2010 at 21:09
Jerold, I too saw the guy that charges $8000 for the CVD contact lense. That is CRAZY expensive!
There are two doctors in Miami that I know of that each charge less than $1000. One is Dr Roth, and I don’t have the other doctor’s # handy. In fact, the MDPD sends recruits to them if they fail the ishihara test so they can get the contact lense and later pass the ishihara test.
Word of caution though, some employers specifically ask the docs to verify that the candidate is NOT wearing a CVD contact lense. Other places don’t specify and as long as the candidate passes the test then the candidate is good to go.
On another note, has anyone on here ever been screened for CVD using a titmus vision screening exam?
February 13th, 2010 at 15:23
Thanks for the update Dan!
I think the phrase “Oh Bloody hell now I’ve really got no idea” accurately sums up my feelings about the new colour set.
It’s counter-intuitive, but – well done!
February 13th, 2010 at 15:47
Angle 2.8
Major 31.9
Minor 7.8
TES 32.8
S-index 4.10
C-index 3.45
I rearranged quite a few tiles after initially placing them going by lightness and darkness – and in so doing got 5-8 correct!
So I came out with a slightly lowered score than last tim, between moderate and severe.
http://images38.fotki.com/v231/file5KxZ/fc3d8/2/489822/7537268/Picture2.png
February 14th, 2010 at 5:54
Thanks for the update! This is the first colorblind test that has told me that I am NOT colorblind. *Cheer* This is interesting, as I do have extreme difficulty differentiating certain shades of green/gray, lavender/gray, red/brown, and pink/beige (especially at night or indoors). As a child I was diagnosed by an opthomologist with colorblindness using the Ishihara book and some sort of binocular slideshow with pictures. (don’t know what this test was called, however.) Could it be that my color vision is improving somehow? Or (more likely) perhaps I have a level of impairment just below this test’s detection?
February 17th, 2010 at 19:59
Laura,
There are degrees in everything. Go to any electronics store and see how different the colour balance is among a hundred or so TV screens on the display. While it varies from “OK” to “ugly” or “problematic”, none of those devices suffers form “colour blindness”, in medical sense. They would not have passed QC at the factory if they did.
Ishihara is simply not suitable as a QC test for humans, and you have just seen the proof.
On an unrelated note, even though the lack of colour vision in the dark is lamentable in general, it is not something you should worry about. None of us animals have colour vision at night. The threshold of intensity at which the colour cells fire varies a little, so it is possible that you perceive something as gray when someone next to you says it is green. That has nothing to do with colour blindness. It has to do with random variance in perception thresholds, as well as with the speed and strength of your colour balance. Your colour balance at dusk is far off into the reds (to make the scene appear gray to you). Same indoors. It is uselsess to discuss (or compare) colours under most kinds of indoor lighting. That is no defect of yours, that’s how things are.
Indoors
February 18th, 2010 at 7:27
Hi Gene –
Good point. :) However there have been enough times where I’ve been the only person in a large group setting to get a color “wrong”; so I know that there is SOME sort of deficiency on my part. E.g. I’ll perceive an object to be gray, when it’s obvious to everyone else in the room that it’s extremely green. Then when I see the same object outside under natural lighting, I can sometimes faintly detect the color they were talking about. But it’s never as “obvious” as they say.
February 18th, 2010 at 17:34
Yes, I can relate to that but that’s not colour blindness. You just don’t seem to have enough of the right “stuff”, whether that’s the stuff that regulates your cells’ firing threshold (ever tried to take poly-vitamins?), or the number of cells themselves. It is very unlikely for a woman to be colour-blind at birth, because you’ve got 2 copies of the chromosome carrying the gene, and it is maternally inherited. Both of them have to be broken to render you colour-blind — that is, unable to sense certain wavelengths under any conditions.
There must be some pathological cause for the condition you describe (if it is really troublesome), or otherwise you have damaged your retina — say, by the UV light or penetrating ionising radiation, or exposure to some unusual chemicals. Even strong visible light can hurt you — exposure to sunlight can knock out your blue receptors, although in that case your greens will be relatively enhanced, so everything that is normally blue will appear green.
