What it's like to be color blind

[Doctor Q]

Bread and peanut butter

--- Bread ---

I have an ongoing problem with bread.

We buy sliced bread from the market or bakery. When I'm making myself a sandwich and a loaf isn't newly purchased, I wonder if the bread is still good. Once in a while a loaf stays past its welcome and grows moldy, but I often can't tell. If the bread has white spots, I can tell and out it goes. But if the bread is turning green, to me it's just the same tannish color that bread normally is. If somebody else is around, I'll ask for a bread inspection. If not, I proceed and cross my fingers. I've probably poisoned myself on occasion.

Bread loaves sometimes have some flour on the outside. I think they do that on purpose for some reason. Whatever the reason, I think I can tell white flour from white mold, so I'm probably OK there.

--- Peanut butter ---

It's funny how often I've assumed something was a certain color and learned very much later that I was wrong. The funniest of all is the color of peanut butter. Peanut butter is the shade of brown that looks just like green to me. As a kid, my brother (he's color blind too) and I called that color "peanut butter green". Apparently we said that to each other but never happened to say it in front of anyone with normal color vision, because I was an adult before somebody told me peanut butter is brown. The "don't ask, don't tell" rule isn't a good one for the chroma impaired!

Our family members are used to our mistakes, but they had trouble believing this one.

Them: "How could you think it was green? Peanuts are brown!"
Me: "I thought peanuts were green too."

Them, holding their noses: "How could you eat peanut butter if you thought it was green?"
Me: "Because that's what it's always looked like."​

It's a little hard learning that a "fact" is wrong after you've known it for years, but I'm used to having it happen now and then. It's like finding out that you've been pronouncing a word wrong all your life. Now I wonder how I could have been so "dumb" about it all those years.

Why do people and peanut butter look green but bread looks tan? I don't know.

Does peanut butter ever go bad and turn green? If so, I'll have another thing to worry about.

 

[Chappers]

Can I make the assumtion that the color blind people are not graphic designers? Interior designers?

Can i make the assumption too that colour blind people don't use Macs because as we all know Macs are are only good for graphics

sorry its been a long 48 hours for me

I became a dad on Wednesday

A friend of mine discovered at university that he was colour blind - it helped understand why he didn't like tomatoes.

 

[Toreador93]

Here is a frame of Dorothy and the Wicked Witch from The Wizard of Oz.

I haven't seen many examples of what color blind people see; that is a great example.

My younger brother is color blind, and I would always ask him what different colors look like to him. With certain tints, he could distinguish between green, red and/or brown. I think. I mean, he got them right sometimes. (<--green)


Great thread guys!

 

[UKnjb]

I haven't seen many examples of what color blind people see; that is a great example.

It is a great example of what some colour-blind people see - FWIW, I cannot register any difference at all between the two pictures. They are graphic, as in 'drawings', images of two people is all. The only thing that I can see is that Dorothy is wearing a blue dress in each picture. Everything else is light or dark and the dark is just another smudgy brown. The light bits, the flesh, is coloured with what I use as a cover-all word for these things - 'beige'. So much of my visual world is coloured 'beige'. *Sigh*.
Presumably Doctor Q had a colour-normal person helping him adjust the colour properties of the two images to illustrate his point, as he (Doctor Q) could see them.
As has become so apparent through this thread, colour-blindness is not a single, uniform, defect. Not trying to be smart, but there is literally a spectrum of severity.

I became a dad on Wednesday

Hey!!! Many many congratulations --- that is such the best thing to happen, not so? I hope that everyone is well and happy and sleeping and I wish you all the best. A long 48 hours? Hmmm - I think that might just be a warm-up practice lap for what you will get over the next few years.

 

[iBlue]

....

Why do people and peanut butter look green but bread looks tan? I don't know.

