Color Blind Test

A free online Ishihara color vision test with 30 plates. For educational purposes only — not a medical diagnosis.

Ishihara plates

~2 min

to complete

Instant

scored result

Free

no sign-up

Ready to test your color vision?

You'll be shown a series of Ishihara plates. For each one, type the number you see — or "nothing" if no number is visible. It takes about 10–15 minutes.

30 randomized Ishihara plates
Number plates and control plates
Instant feedback and a scored breakdown
Runs entirely in your browser — private

What the Ishihara test actually is

Each plate you just looked at is a circle packed with dots of different sizes and colors. Hidden inside the pattern is a figure — usually a number, sometimes a winding path — drawn in one color family against a background of another. If your color vision is typical, the figure pops out. If you have a color vision deficiency, the figure blends into the background and may be hard to read or disappear entirely. That contrast is the whole trick: the dots are picked so that only people who can separate certain hues will see the shape.

The test is named for Dr. Shinobu Ishihara, a Japanese ophthalmologist who first published it in 1917. It has been in clinical use ever since. The classic printed set contains 38 plates, though most screenings use a subset. Ishihara plates are built to catch red-green deficiency, which is by far the most common form. They are less useful for the rare blue-yellow (tritan) types, which need different testing.

The plates fall into a few groups. Most carry a number that people with normal vision read easily. A smaller set is deliberately designed so that most people see nothing at all — these “control” plates catch anyone who might guess or misreport, and they also flag some people who see a figure the majority can't. A few clinical plates trace a path meant to be followed with a fingertip, which is handy for testing young children or people who can't name numbers.

How to read your result

Your score compares two things: how many number plates you read correctly, and how you handled the control plates that most people see as blank. Missing a single plate doesn't mean much — screens, lighting, and a moment of doubt all cause slips. A pattern is what matters. If you missed several of the red-green number plates, that points toward a possible red-green deficiency, and the number you missed gives a rough sense of how strong it might be. Someone with a mild deficiency often reads most plates and stumbles on a few of the harder ones; a stronger deficiency tends to take out many of them.

Read the result as a signal, not a verdict. This quiz can suggest that something is worth checking, and it can hint at how noticeable it is, but it can't hand you a diagnosis or a precise label. A person with normal vision who took the test on a badly calibrated laptop can miss plates too. Treat a surprising score as a reason to test again under better conditions, or to book a real exam — not as a final answer.

What this test can and cannot tell you

An online Ishihara test is a screening tool. It can raise a flag. It cannot replace an exam by an eye-care professional, and it was never meant to. The plates were designed to be printed on paper and viewed under standardized lighting, and a lot is lost when they move to a screen.

The biggest variable is your display. Every monitor renders color a little differently depending on its brightness, its color profile, and whether it has ever been calibrated. An OLED phone, a cheap office monitor, and a designer's calibrated screen can show the same plate in noticeably different colors. Ambient light matters too — sunlight, a warm desk lamp, or a blue-tinted “night mode” filter all shift what reaches your eye. Because of that, the same person can get slightly different results on different devices.

Clinical testing removes most of those variables. Printed plates under controlled, daylight-balanced lighting are far more consistent, which is one reason a professional exam is more trustworthy than any web page. If your result here is borderline or unexpected, the fix isn't to keep retaking the online version — it's to get tested properly.

Types of color vision deficiency

“Color blind” is a loose label for several different conditions. Most people who have one see color perfectly well — they just can't separate certain hues as cleanly as others do. Full loss of color is genuinely rare.

Red-green (the common kind)

This covers the protan types (reduced or missing sensitivity to red light) and the deutan types (reduced or missing sensitivity to green). It's the deficiency the Ishihara test is built to catch, and it's the one most people mean when they say “color blind.” It affects roughly 1 in 12 men and about 1 in 200 women. The lopsided ratio comes from genetics: the genes involved sit on the X chromosome, so men, who have only one, are far more likely to inherit it.

Blue-yellow (tritan, rare)

Here blues and yellows are the colors that run together instead of reds and greens. It's much less common than the red-green types and affects men and women about equally. Standard Ishihara number plates aren't designed to detect it well, so a clean score here doesn't rule it out.

Complete color blindness (monochromacy, very rare)

A small number of people see little or no color at all and experience the world mostly in shades of gray. This is uncommon and is often accompanied by other vision issues, such as sensitivity to bright light.

Most color vision deficiency is inherited and present from birth, which is why so many people only find out through a test like this. Some cases are acquired later from eye disease, certain medications, or the normal changes that come with aging — and an acquired change in your color vision is a reason to see an eye doctor rather than shrug it off.

When to see an eye-care professional

Plenty of people take this test out of simple curiosity, and that's fine. But a few situations are worth a real exam. Some jobs — pilots, some electrical and transport roles, parts of the military — have color vision requirements, and an official result is the only thing that counts for those. Parents often want to confirm a child's screening result, since catching a deficiency early helps a kid and their teachers plan around color-coded work. And anyone who notices a change in how they see color should get it checked, because that can point to something treatable.

An optometrist or ophthalmologist can do more than confirm whether a deficiency exists — they can pin down the type and degree. The Farnsworth D-15, an arrangement test where you order a row of colored caps, sorts out which axis is affected. The anomaloscope, in which you match a mixed light to a reference by adjusting two dials, is the clinical gold standard for measuring red-green deficiency precisely. Neither of those can run in a browser, which is the honest reason to treat this page as a starting point.

Frequently asked questions

Is this a medical diagnosis?

No. This is a screening tool, not a diagnosis. It can suggest that your color vision is worth checking and give a rough sense of how strong a deficiency might be, but only an eye-care professional can diagnose one. Use your result here as a prompt, not a conclusion.

Why might my result be off?

Screens are the usual culprit. Brightness, color profile, whether the display has ever been calibrated, and the type of panel all change how the plates look. Ambient lighting and blue-light or night-mode filters shift things further. The same person can score a little differently on a phone, a laptop, and a calibrated monitor, which is exactly why printed clinical testing is more reliable.

Can it detect the type or severity?

Only roughly. The Ishihara plates are built mainly to catch red-green deficiency, and missing more of them suggests a stronger effect. But they don't reliably separate protan from deutan, and they aren't designed for blue-yellow deficiency. Pinning down the exact type and degree takes clinical tools like the Farnsworth D-15 or an anomaloscope.

Can children take it?

Yes, though young kids who don't yet read numbers do better with the path-tracing plates used in clinical sets, where you follow a winding line instead of naming a figure. If a child seems to struggle here, it's worth having an eye-care professional confirm it — early awareness helps at school, where a lot of work is color-coded.

Can color blindness be cured?

Inherited color blindness has no cure. It's a lifelong trait, not an illness, and most people adapt without much trouble. Special glasses and phone apps can boost certain color contrasts for some people, but they don't restore normal color vision. Acquired color vision changes are a different story and may improve if the underlying cause is treated.