Incidentally, I know of a few languages where there are no separate words for blue and green.
Everyone else in the room on occasions you mentioned — were they all women by any chance? It seems like in addition to the genetic differences between men and women, there seem to be quantitative differences as wes. My wife and I often have conversations like this. “Go get that green bag” — she commands. I can’t recall ever seeing any green bags in the house. “The one you travelled with the last time”. I go get the *black* bag I travelled with and show it to her. “See? This is the one, but it’s not green”. “Yes, it’s green”. Then take a closer look and do see it has some green values in it. But they are so low I would never bother to detect them, unless my life depended on it. To help you imagine the levels we are talking about, think of a dark green wine bottle. Now make it a 100 times darker. That was the color of that bag — not something I imagine when someone says “green”. I am more likely to think of grass or trees, and to go look for a matching object, not that decidedly black colour contaminated with traces of green.
If grass and trees appear green to you, and berries red, you’re fine. You’ll survive :)
February 24th, 2010 at 1:40
Angle 9.0 Major 23.3
Minor 9.0
TES 25.0 S-index 2.58
C-index 2.53
According to this test result you have a protan color vision defect.
severity
slightly
Interesting for a web developer!.
February 25th, 2010 at 19:43
I couldn’t take the test on this web site, because the “Ads by Google” link is covering up the last two squares of the test. I did take a similar Farnsworth test at the Vienna web site with these results:
core:
angle: 61.98
major radius: 8.85
minor radius: 7.21
total error: 11.42
s-index: 1.23
c-index: 0.96
I took the Ishihara tests too, and passed all of them, but the strange thing is that I took the reverse color-blind test, and easily passed it too. It said that “Only color blind people can actually read what is written in the picture below” but the letters stood out quite easily for me, almost as legible as the Ishihara numbers. This makes me wonder if I still have a slight colorblindness, or maybe my ratio of red, green and blue cones is somehow different than average.
February 27th, 2010 at 4:18
Wow, I’ve never seen an online test telling the result with such confidence. I asked my son to do it and he got “protan” and between moderate and severe. Even though I knew that from my own experience and assessment, it’s nice to have a confirmation. It’s short so that’s nice for impatient kids. :)
February 27th, 2010 at 4:36
Oh in case anybody wonders, this sequence goes from blue -> green -> brown -> mauve -> purple. On my monitor anyway. None of the colors are exactly bright or saturated, I imagine that was intentional.
March 2nd, 2010 at 7:46
deutan color vision defect.
No more being an electrician ahha
-9.2 28.7 10.7 30.6 2.68 3.11
March 4th, 2010 at 9:53
Angle 21.5
Major 42.2
Min. 25.2
Tes 49.2
S-ind 1.68
C-ind 4.57
SEVERE Protan color vision defect
AND I’M FEMALE.
March 4th, 2010 at 16:14
angle -11.8
major 9.8
minor 9.2
tes 13.4
S-index 1.07
C-ind 1.06
According to this test result you are not colorblind
I did this test because I failed the test Ishihara (I can not see the more complex images)
March 4th, 2010 at 16:34
I did the other test from the Vienna site someone mentioned above, I had these results
angle 61.98
major 8.85
minor 7.21
tes 11.42
S-index 1.23
C-ind 0.96
Result Normal
March 7th, 2010 at 10:59
-11.8 9.8 9.2 13.4 1.07 1.06
Says I am NOT colour blind even though I am. It was proven by an optometrist. Just thought i’d say ; D
March 29th, 2010 at 19:38
Very intresting, I know I’m really red-green blind, but here from this and anomaloscope I got: No colorblind… :O
April 6th, 2010 at 0:52
Maybe a pre-test would be helpful, to illustrate the concept (in a non color challenging way). Show 15 letters in random order and ask the user to place them in alphabetical order, then say as one letter follows another so do various colors in a spectrum. That might make the mechanics of the test easier to comprehend, and allow people to focus on the specific challenge that renders useful information. Once the concept is clear to the person being tested a simple link to switch to the actual D-15 test could let them jump into the color mode. Seems like the code for the test could be easily used to create the pre-test.
Brilliant website by the way, I’m sharing this with everyone I know.
