Color Blind Test
A free online color vision test with 12 Ishihara-style dot plates. Find out in two minutes whether you may have red-green (protan or deutan) or blue-yellow (tritan) color blindness — with your result shown instantly.
Take the color blind test
You'll see 12 circles made of colored dots. Most hide a one- or two-digit number. Type the number you see, or choose I can't see a number. It takes about two minutes.
- Turn screen brightness up and switch off Night Shift, Night Light, True Tone or any blue-light filter.
- Sit about an arm's length from the screen in normal room light.
- Wear your usual glasses or contacts — but not color-correcting (EnChroma-style) lenses.
- Answer within a few seconds. Don't tilt the screen or zoom in.
Free, private and instant — the plates are drawn in your browser and your answers never leave your device. This is a screening test, not a medical diagnosis.
What number do you see?
Keyboard: type digits, Enter for next, N if you see no number.
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This is a screening test, not a diagnosis. Screens, brightness and lighting all change how the plates look. If your result suggests a color vision deficiency — or if you are unsure — ask an optometrist or ophthalmologist for a full color vision assessment.
Your answers, plate by plate
How this color blind test works
This online color blind test uses pseudo-isochromatic plates — the same principle as the Ishihara test used by eye doctors. Each plate is a circle of dots in slightly different colors and brightnesses. The dots that form the number differ from the background only in a color direction that a particular type of color blindness cannot see, so a person with normal color vision reads the number easily while a person with that deficiency sees only a field of dots.
The plates on this page are original and generated fresh every time, with new random numbers, so you can retake the color vision test without remembering the answers. The colors are calculated from the same color-science model as our color blindness simulator, which means each plate is designed to be unreadable for one specific type of color vision deficiency:
- 1 demonstration plate that everyone should be able to read — it checks your screen and that you understand the task.
- 6 red-green screening plates at strong, medium and subtle contrast, half aimed at protan (red) and half at deutan (green) vision. Missing only the subtle plates points to a mild deficiency; missing the strong ones points to a more severe one.
- 2 classification plates with two digits: one digit is invisible to protans and the other to deutans, so which digit you read helps tell the two types apart.
- 3 blue-yellow plates that screen for the rarer tritan deficiency.
Types of color blindness this test checks for
Red-green color blindness is by far the most common. Deuteranomaly (weak green cones) affects about 5% of men, and deuteranopia (no working green cones) about 1%. Protanomaly and protanopia affect the red cones — about 1% of men each — and also make reds look darker. Because the genes sit on the X chromosome, roughly 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women have some form of red-green color vision deficiency.
Blue-yellow color blindness — tritanomaly and tritanopia — is rare, affects men and women equally, and is sometimes acquired later in life through eye disease or medication rather than inherited. Achromatopsia, seeing no color at all, is very rare and is usually accompanied by light sensitivity and reduced sharpness of vision. To see what each of these looks like on any color or photo, open the color blindness simulator.
Am I color blind? Reading your result
If you read every plate, your color vision is very likely normal. If you missed two or more red-green plates, the test reports a possible red-green color deficiency, estimates whether it looks more like protan or deutan, and grades it as mild, moderate or strong based on which contrast levels you missed. Missing the demonstration plate usually means a screen or setup problem rather than color blindness, so fix the settings and retake the test.
An online color blindness test can only screen. Monitors differ in color accuracy and brightness, and filters like Night Shift shift every plate toward yellow, which mainly affects the blue-yellow plates. A clinical color vision test uses printed plates under standard daylight or an anomaloscope, so if your result flags a deficiency — or matters for a job such as pilot, electrician or police officer — book an assessment with an optometrist or ophthalmologist.
Want a more detailed measurement? The Cambridge color test uses an adaptive method based on the clinical Cambridge Colour Test to measure your threshold on the red, green and blue-yellow axes separately — useful for grading a mild deficiency or checking for tritan loss.
Living and designing with color blindness
Most people with a color vision deficiency adapt so well that they only discover it through a test like this one. In day-to-day life it helps to rely on position, labels and brightness rather than hue — the order of traffic lights, the text on a wire, the name of a paint color. Electronics hobbyists can read resistor bands by name instead of by eye with the resistor color code calculator. The color name from image tool can tell you what a color in a photo is called, and the image color picker gives its exact code.
If you design websites, apps, charts or signage, about 1 in 12 of your male users sees color differently. Never use red versus green as the only signal, add icons, patterns or labels as a second cue, and make sure text has enough contrast — check pairs in the contrast checker, build a palette that stays distinct with the palette generator or the color matcher, and preview every screen in the color blindness simulator before you ship.
Looking for a lighter color quiz? The color personality test asks 12 quick questions to find which of eight personality colors fits you best — just for fun.
Color blind test FAQ
How accurate is an online color blind test?
It is a good first screening, but not a diagnosis. Screen color, brightness and filters such as Night Shift change how the plates look. If the test suggests a color vision deficiency, or the result matters for your job, ask an optometrist or ophthalmologist for a clinical color vision test.
Is this the Ishihara test?
It works on the same principle — numbers hidden in circles of colored dots — but the plates are original and generated fresh each time with new random numbers. Their colors are calculated so that each plate is unreadable for one specific type of color blindness.
What types of color blindness does this test check?
Red-green color blindness, including protanopia and protanomaly (red-weak) and deuteranopia and deuteranomaly (green-weak), and blue-yellow color blindness, tritanopia and tritanomaly. Red-green plates come at three contrast levels so the result can also estimate how mild or strong a deficiency is.
How common is color blindness?
About 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women have red-green color vision deficiency, most often deuteranomaly. Blue-yellow color blindness is rare and affects men and women equally.
Can I take the color blind test more than once?
Yes. Every attempt generates new plates with different numbers, so you can retake the test as often as you like — for example after changing your screen settings — without remembering the answers.