Color Arrangement Test
A very well known and established type of color blindness tests are hue discrimination or arrangement tests. This type of test uses the fact that colorblind people mix up colors along the so called confusion lines.
What do you have to do? Arrange the colored squares in the correct color order by dragging them into the upper boxes. Start with the pilot, which is already set.
You should be aware of that any type of online color blindness test is very dependent on your display settings and ambient light. You should visit your local eye specialist to get a correct diagnosis. If you take the test under different conditions you will recognize that the results can vary.
The test above simulates the D-15 dichotomous test which was introduced by Farnsworth in 1947. It aims to divide people into two groups. Slightly colorblind and not colorblind people which pass the test and all others who fail it.
Major: Major Radius
Minor: Minor Radius
TES: Total Score of Error
S-index: Selectivity Index
C-index: Confusion Index
Colorblind people will arrange the colors not in the correct order but parallel to one of the three confusion lines: protan, deutan, and tritan. Vingrys and King-Smith developed in 1988 a scoring method based on color difference vectors. This way it is possible to quantify the type of color blindness by you personal confusion angle and the severity through the confusion index.
- Confusion Angle: The angle identifies your type of color vision deficiency. An angle above +0.7 degrees points towards a protan defect, between +0.7 and -65 a deutan defect and bellow that a tritan defect.
- Major and Minor Radius: The ratio of those two numbers results in the S-index.
- Total Error Score: Combining the two radii into a score of total error. The TES ranges from around 11 up to about 40 for strong vision deficiencies.
- Selectivity Index: This ratio shows the parallelism of the confusion vectors to your personal confusion angle. A low ratio—below 2—can either mean you have no color deficiency or you ordered the squares randomly. High numbers—up to 6 and even higher— show high parallelism.
- Confusion Index: The ratio between your major radius and the major radius of a perfect arrangement. People with normal color vision or slightly colorblind persons have a ratio below 1.2. The higher this number grows—up to above a ratio of 4—the more severe is your color blindness.
The table below shows some average results taken from a study with 120 colorblind and not colorblind people.
| Angle | Major | Minor | TES | S-index | C-index | |
| Normal | +62.0 | 9.2 | 6.7 | 11.4 | 1.38 | 1.00 |
| Protanopia | +8.8 | 38.8 | 6.6 | 39.4 | 6.16 | 4.20 |
| Protanomaly | +28.3 | 18.0 | 8.2 | 20.4 | 1.97 | 1.95 |
| Deuteranopia | -7.4 | 37.9 | 6.3 | 38.4 | 6.19 | 4.10 |
| Deuteranomaly | -5.8 | 25.4 | 9.6 | 27.5 | 2.99 | 2.75 |
| Tritan Defects | -82.8 | 24.0 | 6.4 | 24.9 | 3.94 | 2.60 |
March 11th, 2009 at 14:44
*applause*
Fascinating.
Angle 6.6
Major 37.6
Minor 7.8
TES 38.4
S-index 4.84
C-index 4.07
Result: Above ‘Strong’ Protan Vision Defect.
March 11th, 2009 at 17:50
Which study is the table data (of 120 subjects) you cite from? Thanks.
March 11th, 2009 at 19:30
Very interesting, First time I have seen this test.
Ty
March 11th, 2009 at 20:37
Jason, the numbers are taken from the original paper of Vingrys and King-Smith, who proposed the moment of inertia for scoring the D-15 test: A quantitative scoring technique for panel tests of color vision
March 12th, 2009 at 13:04
Once again I have fun in this site. Ok, I’m not special, just deuteranomal.
March 12th, 2009 at 15:02
This says
Angle:61.9
Major:9.2
Minor:6.7
TES:11.4
S-index:1.38
C-index:1.00
According to the detailed results I’m not colour blind yet I know I am red/green…
Did I cheat? I compared the next in sequence to the previous one by hovering the square over the previous one until I decided the one I’d picked up was the closest match.
A colleague did the test who isn’t colour blind and he flew threw it, was able to know which was next straight away.
March 12th, 2009 at 22:20
I’m sorry, but I really don’t understand what I’m supposed to do.
