Color Blindness and Design
If you choose colors for a chart, a chore chart or a poster, some of the people who see it will not see them the way you do.
Make a paletteGenerate a palette, lock the colors you like, and check the contrast.
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How common it is
The US National Eye Institute says about 1 in 12 men have a color vision deficiency. It names a higher risk for men than for women and does not give a figure for women on that page. Mild cases are often hard to notice, so many people do not know they have it.
The types
- The most common type makes it hard to tell red and green apart.
- Another type makes blue and yellow look the same.
- Seeing no color at all is rare.
Most of the common types are inherited. Eye or brain damage and some illnesses can also cause them, and color vision can decline with age.
What to do about it
These are practical suggestions, not findings from the page above.
- Do not use color as the only way to show something. Add a label, a pattern, an icon or a position.
- Avoid red and green as the only difference between two items.
- Make sure the text and background differ in lightness, not just in hue. A quick check is to look at your design in grayscale.
Make a paletteGenerate a palette, lock the colors you like, and check the contrast.
Open the tool →
Sources
Checked on October 15, 2026. We summarize in our own words and only state what these sources support.
- National Eye Institute (NIH): Color blindness — prevalence, types and causes