Turns out my green on gray was failing WCAG by a mile, not barely missing it

Rechecked my dashboard mockup after seeing a post about contrast ratios and realized the 2.8:1 I'd been squinting at for weeks was actually 1.9:1 once I measured the true background, so I switched to a darker teal and now it's 4.6:1, has anyone else had that moment where your eyes lied to you about a color pair?

2 comments

2 Comments

alicebarnes5d ago

Honestly, I used to think contrast checkers were for people who were being extra about design. Then I had a similar wake up call with a blue on dark gray combo that looked fine to me but came out at like 2.4:1 when I actually ran the numbers. My eyes were just filling in the gaps, convincing me the colors were more different than they really were. Now I always run a quick check before I get attached to a palette, it saves me from looking silly later.

lucas1594d agoMost Upvoted

Damn @alicebarnes, calling it a "wake up call" feels a little dramatic for picking colors. I get that contrast matters for accessibility, but 2.4:1 still looks fine to most people, so are we really failing that hard?