Does peanut butter ever go bad and turn green? If so, I'll have another thing to worry about.

the bread is a lighter and more "grey" color of tan, peanut butter has more of those rosey tones that trip you up.
i see colors pretty well i think and i have to sort of squeeze the bread a little to check its freshness, i also look for the sell by: date and compare it to the other dates on the loaves around it. i pick the freshest one accordingly. that is no help after you've bought it and it's been in the house for a few days though.

peanut butter doesn't go bad and turn colors but it does look a little weird when it does, like the oil separates a bit too much. natural peanut butters (laura scudders for instance) look that way anyway but you just need to use the date. taste of course tells the ultimate tale.

it's interesting to hear what things affect you because of your chromatically challenged state. i guess those of us without this affliction take a lot for granted. isn't that always the way?

 

[Doctor Q]

Can i make the assumption too that colour blind people don't use Macs because as we all know Macs are are only good for graphics

Nope. We use Macs because we need all the graphics help we can get!

I became a dad on Wednesday

Congrats! What color is your new baby? (Everyone else asks silly questions like "boy or girl?" and "how big?" and "healthy?" and "how is mom feeling?" but color is more important, don't you think?)

I have trouble imagining what UKnjb sees. When I post examples of what I see, keep in mind that about 80% of red-green colorblind people are deuteranopes, while I'm among the 20% who are protanopes.

In another thread, Lau pointed out the netcocktail website, which has color palettes from other websites. The palette named "9Rules Network" caught my eye because it has a palette where the first two colors look identical to me. That tells me that one of them must be red and the other one brown or green. [Note: The image at http://www.netcocktail.com/screenshots/9rules.png is no longer there.]

Another netcocktail example is Revolver Swatch Info 0. To me, the first two colors are similar and the last two colors are identical.

 

[Lau]

In another thread, Lau pointed out this website which has color palettes from other websites. The palette named "9Rules Network" caught my eye because it has a palette where the first two colors look identical to me. That tells me that one of them must be red and the other one brown or green.

Interesting point Dr Q. (And a very interesting thread!)

The left colour is a khaki type green, and the second is a terracotta brown/red colour, just so you know. The 3rd colour is a warm grey colour, and the fourth a cream colour - do these just look grey or do you see them as I do?

 

[revenuee]

Can I make the assumtion that the color blind people are not graphic designers? Interior designers?

i have this problem as well ... BUT overtime because i work with color i can see those numbers.

when i got hired for my job as a photo editor at a news paper i was the only one that past the color balance test --- i also work in a one hour photo lab where i color correct photos and i have NO issues doing my job.

 

[UKnjb]

........ I have trouble imagining what UKnjb sees. When I post examples of what I see, keep in mind that about 80% of red-green colorblind people are deuteranopes, while I'm among the 20% who are protanopes.

What you have done here, surely, is point out to the colour-vision normal people just how it is for colour-vision defectives? Both you and I are self-acknoweledged 'chromatophorically-receptive challenged people' or whatever the PC term is.

If you, from your quoted remark, are confessing a non-understanding of imagining how I see things, you are being equivalent to the colour-vision normals coming out with their standard "Crikey! What do you see this red *thing* as?" sort of question. Your Wizard of Oz images worked well for those with colour-vision normals, because they had been, presumably, adjusted for them by you working in tandem with a 'normal' person. All I was saying was that the illustration didn't work for me because I have a different 'flavour' of defect from you. You see colours different from me, who sees colous differently from whoever is sitting next to me etc ad nauseam - and it is truly impossible to relate those qualitative differences in any meaningful way. To anybody. Even those with similar affilcitions.

Stunningly good question, to Chappers, to ask what colour his new baby was! -made me laugh ; he has not reappeared here, so I suppose he is either out getting hammered with his celebrating friends or --- sleeping.

Before I leave this thread for the last time, can I ask what your favourite pop-group is; Violet Truth (obscure one this, I had to Google for it)? Indigo Girls? Blue Cheer? Green Day? Simply Red? Orange Juice? or, out of the spectrum, Pink Floyd?

This has been a very thought-provoking thread; I have learned a lot and I thank you.

 

[Doctor Q]

The left colour is a khaki type green, and the second is a terracotta brown/red colour, just so you know. The 3rd colour is a warm grey colour, and the fourth a cream colour - do these just look grey or do you see them as I do?

I would have guessed the four colors were red, red, light grey, and pale yellow.