April 6th, 2010 at 10:27
I think the test itself very nice the way it is, but I too fumbled a bit before I understood what was expected of me. All it needs is a simple instruction saying that the boxes must be arranged in the order of similarity. The alphabet analogy may be misleading, because alphabets are arbitrary orderings of dissimilar objects. When you perform this test, you don’t really need to think about any order — not even the order of colors in the spectrum — it is irrelevant. All you need to do, at every step, is to pick the box that is *the most similar* to the box you picked previously. The ordering this results in is the syndrome sought by the test.
I agree that it may not be immediately obvious to everyone what this test is about, so perhaps simply saying “pick the most similar” will fix it.
April 6th, 2010 at 21:20
Jason and Gene, thanks for your suggestions. I updated the text with a bold “pick the most similar”. I think that’s a good idea and hope it helps others.
April 23rd, 2010 at 10:57
Thank you so much for your webpage,
I’m a colour bling, but don;t know exactly what it is,
Results for this test:
Angle : -22.91
Mj Radi : 30.85
Mi Radi : 14.02
Total Err: 33.89
S-Index : 2.2
C-Index : 3.34
Here are some other results from other test that might be helpful in deciding.
FM Color test: Score 125
Color vision test from http://www.biyee.net/v/color_vision_test/
Test Name : Correct: Wrong:Correct%:
Tritonopia : 59 : 3 : 95%
Deuteranopia : 22 : 25 : 46%
Protanopia : 33 : 22 : 60%
Thanks again!
April 23rd, 2010 at 11:08
I gave the test again just to confirm it one more time,
Results for this second attempt:
Angle : -16.85
Mj Radi : 28.56
Mi Radi : 12.07
Total Err: 31.0
S-Index : 2.37
C-Index : 3.09
April 27th, 2010 at 23:48
hello
I know that im a red/green color blind, so why in real life I can see the difference between green paper and let say red guitar or blue pen.
Some times I have problems with the colors like bahama yellow, liht green or others strange color variations. This test told me that I have protan vision defects, when i took a test again it showed to me that I have a deutanopia. any way tommorow i hava an appointment with doctor because I want to know what type of defect i got. Let u know tommorow. bye
April 30th, 2010 at 15:56
Angle Major Minor TES S-index C-index
-10.9 32.9 6.1 33.5 5.35 3.56
Fascinating stuff. I was interested in this test as it is the testing method for colour deficiency for my local police force. It seems I can still apply despite the above, only monochromats are rejected – which is bloody good news for me!
Seems I have deutan colour vision defect, never thought I’d be so happy to hear that.
Keep up the good work with the website, I’ve learnt so much these past few days from it and I can finally understand whats actually happening with my eyes.
May 8th, 2010 at 2:30
Angle
-7.4
Major
41.8
Minor
5.7
TES
42.2
S-index
7.35
C-index
4.52
I had nice order of points:
P 1 15 2 14 3 13 4 12 5 11 6 10 7 9 8
moderate deutan color vision defect
I am not sure if I should be happy or sad.
May 8th, 2010 at 2:52
I misunderstood the results last time – when the “severity” bar is whole blue, it means “strong”. I thought it was “moderate” because the word “severity” was in the middle.
May 19th, 2010 at 22:08
61.9 9.2 6.7 11.4 1.38 1.00
i am not color blind yet xD
but i see colored dots all over my vision all the time especially in the sunlight x_X
sometimes its all i can see..
June 2nd, 2010 at 4:41
I’ve done the online test four times and got severe first off. The last time I compared the colours by placing them over eachother and got only slight colourblind.
June 9th, 2010 at 18:17
I wanted to thank you for your hard work and effort on constructing this web site. For the first time in 32 years I finally understand my color blindness.
Growing up my dream was to become a pilot. I studied all through highschool taking all of the classes needed to train as a pilot later in life. I joined the Canadian Cadet Corps and took hours upon hours of ground school and flighing lessons. In the end it was determined that I would never be allowed to have a career in aviation due to my color blindness and my inability to pass the Ishihara Plate test. As a teenager I was devestated.
