Test your color skills

[Etienne Cassar]

I am a 34yr old male and just carried out this test at work on an low end uncalibrated display.  Got 3.  Will try it again when I get home on my NEC 2690 Spectraview Reference monitor and see what I get.

[N Walker]

This is a pretty silly test since one's perception of colour and colour differences vary, depending on the colours they are placed next to.  This is a well know fact of colour perception, a fact exploited by Van Gogh when he was painting his sunflower pictures.  He was finally able to get the intense yellow he sought by making the background colour a pale greeny-blue (other paintings have yellow backgrounds).  This is known from correspondence of Van Gogh with others, notably his brother Theo.  Most good books on photography refer to this effect.

See also this and related links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_constancy

I am sure that everyone found as I did, that once the similar colours are placed adjacent to each other that it became much more difficult to tell the difference between them - a demonstration of the effect that adjacent colours have on each other.

Folks.  The test is hokum.  Your scores highly unreliable.  The good news is that your eyesight and visual perception are just fine.  Rest easy and enjoy a happy, and colourful, Christmas !

 Struggle with the test?

[Rocco Penny]

HUZZAH!!
Got zero-
Now if I could just see a crow on the top of my barn, that would be something.
I'm sure I could benefit from a 12 bit monitor.

[Simon J.A. Simpson]

Struggle with the test?

No.  Started it and quickly realised it was a waste of time.  Fun, in a kind of masochistic sort of way, though !
 

[stamper]

No.  Started it and quickly realised it was a waste of time.  Fun, in a kind of masochistic sort of way, though !
 

This has been on a few forums. It is obviously doing the rounds. The hue wheel is a joined up graph that has all the hues in the correct order so there isn't a need to differentiate them in the real world?

[Bill Koenig]

53 years old, my score, 8

[Randy Carone]

It's rather amusing that the "color pattern" I discern from this test is that those who did well like the test and those who did poorly think it's crap. LOL

[fike]

I thought it was a novel test, but I agree that it will measure the performance of your hardware as much as your eyes and brain.  

Differentiating gradations of like colors isn't incredibly relevant to what we do.  Recognizing when gradients aren't smooth is far easier and more common. I also think that having a good eye for the color cast of an image is as important as discerning gradations in one color.  Seeing an image that looks off  and knowing what colors to tweak is the real talent that most of us try to cultivate.  I can see graphic designers needing close color discrimination more than photographers.

second try, actually turning the lights off and taking more than five minutes, I got a 3.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

It's rather amusing that the "color pattern" I discern from this test is that those who did well like the test and those who did poorly think it's crap. LOL

I did the worst of anybody here so far and I like the test. It just verifies what I'v known for many years from amny other tests (Ishihara being the first): I have faulty red-green vision and no amount of monitor calibration is going to fix that.


Now if someone could come up with an effective way of producing a reliable "eye calibration profile", I'd be interested.   

[tokengirl]

Kind of interesting.  I did it very quickly the first time, and scored a 16.  I went back and did it again, this time really paying attention, and I scored a 0.  So I guess that means I'm capable of seeing the relationship between the colors correctly if I make an effort?

Now when I close my eyes I see little colored squares...

[Bradley Proctor]

Wow, I'm kind of disappointed with my score of 20.

Tried it again and got a 4.

[MBehrens]

A quick run through
Online ColorIQ Challenge Results
Your score: 4

Not bad.

[Jack Varney]

Tried it last night, took my time, about 15 minutes, on a standard but calibrated ViewSonic VX910. I am 70 years old, wear slightly tinted glasses and got a zero (0). I wonder if equipment matters, mine or the computer's!

[stamper]

Wow, I'm kind of disappointed with my score of 20.

Tried it again and got a 4.

I think this shows the futility of the test.

[Ernst Dinkla]

Tried it last night, took my time, about 15 minutes, on a standard but calibrated ViewSonic VX910. I am 70 years old, wear slightly tinted glasses and got a zero (0). I wonder if equipment matters, mine or the computer's!

62, score 0.  Took my time too last week on a reasonably calibrated Samsung 205BW used for the web only. Then thought it would be easier on a wide gamut NEC 2690 ........... it is easier so that is a flaw in the test.


met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla

Try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/

[Jeremy Payne]

I wonder if equipment matters, mine or the computer's!

On my calibrated laptop in a bright room, I got a 37 ... on my calibrated wide gamut LED-back LCD, I got a 0.

I tried equally hard to get it right each time.

[Guigui]

25 male with a red-green deficiency (protanomaly) , scored 74.

Took me about 10 minutes and was a nightmare.

If you are interested in color blindness, I recommend this site : http://www.colblindor.com/. Has a lot of information on color blindness, also includes a color blindness simulator for any image you upload, so people with normal color vision can finally see through eyes like mine (not sure it's that accurate, but it's a start).

[Mike Louw]

Male 49, score 0.
Apple monitor color maybe not as bad as Will Crockett would have us believe......

[Shirley Bracken]

Damn, maybe it's not my monitor, maybe it's my eyes!
I scored 54, almost my age... 58/female

[ZOG]

Male, 40 and a score of...0

I guess when you have such a score you find this test very good....  

Old NEC Diamondtron calibrated monitor.