Ethereal Espresso on Olympian Blue

#3e2723 on #1c4c8c

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

1.62:1

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 9.3

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

Dark text on a lighter ground.

Colour difference

ΔE00 30.7

different colours

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

What the text colour has to become

#d4b6b0 is the nearest colour of the same hue that passes AA on #1c4c8c, at 4.50:1. Only the lightness moved — which is the point: your colour stays recognisably your colour.

And to someone missing a cone

protanopia

Body text

Ratio 1.78:1, ΔE00 30.6.

deuteranopia

Body text

Ratio 1.54:1, ΔE00 34.2.

tritanopia

Body text

Ratio 1.49:1, ΔE00 54.0.

The weakest of the three is protanopia, where the two are ΔE00 30.6 apart against 30.7 for a trichromat — still clearly two colours.

Both colours have pages of their own: Ethereal Espresso ·Olympian Blue · the same pair the other way round ·all pairs