I always knew that I was color blind but no one was bale to tell me to what degree of severity. My thoughts were that it wasn’t that severe and at times I convinced myself that it wasn’t my eyes that were the problem but rather my brain and the way it decoded what my eyes saw. Your web site has helped me figure it out. What I find interesting is that I have very inconsistent results.
My best results were:
Angle – 1.7
Major – 14.7
Minor – 8.8
TES – 17.1
S-Ind – 1.68
C-Ind – 1.59
Severity – NOT COLOR BLIND
My worst results were:
Angle – 10.9
Major – 32.3
Minor – 9.4
TES – 33.7
S-Ind – 3.43
C-Ind – 3.5
Severity – Moderate/Strong (Protan)
After ten tests my average was:
Angle – 8.42
Major – 22.6
Minor – 9.19
TES – 24.5
S-Ind – 2.45
C-Ind – 2.45
Severity – Slight/Moderate (Protan)
If you can make sense of these results and tell me why they are so inconsistent it would give me some insight to why I struggle with only pastel colors.
Keep up the good work!
Josh
June 16th, 2010 at 20:24
Josh, thanks for your words. – Concerning the different test results it is really not easy to do such tests through internet pages. And if you do the test several times, there is also some learning effect. So I would say, you have a moderate protanomaly – little less severe than myself.
June 17th, 2010 at 19:33
Thanks for this invaluable test, I was diagnosed as color blind by MEPS at Fort Lee Va during my enlistment but I didn’t believe it. My optometrist says I have perfect color vision and so do these internet tests. Now I just have to prove it to the army, lol.
Thanks again.
July 5th, 2010 at 14:30
WOW. i was told i had Deuteranopia but the test said i was normal
Angle 61.9
Major 9.2
Minor 6.7
TES 11.4
S-index 1.38
C-index 1.00
July 5th, 2010 at 15:46
Try to do these tests:
http://www.biyee.net/v/color_vision_test/index.htm
They will give you a real workout and you can do them until you get sick — you can take any number of them, but the more you take the more reliable will the result be. You can’t have an accidental success or use non-color information to cheat with those tests becaues they are randomized and they separate chroma and luminance.
The curious thing is, I did these tests about three years ago on a Mac, which had a very bright screen (and it was not calibrated). I did thousands of those tests without a single error. Now I have just done about 500 of the same tests on my Dell laptop, whose screen is calibrated, but is very dim. My error rate in this experiment was about 3%, and all errors were curiously grouped under Deuteranopia.
This makes me think that luminosity matters more than color calibration. This screen is so dim that in some samples I could barely see the dots, let alone tell what color they were. The possibilities are: my screen’s response curve is weird in the low luminosity range, or my eyes’ response curve is weird in the low luminosity range. In fact, in my current LUT the green channel’s gain is set a couple units higher that R and B, which are the same. I don’t know how significant that is, I just have a hunch that any such test will be prone to systematic error at low luminosity.
But it is a fun test to try; try it in the daylight or in a drak room and see if there is a difference.
July 7th, 2010 at 1:07
I’m very insensitive to red light – wasn’t sure if I’m protanomaly or protanopia, but suspect protanopia. Older (680nm) laser pointers are virtually invisible in normal lecture hall use (but they *do* look a deep ruby red up close!). Real rainbows look like bands of two colors – blue and yellow. Can’t tell yellow and green bananas apart. Red, green and yellow light sources (like LEDs) look the same, just different brightness. Paints/pigments – greens, browns, shades of red look the same, purple and blue look the same. Very dark red looks black. *Hot Pink lenses* help enormously for many tasks.
July 19th, 2010 at 6:09
Haha, my art teachers always yelled at me for the way i arranged my crayons.. now i know why.
July 19th, 2010 at 21:15
Very nice test. Beforehand I coud not define if I was protan or deutan. I repeated the test 7 times under Explorer and an LCD monitor. The resuts were (angle only):
-2,4
3,2
-4,2
-0,6
2,6
0,9
-5,1
(average -0,8)
When I took the tests I was already tired after 5 hs of working at the monitor. Anyway th results wander from mildly deutan to mildly protan (in all cases C-index between 3 and 5, and TES between 30 and 42). Definitively I am color blind but I cannot determine if I am deutan or protan! How can I “read” this result?
