Matt Green on Out of the Blue

#39ad48 on #1199ee

Body text at this size

And the smaller size most interfaces actually use for paragraphs — the size that decides whether a pair is usable.

Caption text, which almost nothing passes.

WCAG 2.1

1.06:1

Fails AA

Not AAA (7:1). Swapping the two colours gives the same number — the ratio does not know which is the text.

APCA

Lc 0.0

Below Lc 15: the draft treats this as not text.

Too close to call.

Colour difference

ΔE00 53.2

different colours

Above 10 — related only in the sense that both are colours.

What the text colour has to become

#003509 is the nearest colour of the same hue that passes AA on #1199ee, at 4.50:1. Only the lightness moved, and some chroma was given up to stay inside sRGB — which is the point: your colour stays recognisably your colour.

And to someone missing a cone

protanopia

Body text

Ratio 1.08:1, ΔE00 55.7.

deuteranopia

Body text

Ratio 1.06:1, ΔE00 55.2.

tritanopia

Body text

Ratio 1.23:1, ΔE00 6.2.

The weakest of the three is tritanopia, where the two are ΔE00 6.2 apart against 53.2 for a trichromat — still two colours, but a closer call than it looks to you.

Both colours have pages of their own: Matt Green ·Out of the Blue · the same pair the other way round ·all pairs