Cover of Night on Cherry on Top

#494e4f on #ac495c

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

1.55:1

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 10.6

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

Dark text on a lighter ground.

Colour difference

ΔE00 23.3

different colours

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

What the text colour has to become

#e5ebec is the nearest colour of the same hue that passes AA on #ac495c, 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 1.24:1, ΔE00 4.9.

deuteranopia

Body text

Ratio 1.72:1, ΔE00 18.5.

tritanopia

Body text

Ratio 2.18:1, ΔE00 41.8.

The weakest of the three is protanopia, where the two are ΔE00 4.9 apart against 23.3 for a trichromat — effectively one colour. If anything on your interface depends on telling these apart, it needs a second signal.

Both colours have pages of their own: Cover of Night ·Cherry on Top · the same pair the other way round ·all pairs