Friday, June 29, 2012

Hue discrimination color test

In this free online color test, you can slide around the little squares in each line to try to make a continuous gradation of hues. When you think you've got them right, you can score the test.

Online Color Challenge
Thanks, Paolo

54 comments:

Tim said...

Easy enough to sort at first, but I had to really resist tilting my monitor to find the subtler differences toward the end.

Apparently I am bad at green, but an overall score of 32 which is... good?

Neurolinked said...

Buahahaha :'( , i'm really intresting in art and i try to study a lot, i'm a little colorblind but my result is 95 ....... in what way i can continue if my eyes can't perceipt in right way the color ???

I continue in this way, but nature hasn't certainly helped in my street

ideeeyut said...

So if you score poorly at this test, how would you go about improving? I've always had trouble discerning these kinds of things and would really like to get better at it.

Jeremy Rice said...

Please note that this test has a lot to do with the quality of your monitor (and if you take the test on another machine, you will get quite a different score).

Jimmy Simpson said...

I got a 16 for my score.
@Neurolinked - I would look at Alan Gutierrez and his work. He is diagnosed Red-Green color blind, but he studied color theory to perfect his technique.

Here is a post by him about that.
http://stardriv.deviantart.com/journal/#/d3t52n3

Janet Oliver said...

I scored a 16 on my wee net book. Will try again on my bigger computer. Fun, but challenging!

James Gurney said...

Jeanette and I together got a 16, too. Don't know think my old laptop screen has ever been calibrated. Is that a good excuse for not doing better? I wish they told us how we fared on the bell curve. I assume someone is gathering data for an experiment.

Devoid said...

Got a 4. Mistakes were made in the warm green zone.

Robert Ellefson said...

I got a 4, but I'm on a mac, so I think I technically cheated hahahah.

I was a printing pressman for years and had to do a ton of color mixing by hand to exacting standards while trying to to use the smallest amount of ink possible. For anyone who wants to get better at mixing color, I would suggest the best way to gain better color acuity is to mix color! Instead of always mixing a color that looks "right enough" for what you're trying to do, don't stop until you determine the actual perfect color, and match that as precisely as you can. I once spent almost 10 hours trying to get a color right (I'll never forget that %$#*$ color! It was a slightly warm grey at about a value of 8 on the munsell scale) It's a lot easier to hold yourself to a standard like this if there's an uptight boss looking over your shoulder. hahahah. I definitely don't go to these extremes when I'm painting at home but the time I spent doing it on the job has definitely helped me figure out how to get to the color I want.

benandrewsart said...

I scored 11 and had a slight discrepancy in the cyan region. As an artist im surprised ive never tested myself for this before. Interesting stuff, thanks for the link.

Unknown said...

I got a 7, with low discrimination in red-oranges and greens. I agree with Jeremy, though; I think a lot of it has to do with the screen you use.

Brenno said...

I got a 4 as well, with mistakes located in the blue area of the spectrum. By the end of the test I noticed that slightly squinting the eyes and avoiding staring improves (just like in painting)the ability to distinguish between the subtlest hue variations.

Mamath said...

I did the test twice - I scored 15 on my large main monitor that is not currently colour calibrated and then 0 (perfect score) on my cintiq screen that HAS been colour calibrated. So this test and the data it collects is a little bit useless since there's no accounting for monitor differences... Still fun, though! And I'm a little relieved that on a properly calibrated screen, my accuracy is quite good! But to those getting worried about their colour perception abilities...don't sweat it, really. Probably just the screen you are using!

radiodaedalus said...

I tried this a couple times and the areas where I had errors seemed to magically align with the temperature of the room light (eg. under florescent greens were off etc.) So I suspect that at least for non- colour blind individuals, a poor score on this has more to do with the monitor and the room than one's skill at discriminating between hues.

Anonymous said...

I used to work at a paint factory. I remember the color mixers were not allowed to drink alcohol during the week because it would affect their color perception. Oh yeah, and I scored a zero the first time! yeah, and I though I would flunk!