March 12th, 2009 at 22:54
Thank you for the reference. Has anyone proposed cutoff ranges for the C-index to classify severity (or are there standard deviations around those C-index means anywhere?).
March 13th, 2009 at 1:37
I know I have strong protanopia; this confirms it once again. I would have liked to be able to look at the plot of my colour patch placements again, though. Couldn’t go back to that.
P.S. Thank you for the great website. Colour blindness is poorly understood and we need something like this for others to be able to understand.
March 13th, 2009 at 2:28
And after taking it five times, I have protanopia thrice and deutanopia twice. I think it is accurate.
March 13th, 2009 at 16:49
Well then, so far, deutan once and protan once. The time I was happiest with my color placement was protan; they were alllll wrong. Strength bar was full.
This confirms my result of I don’t know what the heck I have, other than that it’s severe. Will mess with it a few more times.
March 13th, 2009 at 16:52
Oh, and, one more thing… what colors are we arranging here? It looks like it’s from blue to brown from my perspective; is that accurate at all?
I realize I’m asking the wrong test group here, but hey. ^.^
March 13th, 2009 at 18:48
Just wanted to agree with Donald, would be great if we could navigate between the arrangement chart and the more detailed results.
File under: Ideas for future upgrades.
March 13th, 2009 at 19:14
Thank you having this site. Usually you find only the test with the coloured dots with hidden numbers in them to test. I like that you do beyond that for testing. I never do well the tests I mentioned above. I am female and I have 7 sister of which only 6 have colour deficiency as I do as well. The one brother does not have a colour problem. It will take me some time to grasp all the info you have here but I’ll try! Best regards, Brenda
March 14th, 2009 at 6:51
Hi,
That was my results
Angle Major Minor TES S-index C-index
61.9 9.2 6.7 11.4 1.38 1.00
According to this test result I am not colorblind, But reall I am mild Deuteranomalia. Hope it is usefull for next virsion of your tests
Thank you for the great effort
Ahmed Rabei
March 14th, 2009 at 12:19
Thank you for this test. It’s great. Doea anyone know if Dyslexia and colour blindness are related? And do ChromaGen glasses help?
March 14th, 2009 at 22:19
I have taken this test online about a dozen times and I pass this test but cannot pass the Isahara test (with the numbers in dots). Is this common for someone is deficiency is not very bad? Thank you for the website this is great.
March 15th, 2009 at 20:13
Sean, yes that’s right. Even some people with normal color vision fail the Ishihara plates test. In contrast people with weak color blindness will pass the D-15 test.
March 15th, 2009 at 22:03
Well thanks for your quick response. My dream in life has always been to be in law enforcement and I thought my dream was dead until I found out that some police agencies accept the farnsworth D-15 if you cannot pass the Isihara. I wish this was an excepted practice a lot earlier however now I donot need to surrender my dream thank you for the informative website.
March 17th, 2009 at 4:31
Very Nice! Another brilliant project!
March 17th, 2009 at 13:56
Well here, the colors just dont drop in the box. They fly down straight. I’ve tried three browsers
March 17th, 2009 at 14:03
I can get it to work in firefox, but it doesn’t load at all in Safari.
March 17th, 2009 at 14:45
just realized it works in IE
March 17th, 2009 at 14:47
Angle Major Minor TES S-index C-index
22.9 14.8 8.7 17.2 1.69 1.60
respectively.
Not prefect, right? And it still says i am not colorblind (which i theoretically am to some extent since i fail the ishihara text). So am i colorblind????
The order was 1,15,2,3..and normal from there on
I easily passed a similar D-15 test in university of vienna website. It had brighter hues.
With this i spent quite a lot of time, often guessing.
March 17th, 2009 at 21:07
Chetan, it was tested with IE7, IE6 and Firefox. Couldn’t test on Safari.
Your order has just one major error. The range for “not colorblind” goes up to a C-index of 1.60. I would say you are slightly protanomalous.
