Here's a tie-dye shirt (on the left) and how it looks to me (on the right). I can't tell the two images apart, but my wife was glad to explain to me how "wrong" I am.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
What it's like to be color blind
- Thread starter Doctor Q
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
What differences pop the most to your eye? To me, the first shot is the most dramatically different, while the 2nd and 3rd are only just.
#1 looks "rosy", #2 medium, and #3 "pale".
But what I mean by "rosy" is really "darker", not "redder".
I've learned what others call a certain color, and that strongly influences how I express what I see, even though I'm not seeing the same thing. If somebody has been working out and their face is flushed, I may not notice. If I do, I'll think their skin is simply darker, but I'll say "your cheeks are red" since that's what others say about it.
So because the red is so subtle in the 3rd picture, looking more like a tinting of the shadows than the actual color of the skin underneath, you see it as having less contrast than the other two. That's kind of interesting, because from a casual glance, I would've assumed all three looked about the same to you.
Interesting. I disabled f.lux (colour temperature adjustment), went full screen and then zoomed in to exclude the first photograph. If I hadn't been told about the tint to the third, I wouldn't have seen it. Looking at a pair of pixels (don't laugh) on his ear, if anything I would have said that the third is paler than the second in some areas, darker than the second in others. Overall, darker.
I called my housemate into the room, he couldn't tell a difference in colour, either. After I rotated the image 180° it was easier to see that the third was fractionally darker but still, the colours (the slight overlay effect) appeared almost identical.
I experimented with rotation because there's a window to the left of the display.
It's strange that I find #3 darker overall than #2 but I guess that there's some preconception, from viewing things left-to-right (1, 2, 3). The brain sees what the brain expects to see, or something like that.
The 'dress thing' a few months ago had me literally shrieking out loud with shock because it was the first time that I had experienced anything like that optical illusion with something tangible. When an illusion is demonstrated in a book, it's exaggerated. To find the same illusion with an everyday object, without exaggeration, truly amazed me.
An article in the Los Angeles Times, about Wally Feresten, the long-time cue-card guy at Saturday Night Live, mentions that actress Lara Flynn Boyle is color blind.
The late Fred Rogers (Mr. Rogers on TV) was color blind, and so is Howie Mandel. Just search "color blind celebrities" for more.
The late Fred Rogers (Mr. Rogers on TV) was color blind, and so is Howie Mandel. Just search "color blind celebrities" for more.
Today the Color Name & Hue tool at the Colblindor website was a life-saver.
I had two items which I knew were yellow and green, but there was no way I could tell which was which. I pasted the RGB values (CFBA51 and 8AC45B) into this website and it told me the hue and names for the colors.
Problem solved!
I had two items which I knew were yellow and green, but there was no way I could tell which was which. I pasted the RGB values (CFBA51 and 8AC45B) into this website and it told me the hue and names for the colors.
Problem solved!
that's interesting... so if u'r color blind, i guess u wouldn't be driving either, otherwise u would be going through more red lights, unless u just see all traffic stopped, so u just assume it must be red. Providing there *is* traffic that is.
From a recent Macworld iTunes column by Kirk McElhear:
The solution Kirk suggests is to disable the "Use custom colors for open albums, movies, etc." option in iTunes -> Preferences -> General.
Recent iTunes versions have a black background on the top portion of the window so the song titles are impossible to read. ...
This has been an iTunes "feature" for quite a while...
An algorithm in iTunes uses the dominant colors from the album artwork of the selected album, or of the tracks in a playlist, to choose a color scheme.
Unfortunately, this algorithm seems like it was designed by an intern, and doesn’t take into account the lack of contrast between pale colored fonts and dark backgrounds. It also ignores the fact that many people are colorblind...
This has been an iTunes "feature" for quite a while...
An algorithm in iTunes uses the dominant colors from the album artwork of the selected album, or of the tracks in a playlist, to choose a color scheme.
Unfortunately, this algorithm seems like it was designed by an intern, and doesn’t take into account the lack of contrast between pale colored fonts and dark backgrounds. It also ignores the fact that many people are colorblind...
The solution Kirk suggests is to disable the "Use custom colors for open albums, movies, etc." option in iTunes -> Preferences -> General.
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/21458816 consider the second screen shot, an example that Apple sets to developers. It's almost laughable.
When they say "Sorry, you cannot view this page" it's true literally!
A reverse color blindness test image
The book Puzzillusions by Archimedes' Laboratory contains this image:
Copyright © 1992-2015, Gianni A. Sarcone, Archimedes-Lab.org. Used with permission
People who are red-deficient color blind (like me) should see something in the image quite clearly, while people with normal vision should see nothing but random dots, or struggle to see what the color blind see.
The image works as they claim on most of the people I've tested so far:
It doesn't work the same way for green-deficient color blind people. They should see a messy area that's not really identifiable.
The book Puzzillusions by Archimedes' Laboratory contains this image:
Copyright © 1992-2015, Gianni A. Sarcone, Archimedes-Lab.org. Used with permission
People who are red-deficient color blind (like me) should see something in the image quite clearly, while people with normal vision should see nothing but random dots, or struggle to see what the color blind see.
The image works as they claim on most of the people I've tested so far:
me: I see it.
another red-deficient color blind man: he saw it.
1 girl with normal color vision: she saw nothing.
2 men with normal color vision: they saw nothing.
1 man with normal color vision: he said it was a little hard to recognize but he could see it.