Thank you ver (VERY) much!
AndreaA
July 19th, 2010 at 21:34
Andrea,
You should be getting rougly similar results from repeat tests. Before interpreting the results, make sure your monitor is not entirely out of whack.
http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/contrast.php
http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/gamma_calibration.php
If you see any defects on the contrast page, the monitor cannot be used to do this test. Nor will it work if the color balance is far off, but that is more difficult to test without a colorimeter.
July 20th, 2010 at 5:26
Repeated the test later in the day with a different monitor (Dell 1650, 20″). Te result changed… 6 out of 7 tests gave me severe protan deficiency (average angle: 3,64, C-index avg.: 3,9, TES: 36,03). It is obviously monitor dependent.
I loaded a screen shot of the final arrangement into image-j and ran the color inspector 3d plug-in. Plotting the graph in the HSV space and increasing the saturation changed the way I perceived the correct order… No change observed modifying brightness or contrast.
Best regards!
AndreaA
July 21st, 2010 at 19:19
Cool test My results were
Angle Major Minor TES S-Index C-Index
61.9 9.2 6.7 11.4 1.38 1.00
Yay I’m completely average XD
August 8th, 2010 at 8:12
Hmmm strange, I’ve been professionaly diagnosed as a protanope, but the test shows me as strong duetan deficiency. I did the test about 5 times and every time it was a different result, ranging from angle -0.1 to -1.8 but each time duetan.
last one was as follows:
-1.8 34.6 6.9 35.3 5.05 3.75
Tony.
August 17th, 2010 at 15:50
I hovered the bricks over the previous, and when i found a brick that was indistinguishable from the one below, i put it next in line. otherwise i had no idea which to choose, so i went with the trial-and-error technique when i picked them from the list lol.
August 21st, 2010 at 19:02
Hi:
Enjoyed the test.
August 25th, 2010 at 13:52
colorest
August 25th, 2010 at 13:53
color
September 12th, 2010 at 9:48
Angle Major Minor TES S-index C-index
61.9 9.2 6.7 11.4 1.38 1.00
Find an explanation of the resultset and sample values to compare in the description below.
According to this test result you are not colorblind.
severity
..its a cool thing to know that my eyes are normal :)
September 17th, 2010 at 3:59
Angle Major Minor TES S-index C-index
74.1 10.5 7.0 12.6 1.49 1.13
WOW!
September 28th, 2010 at 0:35
WoW!As an ophthalmic assistant the test with this site is good.
September 30th, 2010 at 5:17
Angle Major Minor TES S-index C-index
61.9 9.2 6.7 11.4 1.38 1.00
doing just fine! and i only mix up one set every time on the Munsell-100 test!
October 2nd, 2010 at 16:06
Wow, ive always known there where colors i couldnt tell what they were, this says i have a strong protan color defect.
Angle Major Minor TES S-index C-index
20.7 36.3 13.3 38.7 2.73 3.93
October 30th, 2010 at 15:11
I know I’m colorblind but I had a shocking experience with this test.
The first time I did it causally without being very thorough with my selections and the result was strong protan colorblindness (which is what I have).
The second time I spent a lot of time comparing each color to one another, being very thorough with my selections. And I got everything 100% right – aka not colorblind.
Makes one think…
November 3rd, 2010 at 6:57
[...] I ask everybody to try this test, here. [...]
November 29th, 2010 at 12:56
thank you
December 20th, 2010 at 19:22
Wow, separately, my right eye is moderatly deutan, and my left one is severely protan, but together, it only shows mild deutan scores
January 5th, 2011 at 14:26
It says I’m moderately deutan almost every time. Once I called mildly deutan and once I got mildly protan. So I’m going with deutan then.
I arranged the colors from blue to brown-ish green to blue again. Is this how the colors were supposed to look?
January 28th, 2011 at 23:16
61.9 9.2 6.7 11.4 1.38 1.00
Interesting test :)
February 14th, 2011 at 14:42
[...] Weitere Informationen über diese Bedingungen auch Sie auf dieser Seite. [...]
February 15th, 2011 at 18:31
wow this was a fun test!!!!!