March 18th, 2009 at 4:52
I’ve taken it several times and every time it says i have a deutan color deficiency the severity bar was full
March 22nd, 2009 at 15:47
My results
Angle -12.1
Major 27.7
Minor 7.5
TES 28.7
S-index 3.68
C-index 3.00
Am I deuteranope or deuteranormal?
March 22nd, 2009 at 15:56
I redid the test
my new results:
My results
Angle -14.3
Major 34.1
Minor 8.4
TES 35.1
S-index 4.06
C-index 3.69
Am I deuteranope or deuteranormal?
March 22nd, 2009 at 20:41
Paolo, unfortunately the test can’t tell you anything about that. It was designed to separate colorblind people from non colorblinds. But it can’t separate dichromats from anomalous trichromats.
March 25th, 2009 at 21:37
I had to take this test in the Macbeth Lightbox for my job (textile designer). I have worked with many people who were good artists, but were faking their color abilities. My husband is colorblind (both of his brothers are in varying degrees as well). As a designer, I find their interpretations of color interesting.
April 16th, 2009 at 17:04
Dear Daniel
I have taken this test online and I’m not color blind according to this test. but cannot pass the Isahara test .why that. can you help me to pass this test.
thank you
April 16th, 2009 at 20:22
Daniel,
Isn’t your test has lighter hues as compared to University of Vienna website.
What are the original shades or hue in Farnsworth d-15.
Is it more like your website or like the one on Vienna website.
I am asking this as I can’t do the test on your website.
April 16th, 2009 at 21:03
Ferdinando, please read more about this topic at Can I Pass One Color Blindness Test and Fail at the Same Time Another One?
Gurpreet, the original shades are printed and can’t transformed directly to display color schemes. But according to my information, my colors are closer to the real D-15 Farnsworth test.
April 19th, 2009 at 13:11
Well according to this I am not colour-blind when I have been tested for protanopia?!?!?!?!?!?
April 19th, 2009 at 13:23
THANKS DANIEL
Can i have your personel e-mail address.
April 19th, 2009 at 19:55
Dilantha, if you have any specific question just use my contact form. Thanks.
May 11th, 2009 at 22:46
I just took both your tests and was rated “not colorblind.” I also had a test with an optometrist’s chart. Same results.
I guess the only factor would be how accurate your monitor is and as you stated,the lighting conditions. It’s does very well for something outside a doctor’s office.
Thanks for posting it.
May 25th, 2009 at 13:43
Thank you very much..
i already understand that i’m color blindness. But i don’t know what type i’m since i tried your test.
haha..and than, i’m protan! i should say to you that it is first personal test which i’ve been taken.
I want to know, is it depend my monitor lighting?contrast or brightness?
And also i want to ask you, what different factor (range tonal) between normal vision and color blindness? because i’m a photographer and i want to arrange my tonal expression by my self.
Thank you very much.
June 22nd, 2009 at 0:21
I love this test, took this test many years ago with the little tills. Was happy to have pasted your color arrangement test with no errors. At age 56 I worry about my eyes still seeing color clearly. I often mix to match colors by eye with my work, geting close is not difficult with low chroma colors. High chroma colors can take a long time and I only get “close enough” most of the time.
July 6th, 2009 at 15:35
I really like this test mainly because it says I am not colour blind. I fail a lot of the Ishihara tests. I can see the colours I just can’t see the shapes – or at least not clearly.
I work in graphic design and have never had a problem with colour, but did ishihara at school and was told I couldn’t work in print or be a pilot. They were wrong about that!
I wonder about the validity of the Ishihara test now. The arrangement test is far more subtle and why would you base a test on recognising shapes? What if you’re dyslexic ??
…hang on a minute!
July 17th, 2009 at 14:10
i have done the test 4 times of which 2 times i am proved to be normal. thanks for this test.
August 2nd, 2009 at 19:26
[...] According to this color arrangement test, I have deuteranopia, the most common of all types of [...]
August 21st, 2009 at 19:41
GUYS! I kept failing miserably until a girl came by and did the test in front of me no problem!
The Chart goes from Blue to Purple at the end!
Now that I know that, I can pass it no problem and should be able to pass my police exam!!