Craig Daniels said...

I've tried this before, and it looked like the image on Jims screen, but when I do it now 1 square is placed underneath the row by itself. Is anyone else getting this or have any ideas?

Poet Whale Studio said...

Interesting test. Thank you for the link
I tried two tests on a 19" Acer monitor.

1st test 47 arranging dark side first. Big mistake on dark brick (3rd line)
2nd test 16, bright side first.

On the aqua-lavender line, both tries have a few mistakes in same area. I feel it's easier working the bright side first.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for posting this, very interesting. I too was worried about my monitor screwing up my results, I know it hasn't been calibrated but it is of a good standard. To my relief I did get 0, helped brighten up my day after I received a statement for my student loan!

Brady said...

I got a score of zero, but I am on a H-IPS calibrated monitor.

Reaven said...

Woo! perfect color vision, 0 score. Cintiq monitor.

Laura said...

My score was 182, due to being somewhat colorblind. (Which I'm told is rare for a female; my dad's completely colorblind and my mom's apparently a carrier of the gene.) Coincidentally when I was out painting yesterday it was pointed out to me by some onlookers that Viridian isn't the calm, gray-green that I tend to think it is. Anyone know of a good green to use when toning or underdrawing for, say, a subject with a lot of reds? I'm guessing Terre Verte (PG23+PG18
+PB28) or Chromium Oxide (PG17) might work, or else cut the Viridian with some Transparent Red Oxide?

H4lfM4d said...

7! on a best buy store brand LCD (60hrz) 40" non-calibrated TV-as-Monitor! I suppose i'll actually give Dynex, (at your local best buy) a plug for this, i was seriously under the impression this was a worse set than that.

Which isn't to say that the colors it displays are true, but that they're hue gradient depiction is pretty good.

Susan said...

4! Now if I could only apply this acuity to my artwork....

Eileen Keelan said...

scored 42 - hard on the eyes after awhile but found it not too bad to do!Is 42 good though? Couldn't really work out if it was good or not!

Eileen Keelan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Katie said...

I got a 0, but I turned the brightness all the way up on my mac monitor so maybe that's cheating. :P
I wonder how this figures into helping me get better at painting?

P.T. Waugh said...

I got a 4! I found the squares just to the right of the center the hardest to sort.

kevinwparker said...

It would be nice if there were more interpretation of the scores. I got a 58, but it's hard to tell if that's good are bad when all you're told are the best and worst scores for your age group. My impression is that my monitor isn't all that good, though, in any case.

PatternGhost said...

Perfect score on a budget Dell 17inch.

I found that by moving the tiles into big groups and then testing individual tiles to the left and right one position, it was easy to tell when a tile 'fit' or not. They seemed too 'dark' when too far to the right from their group and too 'light' when too far to the left from their group. Not sure if that makes sense.

p

Keith Parker said...

I got a seven. All my problems were in the blue green range. perhaps the monitor was a problem, or maybe I'm not good with those hues. I was also surprised that according to the site women have much better color perception than men in general.

Rod said...

I did the exact same thing, PatternGhost. Get them in roughly correct order, then start grabbing difficult tiles and wiggling them back and forth to make the hue change pop more clearly. Got a zero this way.

Alex_Munguia said...

Same as Rob and Pattern Ghost. 0 on my score. Good stuff.

Janet Oliver said...

Took it again on my larger monitor and got a 7. This time my only errors were in the blue/green range, whereas before on the smaller monitor, they were spread across the spectrum.

Gregory Lee said...

26, on a nice plasma 24" uncalibrated monitor. (I didn't think to turn up the brightness -- good idea.)

Joshua CairĂ³s said...

I have 4 in my score, in the green zone

Susan Sorger said...

I spent a long time on it. Once I completed looking up close, I moved back away from the screen and made adjustements.
I was using my laptop which doesn't give the best results.

But using that method: drum-roll please: I got a perfect score.
Very pleased with myself. Too bad I can't draw.

Dan Kent said...