February 21st, 2011 at 1:48
Angle Major Minor TES S-index C-index
61.9 9.2 6.7 11.4 1.38 1.00
March 2nd, 2011 at 8:19
Like many others i’m colorblind, but i pass this test with flying colors. It actually made me feel a little better about my situation, because i love to to graphic design and mess around with photoshop. so i guess i’m not that different from normal color vision people.
I hate to think, i can create something i think is beautiful only to find it might be completely off to normal vision individuals…. that scares me, just how subjective color vision is.
March 2nd, 2011 at 10:14
Matthew,
Many aspects of vision are subjective, not only the colour part of it. But you can be certain that if you pass this test, you will not be completely off to “normal” individuals, and you are not colour-blind. I suspect what you meant by saying you were colour-blind was that you failed some of the Ishihara tests, or maybe even all of them — that does not matter. We can call it Ishihara blindness — the condition that only sometimes coincides with the true colour blindness of one kind or another, and has no bearing on normal life.
This is why more accurate and more realistic tests have been developed since Ishihara, including various colour arrangement tests. Due to these tests, normality is rather better defined today than it was half-a-century ago.
March 4th, 2011 at 13:15
I have colorblind, but I have this score:
Angle 61.9
Major 9.2
Minor 6.7
TES 11.4
S-index 1.38
C-index 1.00
March 6th, 2011 at 14:04
I was diagnosed as a tritanope about a month ago…but when I take this test, it consistently says I have a strong protan color deficiency? (always after the “g” in “strong” on the scale)
I’m quite confused?
March 7th, 2011 at 18:36
[...] and a color vision test for you, just for grins: http://www.color-blindness.com/color-arrangem… [...]
March 21st, 2011 at 14:13
I fail Ishihara miserably, but I passed this one easily.
April 3rd, 2011 at 17:07
Angle Major Minor TES S-index
61.9 9.2 6.7 11.4 1.38
C-index 1.00
Good Job!!
April 7th, 2011 at 22:12
[...] By using this color arrangement test, you can find out not only if you are colorblind at all but also the type and severity of your color vision deficiency. A color arrangement test consists of a given number of colored chips. These small discs are shuffled and then have to be arranged by the person under observation according to their similarities, starting from a fixed reference color. You could also take them here online: or for the shorter version, here: [...]
April 29th, 2011 at 15:57
Obligatory comment.
April 30th, 2011 at 5:44
Angle- 61.9
Major- 9.2
Minor- 6.7
TES- 11.4
S Index- 1.38
C Index- 1
March 19th, 2012 at 7:32
-7.4 41.8 5.7 42.2 7.35 4.52
On a samsung r580 laptop 15.6 inch screen and on full brightness setting in a dark room. Done 5 times and got the exact same results every time.
This is apparently a duplicate comment somehow. Cheese.
March 26th, 2012 at 6:46
Is there anywhere where I could find out which Munsell hues of colours are used for each of the D-15 colored squares?
March 29th, 2012 at 20:58
The Farnsworth test told me I’m not colorblind, but the dot test says I am.
In order to gat a Coast Guard license, I need to pass some form of color perception test. Is the Farnsworth test valid?
May 13th, 2012 at 13:14
This test is great. It proves that my deficiency is indeed just a slight one and gives me some hope again to become a pilot.
I did the test four times, two times I mixed up 8 and 9 (which corresponds well to my slight Deuteranomaly) and the other two times I did it completely correct.
May 26th, 2012 at 9:27
Angle Major Minor TES S-index C-index
61.9 9.2 6.7 11.4 1.38 1.00
According to this test result i am not colorblind.
June 2nd, 2012 at 9:01
Angle
Major
Minor
TES
S-index
C-index
61.9 9.2 6.7 11.4 1.38 1.00
NOT A COLOUR BLIND …BUT ….
June 6th, 2012 at 3:47
Angle Major Minor TES S-index C-index
-15.1 34.2 6.5 34.8 5.28 3.70
Oh god, i’m fucked
June 16th, 2012 at 23:14
I am so colorblind and I hate it! I have never had to have a test to tell me, but I decided to explain to the kids, and they got it right, but I only got one right :-/ I can only see #12 in the other test. :-/
July 3rd, 2012 at 11:08
I taken the test normally, and got NOTHING.
