Color Blindness Tests
Many people are looking for a possibility to test their color vision on the web. Unfortunately there aren’t many color blindness tests available online. So this page shall bring together a series of tests to check your personal type of color vision deficiency and the severity of it.
Please be aware that your personal computer display settings, ambient light and other factors can affect your test result. If you want to get an accurate diagnosis of your color vision deficiency, please visit your local eye specialist.
Ishihara 38 Plates CVD Test
The often called Ishihara plates were introduced by Dr. Shinobu Ishihara from Japan long time ago. Since then this test is the most well known all around the world.
This test consists of 38 different pseudoisochromatic plates. Each of them hides a number or line behind colorful dots. Based on what you can see and what not, it is possible to check if you are suffering from some form of red-green color blindness.
As the test is usually executed in a booklet, it is not the best possibility to online test your type and severity of color blindness. Other tests like the arrangement tests below show better results.
Farnsworth-Munsell 100 Hue Color Vision Test
This famous color vision test—which is based on 88 colored plates and not 100 as the name suggest—was introduced in 1943 by Farnsworth.
The test will show you four batches of 22 mixed colored plates. What you have to do is to arrange the for rows of plates in a correct order. That’s all.
All misplacements will be summed up to your personal total error score. The higher your TES is, the more severely colorblind you are. On the other hand you can also get some information on the type of your color vision deficiency based on the area around your biggest error points.
Color Arrangement Test
In 1947 Farnsworth released the D-15 dichotomous test. This is to this day one of the most famous color vision deficiency test and definitely the most famous color arrangement test.
You simply have to arrange the given colors in the correct order of colors. If you are suffering from some form of color blindness, you will arrange them quite differently compared to persons with normal color vision.
With this test is not only possible to check the type of your color vision deficiency but also its severity. Unfortunately the test results are not completely reliable, which is a base problem for all types of online color vision tests. But the result will be a good indicator of your correct color vision abilities, specially if you take it under different conditions.
RGB Anomaloscope
This is my first try to develop a simple red-green color blindness test. It is based on the idea of the real anomaloscope, made from two different light sources which have to be brought to a match.
Just match the left color to the right one using the slider below the box. If you can match several of them you are definitely red-green colorblind. Originally I wanted to retrieve more detailed information from the test results. But it didn’t work out—yet.
55 Responses to “Color Blindness Tests”
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March 20th, 2008 at 0:24
It states above that if yu CAN match several of them then you are definatly red-green colourblind…is it ment 2 say if you CANT ?? xx
March 20th, 2008 at 8:02
Emma, no the wording is correct. You can only match the colors when you are colorblind. Non-colorblind can’t make a match because there are never the same colors displayed.
June 4th, 2008 at 4:22
This test is interesting. A problem occurs when the colour on the right aproach a pure yellow. At this point a very close match is possible. The difference can be as low as 1.2% (eg Left RGB=255-255-0 Right RGB=253-253-0) This means that people with normal color vision will probably get a wrong result.
June 16th, 2008 at 14:11
I am almost certain that I am colourblind and this test tells me that I am not. I believe that this test is good for detecting whether or not the person has a dichromacy.
June 17th, 2008 at 18:59
well i can’t really tell, but i was playing with my cat and this came to mind so i turned on my laptop and googled cats and dogs being color blind. are they a little bit color blind, all the way color blind, or are they just like us?
July 1st, 2008 at 13:35
Surely the results depend on the setup of your monitor also. I have passed all regular aviation colour blind tests and yet this test tells me I have strong red-green colour-blindness…odd discrepancy!
July 30th, 2008 at 4:13
well this test says that I am moderately-severely blue-green colorblind.. but I was tested by the eye doc when i was about 8 (now 18) and I was told that it was very mild and that it was only with colors that are close such as some reds and pinks or blacks and blues..
July 31st, 2008 at 14:03
Strange, the test has just told me that I am moderate to strong red/green clourblind but I’m not!! I have had eye tests previously for the armed forces and police with no problems. I was looking on the site as my son has recently been diagnosed as red/green colour blind.
August 11th, 2008 at 4:03
i’m a doctor,come from indonesia.i interisted in color blind, coz i worked in police hospital. as a doctor, i had to eximine the candidate for policeman.one of the test is colorblind test. so i think the ishihara plate was a standard for the test. i’d looking for the further test 4 colorblinds.. thx
August 20th, 2008 at 11:44
It says Im moderately to strong red/green colour blind yet Ive never had any problems …
I am light sensitive however could this ahve affected my results?
August 31st, 2008 at 5:57
My ten years old son could match all of the colors exept for one of them, but i couldn’t fully understand the graphic that evaluate it…
Can ya explaine it to me?
Thankz in advanced!!
September 5th, 2008 at 21:16
Flor, one side consist of a mixture of green and red and the other has this mixture stable at 50/50, only changing its brightness. Now, if you can match more values this means your color blindness is more severe. So the longer the line from left to right the more red-green colorblind you are.
