A sign guy in Amarillo told me to squint at my own menu, and I finally stopped trusting the hex code | Color Contrast Checks

Riley Barnes · 2026-09-25T23:00:04.322668+00:00

I always judged contrast by typing hex values into a checker and calling it done, so a pale gray on white passed "close enough" at a 3.1 ratio and I shipped 200 printed menus for a cafe in El Paso anyway. The printer's proof came back and three older regulars told me they could not read the dessert prices at all, so I printed a fresh proof and squinted at it from the doorway across the room, and suddenly those pale prices vanished into the paper. Now I test every color pair at a real distance before it goes to print, so what's your go-to way to catch weak contrast before you commit to a run?

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A sign guy in Amarillo told me to squint at my own menu, and I finally stopped trusting the hex code | Color Contrast Checks - The Design Community Hub