I also taken the test in a weird way, reversing the ordering of my colours, in such a way the original colour is not at all similar to the next one. The thing is that it also told me NOTHING!
July 16th, 2012 at 8:41
Just a “.1″ deficieny for me… :)
almost got perfect..
Angle Major Minor TES S-index C-index
61.9 9.2 6.7 11.4 1.38 1.00
August 2nd, 2012 at 16:41
It’s great being on a website with similar people.
Am I the only one who is fed up with friends saying what colour does that look like to you?
Is it common for car headlights to look exactly the same as a green traffic light?
On a serious note. – When people say they’ve noticed blood in their wee or other bodily waste (surely a vital first sign of illness), it worries me that colour-blind people would not have a clue.
Angle -1.5
Major 37.5
Minor 7.7
TES 38.3
S-Index 4.85
C-Index 4.06
Strong Deutan severity
Thanks for a great test.
August 2nd, 2012 at 22:10
Hi Derek,
I agree, it can be frustrating – and the explanation often takes longer to get across: i.e I can see in colour I just cannot distinguish different colours which to me look so similar as to be identical. My favourite example I have given in an interview published on this website is Cadbury’s chocolate wrappers – I was 29 when I found out they were purple – becuase I cannot distinguish purple and blue (and that’s just the start for like Daniel Fluck I am strong protanopia)
I also agree with you, that green traffic lights are not green – at least not to me. The top two are two different species of yellow and the bottom one is white – kinda like a dirty light-bulb (of the old-fashioned kind.)
All the best – Richard.
August 2nd, 2012 at 23:48
Angle: -84.2
Major: 16.9
Minor: 7.2
TES: 18.3
S-index: 3.33
C-index: 2.82
Yet it says I have a protan defect? O_o
I can pass Ishihara tests- except for when they say something is “blue-green” I see it as dull green and when they say “purple” I see a ruddy brownish color.
I also see the numbers normally, but occasionally see a number that apparently, I just hallucinated, because neither normal nor colorblind people can see it (for example, normal sees 5, colorblind sees 2, I see 8?)
On 100 Hue That Is Actually 88 tests, I score as having a slight blue defect, and according to people with normal vision, I don’t see blues as well. I see yellow perfectly fine though (unless it’s light yellow, which I occasionally confuse with pink).
By the way, I’m sorry if I completely suck at using the English language and this is hard to understand…
August 2nd, 2012 at 23:51
Gah I forgot to put this on, may be a late post
But I have no diagnosis of color blindness, so as far as I know I’m not colorblind.
August 3rd, 2012 at 1:34
So what happens to people who want to become pilots or join the Coast Guard and learn to “beat” a colour blindness test? They put others at danger because so many so many indicators rely on colour to deliver another dimension of information quickly. I have fairly severe protanopia and/or deuteranopia (depending on the circumstances of the test) but I know that I wouldn’t want to fly in any plane piloted by me :) I discovered (to my horror) that a telltale on my wife’s car was “glowing bright red” and I could not see it.
August 3rd, 2012 at 1:39
I have explained many times (and some close friends now understand) that it is not a matter of not seeing colours, it’s a matter of distinguishing or differentiating colours. It was a long time discovering that “green” traffic signals were a different colour than the overhead (incandescent) luminaires on the streets.
vP.S. to Tessa – your English is fine. Most colour blindness tests only look for the most common red/green deficiencies and would miss your blue deficiency.
August 3rd, 2012 at 1:41
@Donald
Thanks for that (both confirming that I am understandable and that I’m right in a way)
August 3rd, 2012 at 8:45
Hi Richard Healy,
Thanks for that… I have only just realised today that Cadburys wrappers are purple. I always thought they were blue!!
I had to double check online.
The other frustrating things were phone/ camera chargers. Red and green light – Could never tell when fully charged.
Thanks,
Derek
August 3rd, 2012 at 10:57
Hi Derek – you should check out some of the stories in the forum. There is one there of a person who couldn’t tell the difference in lit LEDs – I find that so challenging too.
