Neon Boneyard on Vintage Bloom

#dfc5fe on #c0b0d0

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

1.31:1

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 -13.9

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 9.0

clearly different

Between 5 and 10 — nobody would call these the same colour.

What the text colour has to become

#553e6e is the nearest colour of the same hue that passes AA on #c0b0d0, 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 1.30:1, ΔE00 8.6.

deuteranopia

Body text

Ratio 1.31:1, ΔE00 8.7.

tritanopia

Body text

Ratio 1.31:1, ΔE00 6.9.

The weakest of the three is tritanopia, where the two are ΔE00 6.9 apart against 9.0 for a trichromat — still two colours, but a closer call than it looks to you.

Both colours have pages of their own: Neon Boneyard ·Vintage Bloom · the same pair the other way round ·all pairs