If you, from your quoted remark, are confessing a non-understanding of imagining how I see things, you are being equivalent to the colour-vision normals coming out with their standard "Crikey! What do you see this red *thing* as?" sort of question.

Yes, exactly. If somebody asks "What color does it LOOK like?" I'm happy to guess but I sometimes think they expect me to tell them both what the color really is and what color I'm mistaking it for, as if I saw red as green and green as red.

Your Wizard of Oz images worked well for those with colour-vision normals, because they had been, presumably, adjusted for them by you working in tandem with a 'normal' person. All I was saying was that the illustration didn't work for me because I have a different 'flavour' of defect from you.

Not only would it be hard for me to show a color blind person what I see (which is why I posted photos for those with normal color vision), it's impossible in general for me to show you what I see if your color space is smaller than mine.

Perhaps ColorSync and other color technology could be used to do mappings between the personal color spaces each of us sees.

Stunningly good question, to Chappers, to ask what colour his new baby was! -made me laugh ; he has not reappeared here, so I suppose he is either out getting hammered with his celebrating friends or --- sleeping.

"Good color all over" is part of the Apgar score for a newborn!

Before I leave this thread for the last time, can I ask what your favourite pop-group is; Violet Truth (obscure one this, I had to Google for it)? Indigo Girls? Blue Cheer? Green Day? Simply Red? Orange Juice? or, out of the spectrum, Pink Floyd?

There is an artist named [playlistId=83210462&s=143441&i=83210442]Colorblind[/playlistId]!

 

[UKnjb]

So much for my last post on this thread!
That one (your choice of music) made me laugh as well!
Have a good rest of the weekend! And thanks again.

Edit Point: And one of the good and interesting, to me at least, points of this Thread has been that nobody pitched in with the relative spellings of colour/color. Phew!

 

[ravenvii]

It's colour, you Yanks!

Kidding, kidding!

Welcome me to the color-blind club. I've known I'm color blind for a long time. I couldn't see that 3 either. My guess for the colors in that palette is brown, red, light green, light yellow, and the only reason I guessed light green is because green is typical in that kind of arrangement, so past experiences figure into that guess as well. I can see the difference between colors in "opposing temperature" groups - the blues, greens, etc in the cold side and the reds, oranges, etc in the hot side. But the colors in one side are hard to distinguish - blues and greens are hard ones for me, as are reds and oranges.

 

[Linkjeniero]

Count me in too. I'm just slightly colorblind, and I can tell red from green in most situations; but I can't see anything in those color dots tests. I also can't read red chalk in a green board... something that happened to me more than once while I was in school. Apparently, it runs in the family, because my cousin is also colorblind. About the drive test that someone asked about: I was really nervous about it when I took it... but it turned out not to be a test like the dots one, instead it just was a bunch of semaphores and you had to tell wich light was on... you had to see in black and white to fail it.

 

[mkrishnan]

It's colour, you Yanks!

We're blind to words ending in our. It looks like this to us:

It's colour, you Yanks!

 

[kylos]

Nope. We use Macs because we need all the graphics help we can get!

Congrats! What color is your new baby? (Everyone else asks silly questions like "boy or girl?" and "how big?" and "healthy?" and "how is mom feeling?" but color is more important, don't you think?)

I have trouble imagining what UKnjb sees. When I post examples of what I see, keep in mind that about 80% of red-green colorblind people are deuteranopes, while I'm among the 20% who are protanopes.

In another thread, Lau pointed out this website which has color palettes from other websites. The palette named "9Rules Network" caught my eye because it has a palette where the first two colors look identical to me. That tells me that one of them must be red and the other one brown or green.

That example is really amazing. As a deuteranope, those shades of red and green are completely different to me. For me, certain greens look brown or orange (not the same greens). Even for someone who is colorblind, this has really been an enlightening thread.

 

[camphorsunrise]

No, Marcia Cross looks like a redhead. It depends on the shade of red, but I'm really attracted to redheads. It's just tough to see when it gets to be auburn and all that.

