Color Blind Colors
A curated guide to color-blind-safe palettes and combinations. Learn which colors work for deuteranopia, protanopia, tritanopia, and achromatopsia — and which combinations to avoid. Test your own colors in real time below.
Color Blind Friendly Palettes
Blue-Orange Palette (Most Reliable)
Widely considered the most robust palette for color blind users. Blue and orange are distinguishable by all common types of color blindness, including red-green and blue-yellow deficiencies. Use this as your primary/secondary pair for critical UI elements like charts, buttons, and status indicators.
Color Brewer Safe Set for Data Visualization
Originally developed for cartography, this 7-color set is a gold standard for accessible charts and graphs. Each color remains distinct under deuteranopia, protanopia, and tritanopia — ideal for dashboards, maps, and multi-series charts.
IBM Carbon-Inspired Accessible Palette
IBM's Carbon design system relies on a blue-based palette with clear secondary cues rather than red-green distinctions. This approach works well for enterprise UIs, forms, and data-heavy dashboards where accessibility is non-negotiable.
High-Contrast Monochromatic Set
When color is not enough — or for users with achromatopsia (total color blindness) — a monochromatic palette differentiated by lightness is the safest fallback. Use varying lightness steps to create visual hierarchy that works in grayscale.
Color Combinations That Fail
⚠ Red + Green
The most common problematic pairing. Both colors appear as brownish-yellow to users with deuteranopia and protanopia. Never use red and green as the only differentiator for pass/fail states.
⚠ Green + Brown
Under red-green CVD, green and brown become nearly identical. Avoid using green text on brown backgrounds or vice versa in buttons and alerts.
⚠ Blue + Purple
Tritanopia users (blue-blind) struggle to distinguish blue from purple. Both can appear as shades of blue-green. If you must use both, maximize lightness contrast between them.
⚠ Pink + Light Gray
Low-saturation pink on light gray backgrounds can be nearly invisible. This combination is common in 'soft UI' designs but fails for users with any form of CVD or low vision.
Test Your Own Colors
Pick any color and instantly see how it appears under all four types of color blindness. Use this to test your brand palette, UI elements, or chart colors before shipping.
Select a Color
Normal Vision
Trichromatic — all three cone types
Deuteranopia
Green-blind (~6% of males)
Protanopia
Red-blind (~2% of males)
Tritanopia
Blue-blind (rare)
Achromatopsia
Total color blindness
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best colors for color blind users?▼
Blue and orange is the most reliable combination — it remains distinguishable across all common types of color blindness (deuteranopia, protanopia, tritanopia). For data visualization, the Color Brewer Safe Set (orange, sky blue, bluish green, yellow, blue, vermilion, reddish purple) is the industry standard. Beyond specific colors, always ensure high contrast (at least 4.5:1 for text) and never use color as the only differentiator.
Which color combinations should I avoid?▼
The most problematic combinations are: red + green (appear identical to red-green CVD), green + brown (both brownish), blue + purple (confused by tritanopia), pink + light gray (low contrast), and any pastel-on-pastel combination (insufficient luminance difference). Test any critical color pair in our simulator above to confirm they remain distinct under all four CVD types.
Is there a color that works for all types of color blindness?▼
No single color works universally, but blue is the most robust hue — all common CVD types retain blue perception. Orange also performs well because it sits in a part of the spectrum where the red-green and blue-yellow confusion lines don't overlap. This is why the blue-orange palette is the gold standard for accessible design. For text, high-contrast dark-on-light (or light-on-dark) using black, white, and dark blues always works.
How many colors can I safely use in a chart?▼
For color-blind-safe charts, limit your palette to 5–7 colors from a proven set like Color Brewer. Beyond 7 colors, even users with normal vision struggle to distinguish segments. If you need more than 7 categories, add direct labels, patterns, or textures as secondary cues. Our Pie Chart Simulator lets you test your chart colors against all four CVD types side by side.
Do 'color blind mode' settings in operating systems fix this?▼
Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android all have color filters that adjust the display for specific CVD types — but these are global screen adjustments, not per-website fixes. They can help individuals, but they cannot distinguish between UI elements the way a well-designed palette can. Relying on OS-level filters as a substitute for accessible design is not compliant with WCAG and creates a poor user experience.