October 24th, 2008 at 8:08
Hello, this is a interesting test and you guy did a great job. Thanks for sharing.
December 27th, 2008 at 18:29
Mr. Flück, really interesting test. I took it myself and also my wife, daughter and brother-in-law. Being myself strongly colour-blinded the results from the test were pretty much consistent with those one might expect of it (I matched all but one colour scheme). The same applies to to my folks (which managed not to match all but one of the frames).
Congrats for the nice job,
Andre Morandi
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
March 3rd, 2009 at 9:15
what is more important, the abilty of the eye to see color? or the mind to memorize color….can a color blind memorize the name of a color that a normal person can see, base on the color shades he can see< …
March 18th, 2009 at 1:23
kinelskie, I do not believe that a colorblind person could memorize the color because as such, they literally cannot tell the difference, so they would have nothing to memorize besides context cues and the color as they see it (which, if they are colorblind, they misidentify).
Anyway, I browsed across this site because, being St. Patrick’s Day, I was a little bit stunned how many people called my green shirt blue. It’s sort of a dark teal, imo more green than blue. I took the colorblindness tests here, and I have taken them at the optometrist before and always passed. I believe the situation you describe would only be possible with a person such as myself, where apparently I am not colorblind, but I seem to have a learned bias. I can tell the shades are different and place them along a spectrum in the correct order, but I guess I tend to shift the names to the right a little bit on the latter half of the spectrum.
April 22nd, 2009 at 14:55
Respected Sir,
As i am a boiler panel engineer and want to boost my career in Cairns energy which is a MNC and i have a colour blindness and could not read all ishihara plates and so,they have hold me so pl.can you tell me is it necessary or not ?as a panel engineer in europe to pass compulsory or it is a tolerable is there any case like me in anywhere in world
May 11th, 2009 at 4:57
Hi, I know I’m colour blind but didn’t know what type, according to the test I’m severely red-green colour blind but I was wondering if you knew of any blue-red colour blindness tests.
June 18th, 2009 at 8:36
I’m Brix Flores from Philippines, 25 years of age and im very much interested with the topic regarding “COLORBLINDNESS”. I want to learn and study and have some information about it if this type of visual deficiency can positively cure or not or just for life deficiency…? Im very much degrade coz i have it.. thanks hope anyone could reply to this. i don’t know what to do..
July 7th, 2009 at 12:54
hi ..
i dont understand the result graph
September 16th, 2009 at 15:58
hi i want to join the australian army can you tell me the requirments for these jobs:commando,infantry soldier and tank officer thanks
October 23rd, 2009 at 0:33
If it takes us longer, our average speed will be lower. ,
November 6th, 2009 at 14:09
hi..
i am okan from turkey. i am a color blind according to ishiarra plates. i didn’t read any of them. so i couldn’t pass the exam for turkish army, because they don’t want to take any color blind to army. but according to these two test up ahead, i am not a color blind. yes the results says ” you are not a color blind” i don!t understand anything. now i am wondering that i am a color blind or not. i just a little confused. bye bye.
November 8th, 2009 at 9:48
colour blindness tobic is very inpartant to my knowloge confused lite green and lite orrange any help me mail to bakthasun@gmail.com. So You Read this mail very much degrade coz i have it.. thanks hope anyone could reply to this. i don’t know what to do..
December 31st, 2009 at 12:41
Samantha. Dogs are colorblind but cats are not, cats dont have as good of color vision as us but they have it
January 4th, 2010 at 9:11
Okan. You cannot, repeat cannot rely on Ishihara. You must go and see an eye specialist to get a more accurate result.
February 10th, 2010 at 7:03
Im working on my uscg license renewal and knew I had a red green deficiency,cant pass the ishiara or the flant(thought the flant would be easy,NOT) they accepted the D-15 with my original license but now they say its not acceptable(pass it,no problem).I matched 2 on this anomaloscope(weak deficiency). any info. on uscg alternative testing?
March 17th, 2010 at 15:56
excellent tests…bravo
March 17th, 2010 at 19:03
Primary colors are easy. And very green such as golf course grass is easy. Colors like “teal” are just mean.
March 17th, 2010 at 19:34
if you are all the way color blind, you distinguish between black and white.
March 18th, 2010 at 1:44
t states above that if yu CAN match several of them then you are definatly red-green colourblind…is it ment 2 say if you CANT ?? xx
April 21st, 2010 at 3:42
Hey guys,
I was about to lose my job because of a slight green deficiency, but I found a ophthalmologist. She gave me the Farnsworth 100 and 15 test and a couple of others so don’t give up find a doc that has these test and fight back.
May 17th, 2010 at 6:22
Hey Daniel.This is a great website. I am a 11yr old boy and im using this website as a information source.Is that ok?
I have coloured blindness so i can use this to a really great use.
Thnx Reagan
May 18th, 2010 at 20:39
Reagan, thanks and nice to hear that you can use it. You can cite any content of this site wherever you like to. – Daniel.
