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Color Tool

Color Contrast Checker

Check if your text and background colour combination passes WCAG AA and AAA accessibility standards.

🔒 Private — runs in your browser ⚡ Instant WCAG results ✅ AA & AAA levels 🎯 W3C formula
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Contrast Ratio
WCAG AA Normal text (≥ 4.5:1)
WCAG AA Large text (≥ 3:1)
WCAG AAA Normal text (≥ 7:1)
WCAG AAA Large text (≥ 4.5:1)
Quick presets:
Live Preview

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

Large Text Sample (18pt+)

Small body text — this is how your normal paragraph content will look with these colour choices. Readability matters for accessibility.

Preview updates in real time as you change colours above.

📖How to Use the Contrast Checker

  1. 1
    Pick your colours

    Click the colour pickers or type HEX codes directly into the fields to set your foreground (text) and background colours.

  2. 2
    Read the contrast ratio

    The contrast ratio updates instantly. A higher number means better readability — 21:1 is black on white (maximum), 1:1 is no contrast at all.

  3. 3
    Check the WCAG badges

    Green ✅ means Pass, red ❌ means Fail. Adjust colours until your most important badges show Pass.

📋WCAG 2.1 Contrast Requirements

LevelText TypeMin. Ratio
AANormal text4.5 : 1
AALarge text3 : 1
AAUI components3 : 1
AAANormal text7 : 1
AAALarge text4.5 : 1

Large text = 18pt (24px) regular or 14pt (≈19px) bold or heavier.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is WCAG?

WCAG stands for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines — the international standard for web accessibility published by the W3C. WCAG 2.1 defines minimum contrast ratios to ensure text is readable for people with low vision.

What contrast ratio is required for WCAG AA?

WCAG AA requires a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for normal text (under 18pt / 14pt bold) and 3:1 for large text (18pt+ / 14pt+ bold). For UI components and graphical objects, 3:1 is required.

What contrast ratio is required for WCAG AAA?

WCAG AAA requires a minimum contrast ratio of 7:1 for normal text and 4.5:1 for large text. AAA is the highest level of conformance and is recommended for content used by people with severe vision impairment.

How is the contrast ratio calculated?

The contrast ratio is calculated using the relative luminance of each colour as defined by the W3C: (L1 + 0.05) / (L2 + 0.05), where L1 is the lighter colour's luminance and L2 is the darker one's.

Does this tool support alpha / transparent colours?

The checker works with fully opaque HEX and RGB colours. For transparent colours, use the RGBA to HEX converter to compute the effective colour on a given background first.

Is my data private?

Yes. All calculations happen entirely in your browser using JavaScript. No data is ever sent to any server.