What is CheckMyColours?

It is a tool for checking foreground and background color combinations of all DOM elements and determining if they provide sufficient contrast when viewed by someone having color deficits.
All the tests are based on the algorithms suggested by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

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Luminosity Constrast Ratio (WCAG 2.0)

(L1+.05) / (L2+.05) where L is luminosity and is defined as .2126*R + .7152*G + .0722B using linearised R, G, and B values. Linearised R (for example) = (R/FS)^2.2 where FS is full scale value (255 for 8 bit color channels). L1 is the higher value (of text or background) and L2 is the lower value.

Text or diagrams and their background must have a luminosity contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for level 2 conformance to guideline 1.4, and at least 7:1 for level 3 conformance to guideline 1.4.

Color brigthness (WCAG 1.0)

((Red value X 299) + (Green value X 587) + (Blue value X 114)) / 1000
The range for color brightness difference is 125.
The range for color difference is 500.

About the author

Giovanni Scala is a freelance web developer based in Italy, with programming experience in HTML/XHTML, CSS, PHP, Javascript/jQuery, interested in web standards, accessibility and usability.
For info and updates follow @giovanniscala on Twitter or send an email to