I went through a punk phase after college and dyed my hair purple and it sucked because it just looked dark. Then I tried burgundy and it still just looked dark. It wasn't until I spiked it and dyed it flame red (a la Ziggy Stardust) that I could actually see it. My nephews said it looked like my head was on fire. Kept that for a couple years.

Funny that you should mention redheads.. I'm not *color* blind, but I do have very bad eyesight. Back to the point, when I was a kid (about 4) my mom and I were at the grocery store, (I'm a natural redhead, born with a full head of it, and at the time my hair was a flaming copper color.) and an old man walked up to us and said, "What a pretty little girl with such black hair." First time I ever knew color-blindness existed. Pretty confusing thing for a redheaded freckle-covered 4 year old to hear.

 

[Doctor Q]

when I was a kid (about 4) my mom and I were at the grocery store, (I'm a natural redhead, born with a full head of it, and at the time my hair was a flaming copper color.) and an old man walked up to us and said, "What a pretty little girl with such black hair."

A few years ago, on an impulse, I bought my wife a large doll because I thought it looked like her. She liked the doll but said it didn't look much like her because the doll had red hair and she had brown hair. Whoops!

 

[Counterfit]

--- Bread ---

I have an ongoing problem with bread.

We buy sliced bread from the market or bakery. When I'm making myself a sandwich and a loaf isn't newly purchased, I wonder if the bread is still good. Once in a while a loaf stays past its welcome and grows moldy, but I often can't tell. If the bread has white spots, I can tell and out it goes. But if the bread is turning green, to me it's just the same tannish color that bread normally is. If somebody else is around, I'll ask for a bread inspection. If not, I proceed and cross my fingers. I've probably poisoned myself on occasion.

Bread loaves sometimes have some flour on the outside. I think they do that on purpose for some reason. Whatever the reason, I think I can tell white flour from white mold, so I'm probably OK there.

When in doubt, take a sniff.

 

[cslewis]

I wonder if there's hope for you guys. I mean, its hard to believe that even with modern science, there's no way that you'll ever be able to experience the sensation of red. For people like Doctor Q, are 'red' things just black? Or do 'red' and 'green' things look the same?

I'm pretty much OK, but with some of the circles it's difficult to tell what the numbers are. Sometimes I can't tell if something is pink or orange, but I think that's normal. Also, am I the only one that sees the last two Steve Jobs photos as exactly the same?

 

[Doctor Q]

For people like Doctor Q, are 'red' things just black? Or do 'red' and 'green' things look the same?

Yes and yes, depending on the exact shades. But I can correctly identify some shades of red as red, such as the primary colors used for kid's toys. But not always, and I can't always explain why.

 

[®îçhå®?]

One quick question. Is there anyone wno does not see the sky as blue but as green or something???

 

[UKnjb]

One quick question. Is there anyone wno does not see the sky as blue but as green or something???

Are you saying it isn't green? Oh my God, yet another nail in my colour deficiency collection. And I thought I was doing so well. *sigh - deep deep sigh*

 

[SilentPanda]

I always wondered why your avatar was of a blue panda...

Is it really?

LOL. Good one.
I have also just noticed that doctor Q and Silent panda, whom have both said are colour blind, BOTH have a black and white avatar...
...Interesting.

Well... pandas are black and white... so my avatar is black and white!

For people like Doctor Q, are 'red' things just black? Or do 'red' and 'green' things look the same?

I slept on a black couch for about a year (the couch was more comfortable than the bed so why not? ). Apparently the couch is not black but "maroon".


Oh! One thing I have terrible trouble with is telling if meat is cooked or not. I would have to say that is my biggest worry.

 

[SilentPanda]

The latest Penny Arcade comic is about being color blind... sorta...

 

[Doctor Q]

The latest Penny Arcade comic is about being color blind... sorta...

Good catch! Penny Arcade correctly reports that people with green eyes can't see dogs, they only hear barking.

Well, perhaps that's not actually true, but Gabe and Tycho might learn that people have all sorts of misconceptions about the color blind.

For example, it turns out that we aren't simply stupid (unable to learn our colors) and slapping some sense into us doesn't help. Little-know fact!