September 2nd, 2009 at 23:13
OK so I have never been able to pass an Ishihara test. Passed this the first time without really knowing what I was supposed to do. I just put them in the order that looked the most right. Go figure.
September 3rd, 2009 at 23:57
61.9, 9.2, 6.7, 11.4, 1.38, 1.00
September 19th, 2009 at 6:44
Curious. I’ve been Ishihara tested by an opthamologist who confirmed deuteranopia. And been a laboratory animal in a university for a PhD student as an example of the same. My family enjoy it when I make related mistakes. Yet this test indicates my vision is just fine (all my stats were exactly the same as the “normal” line above), although it did take me several minutes of comparisons to get this right.
October 8th, 2009 at 1:48
61.9 9.2 6.7 11.4 1.38 1.00
According to this test result I am not color Blind =)
October 9th, 2009 at 1:15
i new i was not color blind. That crazy book says I am. Now I would like to see a test online where we can self assess for night blindness.
October 15th, 2009 at 7:53
chyeahhh boii –> 61.9 9.2 6.7 11.4 1.38 1.00 not colurblind!!! =)
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:15
sicck
61.9 9.2 6.7 11.4 1.38 1.00
definately not colour blind : )
October 23rd, 2009 at 17:06
I don’t understand. I do really bad on ishihara tests, however I do very good on colour arrangement. I really don’t know what to do.
October 29th, 2009 at 4:27
I can’t even take the color arrangement test because there is a BIG GOOGLE AD in the way!!!
November 2nd, 2009 at 23:38
Angle: -86.4
Major: 29.0
Minor: 5.4
T.E.S: 29.5
S Index: 5.35
C Index: 3.13
Moderate Tritan
I took an ishihara test about a year ago and only missed 2 in each eye, yet they were the same two plates (at the back of the book). Is that just a slight color blindness instead of moderate?
November 15th, 2009 at 13:56
Angle – 61.9
Major – 9.2
Minor – 6.7
TES – 11.4
S-index - 1.38
C-index – 1.00
According to this test result you are not colorblind.
I also failed in Ishihara Test. I am red-green deficient or protanopic.
This is so frustrating because I am currently denied of a job just because I failed the Ishahara test. The job involves controls and monitors. And I swear I have an almost normal vision.
November 22nd, 2009 at 17:02
In many cases, people fail or make mistakes on the Ishihara plate test and then pass the arrangement test. This usually occurs when one has a more mild form of colour vision deficiency.
Hope I answered your questions.
November 26th, 2009 at 5:07
I’m also planning on a law enforcement career and the agency uses the Farnsworth D15 test. I’ve alway failed the Ishihara plates, but always passed the D15. I’ve only taken it online though.
Can I go to an eye exam place (ie. Pearl Vision or similar) or even to an eye doctor and ask to take a D15 test? Any place I’ve had my eyes checked was with the Plates. I found a doctor that will test and make contact lenses to “fix” your color vision. Patients come from all over the US and overseas so they can have them made, but it costs $8000. If I can definitely pass the D15, I’d don’t have to consider the Color Vision Corrected lenses.
November 26th, 2009 at 6:03
Alice is right. It is common to fail a book test (Ishihara or other since, as screening tests, they are meant to ‘catch’ all color defects (very mild to very severe). The Farnsworth D15 on the other hand is meant to fail moderate to severe color defectives, so mild color deficiencies will pass it. It is best to call various offices and ask if they have the test. If you are near an optometry or ophthalmology school they will surely have it plus the more sophisticated tests. Tinted glasses or contacts should never be worn to take color tests, they invalidate the test. They should only be worn for ‘personal’ use, to help with certain tasks (but can never be used to meet entry requirements to an occupation – it would be like giving a patient binoculars to test your distance vision). A new test would have to be designed to test the patient correctly.
December 16th, 2009 at 4:58
I’ve been told I have mild deuteranomalia because I’ve failed a Ishihara test book at a school screening.
I passed this test and took it twice, just in case it was a fluke.
After doing some Googling I’ve discovered, I don’t consistently fail all Ishihara tests. I looked at one test on my flat screen monitor and failed but passed viewing it on a CRT; the latter obviously has better colour output. This proves that you shouldn’t trust your PC’s display.
