Ethereal Espresso on Intrigue Red

#3e2723 on #b24648

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

2.54:1

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 22.0

Clears Lc 15 — disabled or purely decorative text, which is not meant to be read.

Dark text on a lighter ground.

Colour difference

ΔE00 26.4

different colours

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

What the text colour has to become

#ffe4df is the nearest colour of the same hue that passes AA on #b24648, 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 2.08:1, ΔE00 16.6.

deuteranopia

Body text

Ratio 2.77:1, ΔE00 25.5.

tritanopia

Body text

Ratio 3.46:1, ΔE00 31.6.

The weakest of the three is protanopia, where the two are ΔE00 16.6 apart against 26.4 for a trichromat — still clearly two colours.

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