4 women with normal color vision: they saw nothing.
another red-deficient color blind man: he saw it.
1 girl with normal color vision: she saw nothing.
2 men with normal color vision: they saw nothing.
1 man with normal color vision: he said it was a little hard to recognize but he could see it.
4 women with normal color vision: they saw nothing.
It doesn't work the same way for green-deficient color blind people. They should see a messy area that's not really identifiable.
Last edited:
When you can't tell, use an educated guess
When I saw the Google logo in a MacRumors news story yesterday, it occurred to me that I don't know what colors are in the logo.
…
Conclusion: blue red yellow purple green brown
How close did I get?
I present Google's logo according to Dr. Q:
How I enjoyed a fine dessert while everyone else was horrified
We had some company over, so my wife baked a cake with chocolate chips. It's the kind you bake upside-down and then flip over as you take it out of the baking pan. The chocolate chips she had on hand were from a festive collection, some brown, some green, some red, which should have looked decorative mixed into the yellow cake.
Unfortunately, the cake batter was a little too thin, so the chips sank to the bottom, then melted against the pan. The result, after it was baked then turned over, was that the cake had streaks/smears of brown, green, and red across the top. People with regular color vision thought it looked awful, as if it had turned moldy or rancid, even though they knew it was fresh. It tasted fine, but they couldn't enjoy it as much as I did, eating my piece of cake oblivious to the colors I couldn't tell apart! We all had a good laugh about it.
I posted that story a few years ago. Here's a new story that presents the flip side:
We had some company over, so my wife baked a cake with chocolate chips. It's the kind you bake upside-down and then flip over as you take it out of the baking pan. The chocolate chips she had on hand were from a festive collection, some brown, some green, some red, which should have looked decorative mixed into the yellow cake.
Unfortunately, the cake batter was a little too thin, so the chips sank to the bottom, then melted against the pan. The result, after it was baked then turned over, was that the cake had streaks/smears of brown, green, and red across the top. People with regular color vision thought it looked awful, as if it had turned moldy or rancid, even though they knew it was fresh. It tasted fine, but they couldn't enjoy it as much as I did, eating my piece of cake oblivious to the colors I couldn't tell apart! We all had a good laugh about it.
Last edited:
I wonder what it's like to play Chameleon Run if you're color blind.
"The aim of each level is to reach the end of the course without touching a platform that has a different color to the main character. "
"The aim of each level is to reach the end of the course without touching a platform that has a different color to the main character. "
I haven't read through all of this thread, just the first page and last page - I will try to catch up the middle over the next few days. But, my son is color-blind, as well as my brother. Obviously my mother and I are carriers of the genes. I believe she and I also fall into the population of women who see more than the normal color spectrum, although I don't know how you would test this. My maternal grandfather was also colorblind. There is no colorblindess on my husband's side of the family.
My son is 9 and learned in preschool how to read the color names of the crayons, so he fooled his teachers for quite a long while. Most of his friends are more than willing to help out in school if there is a project that requires specific colors and the markers are unnamed. Sometimes it really frustrates him and it makes me sad as I know I passed it on to him (and see a zillion extra colors). As you said in your OP, it's not a life threatening issue, but for someone who enjoys color so much (I am also a photographer and struggle with making photos B&W because to me it sucks all the fun out of them), it's heartbreaking to know my child only sees a tiny fraction of the world.
My son is 9 and learned in preschool how to read the color names of the crayons, so he fooled his teachers for quite a long while. Most of his friends are more than willing to help out in school if there is a project that requires specific colors and the markers are unnamed. Sometimes it really frustrates him and it makes me sad as I know I passed it on to him (and see a zillion extra colors). As you said in your OP, it's not a life threatening issue, but for someone who enjoys color so much (I am also a photographer and struggle with making photos B&W because to me it sucks all the fun out of them), it's heartbreaking to know my child only sees a tiny fraction of the world.
Last edited:
I see groups of like colored dots (light-dark green, light-dark orange/red, light-dark browns), but no letters or numbers. What do you see in this image?
Fascinating; I wonder whether there is a link between women who fall into the part of the population who can see more than the normal colour spectrum and the gene for colour blindness.
If you're asking me, I see big letters "NO" as clear as anything. I've also shown the image upside-down to people. They see nothing special and I see the letters "ON".
So interesting. I will have to ask my son if he can see this. He has trouble mostly with orange/green/brown and mixes purple and blue. He also recently told me he can't see pink (which is my favorite color). I have my doubts but who knows!
I did take it into Photoshop and play with the levels a bit and did see the No.
[doublepost=1493839639][/doublepost]
Normally I don't quote posts that are 11 years old, but since you are the OP and bumped it, I figure it's fair game as I read through this.
My son only figured out a month or two ago that peanut butter is brown. He also thought it was green! He was equally parts disappointed and annoyed. I suspected early on he was colorblind, but it's hard to confirm in a toddler since they don't know colors or read all that well in the first place. Plus, as I mentioned above, he taught himself to read crayon names so got by in preschool. But one day we were all eating lunch at Chipotle, and the kids meals all come with mini bags of chips. Neither he nor his sister could finish everything in one sitting, so my intrepid daughter pulled a crayon out of her bag to write their names on their respective bags. She wrote his name in green crayon on a light brown Chipotle bag, and he thought it was some magic trick because he could not see his name anywhere, even when we traced over it with our fingers.
I will never forget that moment.
It sounds like your son has a classic case of red color deficiency, like me. Which means he can "see" pink, but it's another name for gray.