Which is the better test Ishihara or D15?
I don’t have any problem with colours in real life situations so I don’t consider myself to be colourblind.
Someone above asked whether colourblindness is linked to dyslexia? I’m dyslexic so perhaps I’m not colourblind and my cognitive impairment makes is why I fail Ishihara tests?
There again, maybe I’m very slightly colour deficient.
December 28th, 2009 at 23:37
-27.3 15.0 9.8 17.9 1.54 1.63 Oh, So does that mean I´m colorblind? How can I know if I pased the test?
January 14th, 2010 at 21:09
Jerold, I too saw the guy that charges $8000 for the CVD contact lense. That is CRAZY expensive!
There are two doctors in Miami that I know of that each charge less than $1000. One is Dr Roth, and I don’t have the other doctor’s # handy. In fact, the MDPD sends recruits to them if they fail the ishihara test so they can get the contact lense and later pass the ishihara test.
Word of caution though, some employers specifically ask the docs to verify that the candidate is NOT wearing a CVD contact lense. Other places don’t specify and as long as the candidate passes the test then the candidate is good to go.
On another note, has anyone on here ever been screened for CVD using a titmus vision screening exam?
February 13th, 2010 at 15:23
Thanks for the update Dan!
I think the phrase “Oh Bloody hell now I’ve really got no idea” accurately sums up my feelings about the new colour set.
It’s counter-intuitive, but – well done!
February 13th, 2010 at 15:47
Angle 2.8
Major 31.9
Minor 7.8
TES 32.8
S-index 4.10
C-index 3.45
I rearranged quite a few tiles after initially placing them going by lightness and darkness – and in so doing got 5-8 correct!
So I came out with a slightly lowered score than last tim, between moderate and severe.
http://images38.fotki.com/v231/file5KxZ/fc3d8/2/489822/7537268/Picture2.png
February 14th, 2010 at 5:54
Thanks for the update! This is the first colorblind test that has told me that I am NOT colorblind. *Cheer* This is interesting, as I do have extreme difficulty differentiating certain shades of green/gray, lavender/gray, red/brown, and pink/beige (especially at night or indoors). As a child I was diagnosed by an opthomologist with colorblindness using the Ishihara book and some sort of binocular slideshow with pictures. (don’t know what this test was called, however.) Could it be that my color vision is improving somehow? Or (more likely) perhaps I have a level of impairment just below this test’s detection?
February 17th, 2010 at 19:59
Laura,
There are degrees in everything. Go to any electronics store and see how different the colour balance is among a hundred or so TV screens on the display. While it varies from “OK” to “ugly” or “problematic”, none of those devices suffers form “colour blindness”, in medical sense. They would not have passed QC at the factory if they did.
Ishihara is simply not suitable as a QC test for humans, and you have just seen the proof.
On an unrelated note, even though the lack of colour vision in the dark is lamentable in general, it is not something you should worry about. None of us animals have colour vision at night. The threshold of intensity at which the colour cells fire varies a little, so it is possible that you perceive something as gray when someone next to you says it is green. That has nothing to do with colour blindness. It has to do with random variance in perception thresholds, as well as with the speed and strength of your colour balance. Your colour balance at dusk is far off into the reds (to make the scene appear gray to you). Same indoors. It is uselsess to discuss (or compare) colours under most kinds of indoor lighting. That is no defect of yours, that’s how things are.
Indoors
February 18th, 2010 at 7:27
Hi Gene –
Good point. :) However there have been enough times where I’ve been the only person in a large group setting to get a color “wrong”; so I know that there is SOME sort of deficiency on my part. E.g. I’ll perceive an object to be gray, when it’s obvious to everyone else in the room that it’s extremely green. Then when I see the same object outside under natural lighting, I can sometimes faintly detect the color they were talking about. But it’s never as “obvious” as they say.