I’ve also re-posted my “interview” in there where I go into more elaborate detail of what my colour vision is like.
(in summary: shockingly bad.) :-P
August 14th, 2012 at 6:01
Angle Major Minor TES S-index C-index
61.9 9.2 6.7 11.4 1.38 1.00
August 18th, 2012 at 8:30
Angle Major Minor TES S-index C-index
-7.4 41.8 5.7 42.2 7.35 4.52
I have to admit being a color blind ER nurse does have its challenges.
September 2nd, 2012 at 17:45
Didn’t read everything but it says I am not colour-blind.
Angle Major Minor TES S-index C-index
61.9 9.2 6.7 11.4 1.38 1.00
September 19th, 2012 at 1:25
ON this test is says I have a slight protan defec. Intereting because I don’t have much of a problem with red and green It’s blue/purple/turquoise/pink/tan that Im always getting mixed up.
On the 100 hue test the results showed a slight tritan defect which is not surprising to me
And I can pass the Ishihara test with no problem.
September 23rd, 2012 at 19:51
Ok I score perfectly normal on this test. But I struggle with Ishihara tests. Often with Ishihara plates I will see that say there is a green dot number on top of brown, red, orange, yellow dot background. But I cannot easily discern the number as a whole without tracing the green dots with my finger to discover what it is. Looking at a small area in which green dot occurs I can clearly see green and green is certainly not yellow or red or orange etc, but I cannot make out the whole number without tracing. Similarly with other combinations of colours. The fact that I can get the numbers by tracing with my finger shows that I can certainly see the different colours and intended parts of the number, but for some reason I can’t seem to focus my attention on the number as a whole and make it stand out as a single entity. What is wrong with me? Seems like its not colour blindness but some deficiency in in visual processing deeper down.
October 14th, 2012 at 7:33
Maybe you have a problem naming numbers? Or trouble focusing on objects? Forgive my dumbness if I’m wrong.
October 15th, 2012 at 18:57
Well since I have a PhD in Math I doubt its a problem naming numbers :) As far as focusing is concerned its as if my brain wants to give precedence to the size of the dots over their color when it comes to picking out groupings of dots. I notice the sets of dots of a particular size more easily than sets defined by a particular color.
December 16th, 2012 at 13:35
Thank you Daniel .. easy to identify
February 26th, 2013 at 18:03
A surprising result.. After years of believing I was a Protan, this test along with my results from the FM 100 test suggest that I am a Deutan. I scored 260 on the FM100.
Angle Major Mino TES S-index C-index
-1.8 33.9 7.6 34.7 4.48 3.67
March 30th, 2013 at 20:38
Angle Major Minor TES S-Index
61.9 9.2 6.7 11.4 1.38
C-Index
1.00
As a woman, I still have problems putting into words the surplus of *shades and colors I also perceive…Especially in shades of “red”…There’s more than what you think you’re perceiving, men. Sisters, we can thank our colorblind male relatives for that genetic rod & cone *gift ;)
March 30th, 2013 at 20:43
PS. The red used on your website makes me dizzy as do Target stores :P hehe
May 13th, 2013 at 16:36
This is an interesting web-site and this test is very interesting.
I think there could be some improvements made to the way the test is presented and the results given.
I agree with the others about wanting to see both the diagramatic result and the numeric results. I find this information hard to interpret.
I would be interested in you sending me my results by e-mail (since you have it!) as well.
I suspect I have a mild color blindness and my C-Index of 1.34 suggests that is the case, though the headline says that I am not colorblind. I’ve taken this test 3 times and had slightly different results each time, but by C-Index has always been over 1.3.
Many thanks for this work and I hope I can help a bit more.
May 18th, 2013 at 1:07
Says I’m not colorblind but I am :-( Reds and greens are really hard for me and as such browns. Been tested for it but I passed this with “flying colors”.
May 18th, 2013 at 20:25
Angle Major Minor TES S-index C-index
39.1 38.7 26.6 47.0 1.45 4.19
Well, that’s not good.
May 21st, 2013 at 4:27
What’s required to attempt this test? I click and try to drag the colored squares to the upper boxes, but nothing happens.