I got a 19 - seems pretty darned good for my age group. I'll take that. Hmmmm, at least I was happy till I saw these other results!

David Teter said...

I got a score of 12, did not calibrate the monitor.
I was surprised my 'problems' were with the blue greens, which I thought were easier.

I did an overall sort first then fine tuned like PatternGhost and Rod.

I should say I gave myself a limited time of about 2 minutes per line just to see how good my quick decisions are. I'm usually better without second guessing.

@Laura... see this post, it may help. It is a little backwards to your question but good advice.
James gurney linked it from here on Gurney Journey, but I could not find it.
http://stapletonkearns.blogspot.com/search?q=smuggling+red

Nicholas Avallone said...

I got a 4, which is surprising, considering my inability to actually control color in a painting.

Erik Bongers said...

My score was 87.
But that's no surprise. I'm a bit colorblind. A challenge for a visual artist, but no showstopper.

Sophie said...

Surely, it all depends on your monitor? I scored 4.

Laura said...

@David J. Teter

Thanks so much for the link; chromium oxide it is. :)

Anonymous said...

I had a score of 20-something previously, but now after taking it again i had a 0!
I remember having quite a lot of problems with the third green-purple section. But it might be cause i have a crappy monitor then.

Still, it's good to know my eye-brain coordination and monitor are both working fine.

Anonymous said...

I did pretty well, 28.

Erik Bongers said...

@Laura: I had (or still have) the same problem with too bright or unnatural greens.
I used to mix my greens with Emerald Green as a base, mixed with reds and yellows, but appartently it's too difficult to mix Emerald Green to a natural warm green.
So I started using Sap Green (Daler-Rowney Cryla 375).
It's a mixture of phthalo green pg7 with arylamide yellow py73 and iron oxide red pr101.

Dit said...

I've done it once with little pieces of paper about 20 years ago when they did all sorts of test at grammar school (part of some study). All they said back then that I had exceptionally good colour vision and a zero score now (with an old Dell monitor) reassured me that they were right :)

Mark said...

Not sure if you've ever mentioned it, Mr. Gurney, but what type of computer/monitor do you have, and do you ever paint digitally?

erlson said...

i got a perfect score of 0 on a macbook pro.
I really don't see how the monitor affects people's scores because the brightness or darkness of the monitor should relatively affect each hue at the same level, making difference between each hue unchanged.

Mark Vander Vinne said...

When working for an ad agency in Chicago, the manager of the photo retouching department had this in a peg form, where you put the pegs in order. I got 100% correct. He asked if I wanted to be a photo retoucher? I turned him down because I wanted to be an art director.

I found this online a few months ago and took it again. Same result. Maybe I should have been that retoucher? But I enjoy being an artist better.

Colin said...

I got a 0 (perfect) and did it on a mac laptop, which generally have pretty good calibration. I also am an illustrator, and have spent many years mixing paints and spent a lot of time painting all of those swatches and arranging them in fade order that were pretty much like this test back when I was in Art School.

Meltemi. said...

Or just get a life...live with your monitor...

Just assume that everyone sees those colours just the way that you do. They don't oh that is their problem.

There is more to life than this exercise in masochism...

Unknown said...

I got a 0 on this. (Screenshot to prove it!) I'd like to point out, however, that I took the test about 6 months to a year ago on the same uncalibrated screen and got in the mid-60's, blue greens being my worst area.

I picked up Color and Light after that. I used to work in charcoal primarily, now I work in oil. It's all about studying and practicing.

Unknown said...

I scored a 0.... strange bc I've been told I was color blind by my ex (an architect who is incredible with color).

Also, I only see out of one eye and my vision is compromised.

My current computer is a loaner from my geek brother and it is ancient! A Panasonic CF-53... so the monitor is nothing special.

I guess being used to compensating for visual impairments maybe I'm able to compare the subtle differences in the cubes? Idk

Seriously- what does this mean anyway??

Unknown said...

I don't know but I got a 0 on my phone, Samsung Note 3, display setting - Standard. Does that count or is it not accurate?