February 18th, 2010 at 17:34
Yes, I can relate to that but that’s not colour blindness. You just don’t seem to have enough of the right “stuff”, whether that’s the stuff that regulates your cells’ firing threshold (ever tried to take poly-vitamins?), or the number of cells themselves. It is very unlikely for a woman to be colour-blind at birth, because you’ve got 2 copies of the chromosome carrying the gene, and it is maternally inherited. Both of them have to be broken to render you colour-blind — that is, unable to sense certain wavelengths under any conditions.
There must be some pathological cause for the condition you describe (if it is really troublesome), or otherwise you have damaged your retina — say, by the UV light or penetrating ionising radiation, or exposure to some unusual chemicals. Even strong visible light can hurt you — exposure to sunlight can knock out your blue receptors, although in that case your greens will be relatively enhanced, so everything that is normally blue will appear green.
Incidentally, I know of a few languages where there are no separate words for blue and green.
Everyone else in the room on occasions you mentioned — were they all women by any chance? It seems like in addition to the genetic differences between men and women, there seem to be quantitative differences as wes. My wife and I often have conversations like this. “Go get that green bag” — she commands. I can’t recall ever seeing any green bags in the house. “The one you travelled with the last time”. I go get the *black* bag I travelled with and show it to her. “See? This is the one, but it’s not green”. “Yes, it’s green”. Then take a closer look and do see it has some green values in it. But they are so low I would never bother to detect them, unless my life depended on it. To help you imagine the levels we are talking about, think of a dark green wine bottle. Now make it a 100 times darker. That was the color of that bag — not something I imagine when someone says “green”. I am more likely to think of grass or trees, and to go look for a matching object, not that decidedly black colour contaminated with traces of green.
If grass and trees appear green to you, and berries red, you’re fine. You’ll survive :)
February 24th, 2010 at 1:40
Angle 9.0 Major 23.3
Minor 9.0
TES 25.0 S-index 2.58
C-index 2.53
According to this test result you have a protan color vision defect.
severity
slightly
Interesting for a web developer!.
February 25th, 2010 at 19:43
I couldn’t take the test on this web site, because the “Ads by Google” link is covering up the last two squares of the test. I did take a similar Farnsworth test at the Vienna web site with these results:
core:
angle: 61.98
major radius: 8.85
minor radius: 7.21
total error: 11.42
s-index: 1.23
c-index: 0.96
I took the Ishihara tests too, and passed all of them, but the strange thing is that I took the reverse color-blind test, and easily passed it too. It said that “Only color blind people can actually read what is written in the picture below” but the letters stood out quite easily for me, almost as legible as the Ishihara numbers. This makes me wonder if I still have a slight colorblindness, or maybe my ratio of red, green and blue cones is somehow different than average.
February 27th, 2010 at 4:18
Wow, I’ve never seen an online test telling the result with such confidence. I asked my son to do it and he got “protan” and between moderate and severe. Even though I knew that from my own experience and assessment, it’s nice to have a confirmation. It’s short so that’s nice for impatient kids. :)
February 27th, 2010 at 4:36
Oh in case anybody wonders, this sequence goes from blue -> green -> brown -> mauve -> purple. On my monitor anyway. None of the colors are exactly bright or saturated, I imagine that was intentional.
March 2nd, 2010 at 7:46
deutan color vision defect.
No more being an electrician ahha
-9.2 28.7 10.7 30.6 2.68 3.11
March 4th, 2010 at 9:53
Angle 21.5
Major 42.2
Min. 25.2
Tes 49.2
S-ind 1.68
C-ind 4.57
SEVERE Protan color vision defect
AND I’M FEMALE.
March 4th, 2010 at 16:14
angle -11.8
major 9.8
minor 9.2
tes 13.4
S-index 1.07
C-ind 1.06
According to this test result you are not colorblind
I did this test because I failed the test Ishihara (I can not see the more complex images)
March 4th, 2010 at 16:34
I did the other test from the Vienna site someone mentioned above, I had these results
angle 61.98
major 8.85
minor 7.21
tes 11.42
S-index 1.23
C-ind 0.96
Result Normal
March 7th, 2010 at 10:59
-11.8 9.8 9.2 13.4 1.07 1.06
Says I am NOT colour blind even though I am. It was proven by an optometrist. Just thought i’d say ; D