June 5th, 2010 at 8:51
Hey according to this test and the colour arrangement I am not colourblind. However using the ishiarra plates I am.
Most eye tests in my country use ishiarra plates so I am confused, am I colourblind or not?
June 15th, 2010 at 12:13
I am colourblind, good test. Very accurate.
@kinelskie, we’re not babies, its not just as easy as remembering the colours name…. we actually can not see the difference.
June 30th, 2010 at 0:43
[...] blindness as you can read here and you can even check if you are suffering from one by taking this tests on the same [...]
August 6th, 2010 at 20:51
They thought I was colorblind when I was little, I have always known I was and just never liked to say anything but at work today I had to deal with a spreadsheet with lots of colors on it – I couldn’t distinguish the difference between blues and pinks… my manager suggested I got my eyes tested!
August 30th, 2010 at 6:53
“Many people are looking for a possibility to test their color vision on the web. Unfortunately there aren’t many color blindness tests available online.”
Above is what it says on this website. Are you kidding? There are HEAPS of color blindness tests available online.
October 10th, 2010 at 8:10
I am colorblind and have taken many color vision tests online. I noticed there are a lot of online tests out there that are completely dysfunctional and do not work. This frustrates me as both a colorblind person and someone who wants to spread the word about colorblindness.
I just want to let you know that I was impressed with the colorblind test that you have developed. Although it is not the similar to the Ishihara therefore I’m unsure it is valid, I like how you have thought out of the box in creating this application. I’m a pretty intelligent person but had a hard time interpreting the results that I was given. If you could think of a better way to explain that someone has a color vision deficiency, I think it would be much more beneficial. With that said, I think the results that it gave, if I interpreted them correctly, we correct.
On my website, http://www.TestingColorVision.com, we have the traditional test that my father, Dr. Terrace Waggoner, created. It is a bummer because people do have to pay for our test but the conditions are very standardized and a lot of thought has gone into making our test as valid as possible for pharmaceutical companies. dialysis centers, hospitals, and schools. Plus, we have many researchers currently validating our test.
Thanks for creating a nifty site and helping inform people about color vision deficiencies.
Cheers
October 15th, 2010 at 1:31
Can color blindness get worse with age?
October 20th, 2010 at 22:03
John, unfortunately yes. Aging can cause color vision problems. Usually those occur in the blue-green color spectrum – as some type of Tritanopia – Blue-Yellow Color Blindness.
- Daniel
November 23rd, 2010 at 6:38
It says i have moderat color-blindness, i’m not sure if that is a real thing.
December 12th, 2010 at 19:11
I’m severely colour blind… Sorry to my future sons…
January 7th, 2011 at 23:53
The two tests give a bit different results. I can match all the plates rendering me colorblind, but in my second attempt at the arrangement test I do quite well though not perfect. In other tests i flunk the Ishihara-test. Looking at the i-plates through a green filter makes no difference, but with a red filter I see them all. From this I infere that I have protanopi. The green filter blocking the red, which is already blocked, to say. Is that correct?
January 8th, 2011 at 12:07
Gorade, it’s exactly the same for me. The green filter, blocking the red light shades, doesn’t change anything for me. And the red-filter makes me see a completely different image, blocking the green parts makes me see the different red brightnesses. – I’m strongly red-blind.
January 8th, 2011 at 13:34
Daniel Flück says: “The green filter, blocking the red light shades, doesn’t change anything for me. And the red-filter makes me see a completely different image, blocking the green parts makes me see the different red brightnesses. – I’m strongly red-blind.”
It would be interesting to hear from someone strongly green-blind, if ((s))he could confirm that the red filter doesn’t change any, but the green one does.
February 5th, 2011 at 22:15
This is interesting. I took each test and I am apparently minorly color blind with my yellows and light-moderate color blind with my darker colors. It’s very interesting, really. I do hope it won’t affect my getting a drivers license in two years, though.
April 5th, 2011 at 23:02
hiya dudes colour blind? no way im cool il never be colour blind il never be blind in any way whatsoever the tests are great though and there arnt many so im buzzin i ony had 2 give up 5 mins of social networking:P lolxx
April 13th, 2011 at 7:21
any treatment of colour bliend.
May 2nd, 2012 at 17:20
Defenitely tested colorblind-positive several times, but both tests here say that I am not..
May 2nd, 2012 at 17:50
“Stefan Says:
May 2nd, 2012 at 17:20
Defenitely tested colorblind-positive several times, but both tests here say that I am not..
“
How about the colour settings of your monitor?
Perhaps it helps you unintentionally:^)
July 6th, 2012 at 15:56
I am suffuring from colour blind i canot read some of the plate i am joint the army becuse how will i do the test
July 13th, 2012 at 16:17
hy mujay blidness ha ma kia karon
March 14th, 2013 at 4:29
I am suffuring from colour blind i canot read some of the plate i am joint the army becuse how will i do the test