Pastel Brown on Kelp
#836953 on #4d503c
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
1.63:1
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 -11.9
Below Lc 15: the draft treats this as not text.
Light text on a darker ground — the negative sign is the polarity.
Colour difference
ΔE00 19.2
different colours
Above 10 — related only in the sense that both are colours.
What the text colour has to become
#d6baa2 is the nearest colour of the same hue that passes AA on #4d503c, 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
Ratio 1.54:1, ΔE00 10.4.
deuteranopia
Ratio 1.67:1, ΔE00 12.9.
tritanopia
Ratio 1.74:1, ΔE00 25.3.
The weakest of the three is protanopia, where the two are ΔE00 10.4 apart against 19.2 for a trichromat — still clearly two colours.
Both colours have pages of their own: Pastel Brown ·Kelp · the same pair the other way round ·all pairs