5 Online Color Blindness Tests

Do you ever wanted to test your color vision? Are you not sure if you might suffer from some type of color vision deficiency? Here are five ways to test online if you are colorblind or not and also to give you a clue about the type of your color blindness.

Color blindness tests are often used check if you fulfill some job requirements. Certain professions like police officer or pilot most often require very good color vision. But also a lot of mothers are curious about the color vision of their children.

The following five checks are quite different but serve the same purpose. So if you take a few of them—or even all five—you will get a quite complete picture of your color vision abilities. Please add your thoughts, ideas and maybe even your test results in the comments section.

Ishihara Plate 23
Ishihara Plate

1. Ishihara plates color blindness test.

This plates are named after a Japanese professor and by far the best known test for red-green color blindness. They are made out of many colored circles and are showing a number, which can only be seen if you are not colorblind.

The test can tell you if you either are red- or green-blind, but can’t tell you a lot about the severity of your color blindness. Ishihara plates are often used by eye doctors to check for color blindness.

D-15 Color Blindness Test
D-15 Color Blindness Test

2. Farnsworth Dichotomous Test (D-15).

The Farnsworth D-15 test is also a very well known and belongs to a category of color blindness tests called Color Arrangement Tests. All these tests are based on different colors—in this case 15 of them, sometimes consisting of up to 100 different hues—which have to be arranged in the correct order.

According to the order you choose a tester can find out if you are suffering from a red-, green- or blue-color deficiency.

City University Test

City University CVD Test

3. City University Dynamic Colour Vision Test.

Professor John L. Barbur from the City University London does a lot of research in the area of color vision and color blindness. He and his team developed a computer color vision test based on the same principle as the Ishihara test.

They are offering the City University Online Color Vision Test also on the web in a very simplified version. The City University color vision test is good to test for any type of color blindness.

Color Blindness Test - Example Screen

Color Blindness Test at biyee.net

4. Color Vision Test at Biyee.net.

This great online test has no long history or well known institute in the background. It is simply a Color Blindness Test based on Confusion Lines of the CIE 1931 Color Space.

But a very good one which is available online.

You have three different tests, one for each type of color vision deficiency: protan, deutan and tritan defects. And the test results tell you a lot more about the type of color blindness you are suffering from.

Color Blindness Test - Color Match

Color Blindness Test – Color Matching

5. Multiple Choice Color Vision Test.

The French optician Jean Jouannic offers an Online Multiple Choice Color Blindness Test based on 31 images. The images are either hidden signs and letters or a handful of colors which you have to match to a choice of color names.

As colorblind people show great difficulties matching color names to colors, this is another appropriate method to test color vision.

The test has some nice statistics when you have finished and tries to quantify your color blindness in detail.

You should know, that all online color blindness tests are not truly reliable. Because of different display settings, display gamma values and ambient light situations you can’t rely on the results of online color vision deficiency tests. They will show you the direction, but for a reliable result you have to visit an eye specialist.

23 responses on “5 Online Color Blindness Tests

  1. Daniel Flück Post author

    Katie, you need to have a look at all the different factors. So only the angle won’t tell you anything about your color blindness.

    If your result is a circle line without crossings, you have normal color vision according to this test.

  2. Kami

    Hmm, perfect scores on everything. I came here because I was a bit confused. I see things as purple sometimes, when others see them as pink. My doctor once tested me, with the same results, so I don’t know why this is.

  3. Daniel Flück Post author

    Josh, the D-15 test is an arrangement test. You have to drag and drop the circles into a correct color order. The result will tell you, if you are color deficient or not.

  4. with

    Farnsworth Dichotomous Test (D-15) is cool and fun!l lol! i also like Multiple Choice Color Vision Test. It’s sad what colour blind people see

  5. Kratom

    Ah, just what i was looking for. After arguing with my brother about his blues and greens not being even on a design he just did i used this site to prove his color blindness. But now i feel like a jerk cause he is all depressed LOL.

  6. Kris

    Known for a while theat i was midly colour blind. Doing the tests once again confirmed that. Some of the things im not supposed to see i do.
    They really need to start investing more in stem cell research, because it will bring a cure people !

  7. Clifton Griffin

    My color blindness seems to defy categorization (or not, but bear with me).

    I mostly struggle with identifying purple and blue. Most of the time I guess correctly, but if the area of color is small and there are many other colors around it is a crap shoot.

    I completely and spectacularly fail the Ishihara test, but can easily complete both the Farnsworth and Multiple Choice test.

    It’s is very annoying.

  8. prakasg

    I think i have a colour blindness.I have a medical test on 15.02.2010.Please tell me the cure for attend the test

  9. appleoreo

    Here’s one for red-green color blind people! go to this site here

    and see plate 7.

    The majority of those with red-green colour blindness can trace the winding line between the two X’s.

    The majority of those with normal and total colour blindness are unable to follow the line.

    Hurray for red-green color blindness! you who have this natural perception melting will have to tell me what you see, because it just looks like a bunch of dots to me!

  10. Tony

    Is the Plates somehow harsher towards mild colorblindness? i continously fail on the plates, but pass with flying colors :) on all other tests? I mean i admitingly cannot see squate on the plates, period, i cant even guess a right answer, even in real life in the dr’s office. any ideas? It only disappoints because most jobs that require the test use the plates test if they test for colorblindness.

  11. Michael

    When I took the arrangement test I had an end product of what looked almost like an omega symbol. And yes i’m color blind.

  12. Britannia

    Greg, I’m not too sure of good your knowledge of Biology is, but maybe you know some simple genetics?
    That is, that a woman has two XX’s and a man has a XY.
    The gene for colourblindness is carried on the Y. :3

  13. Janis

    Nope — the gene is carried on the X. The reason more men get it is because, if they get a bum X, they don’t get another to balance it out. If a woman gets a bum X, she has another chance to get the good kind. That’s why women can be carriers, but it’s much rarer for us to be colorblind.

    Basically, for a guy to be colorblind, he just needs to roll snake-eyes once. A woman gets a “consolation roll,” and is only color blind if she rolls snake-eyes twice, genetically speaking.

  14. manish

    i want to buy ishihara color vision test.
    please somebody tell me that from where i can buy the original ishihara test in delhi(india).

  15. Mark

    How come I fail the 1st test but I pass all the following four tests 100%?

    I always fail the dot tests, but even at my opticians I pass the other colour tests. I don’t get why?

  16. imtiaz

    Nice article. I was looking for a online color blindness checker. Your article worked greatly with me. I’ve book marked you.