How common is color blindness?

About 1 in 12 men (8%) and 1 in 200 women have some color-vision deficiency. Red-green types (protan and deutan) are by far the most common; blue-yellow (tritan) is rare; total color blindness (achromatopsia) is very rare.

Which CVD type should I design for?

Deuteranopia and protanopia (red-green) cover the large majority of affected users, so a palette that stays distinguishable under both is a safe baseline. Never rely on color alone — pair it with labels, icons, or patterns.

Tools / Color Blindness Simulator

Color Blindness Simulator.

Paste the colors you're shipping and see them the way users with the four main color-vision deficiencies do. If two swatches collapse into one in a row below, that pair is a problem — add a non-color cue.

Try:

Normal vision what you designed

Deuteranopia green-blind — most common (~6% of men)

Protanopia red-blind (~2% of men)

Tritanopia blue-blind — rare

Achromatopsia total color blindness — very rare

Designing for color vision deficiency

Around 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women see color differently. The simulation here applies the Machado (2009) model — the same approach used by professional accessibility tools — in linear-light sRGB.

The red-green pair matters most

Deuteranopia and protanopia together account for the overwhelming majority of CVD. The classic failure is a red/green status system — "error" and "success" can become indistinguishable. Check those rows first.

Never rely on color alone

WCAG 1.4.1 requires that color isn't the only way information is conveyed. Pair hues with text labels, icons, shape, or position, and keep adjacent swatches far apart in lightness — lightness contrast survives every CVD type.

Color Blindness Simulator.

Designing for color vision deficiency

The red-green pair matters most

Never rely on color alone

Looking for a combination we don’t have yet?