Contrast Ratio: Easily calculate color contrast ratios. Passing WCAG was never this easy!

How to use

As you type, the contrast ratio indicated will update. Hover over the circle to get more detailed information. When semi-transparent colors are involved as backgrounds, the contrast ratio will have an error margin, to account for the different colors they may be over.

This sample text attempts to visually demonstrate how readable this color combination is, for normal or bold text of various sizes and font styles.

Hint: Press the up and down keyboard arrows while over a number inside a functional color notation. Watch it increment/decrement. Try with the Shift or Alt key too!

 

 

Contrast (Minimum)

Level AA

The visual presentation of text and images of text has a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1, except for the following:

Large Text: Large-scale text and images of large-scale text have a contrast ratio of at least 3:1;

Incidental: Text or images of text that are part of an inactive user interface component, that are pure decoration, that are not visible to anyone, or that are part of a picture that contains significant other visual content, have no contrast requirement.

Logotypes: Text that is part of a logo or brand name has no minimum contrast requirement.

The contrast ratio of 4.5:1 was chosen for level AA because it compensated for the loss in contrast sensitivity usually experienced by users with vision loss equivalent to approximately 20/40 vision. (20/40 calculates to approximately 4.5:1.) 20/40 is commonly reported as typical visual acuity of elders at roughly age 80. [GITTINGS-FOZARD]

The contrast ratio of 7:1 was chosen for level AAA because it compensated for the loss in contrast sensitivity usually experienced by users with vision loss equivalent to approximately 20/80 vision. People with more than this degree of vision loss usually use assistive technologies to access their content (and the assistive technologies usually have contrast enhancing, as well as magnification capability built into them). The 7:1 level therefore generally provides compensation for the loss in contrast sensitivity experienced by users with low vision who do not use assistive technology and provides contrast enhancement for color deficiency as well.

 

Source: Contrast Ratio: Easily calculate color contrast ratios. Passing WCAG was never this easy!