# Color - Contrast (Light vs Dark Color Ratio)

contrast is a luminance ratio showing the difference between the most lighter color and the most darker color of an object.

Generally, the contrast is calculated between two objects contigu.

The more contrast, the more readable is a text or an object. It makes:

• live easier for people with visual impairments
• and helps in imperfect conditions like low-light environments or older screens.

## Example

On a black background (luminance of 0):

• because yellow has a bigger luminance (0.92),
• than blue (0.07)

Demonstration:

Above 5 is considered a good contrast

Color 1 Color 2 Ratio
Black White 21 (Max)
Black Gray 5.31
Black Yellow 19,55
Black Blue 2.44
Black Green 4.08
White Yellow 1.07
White Blue 8.59
White Green 5.13

## Metrics

### Contrast Ratio

$$\text{Contrast Ratio} = (L1 + 0.05) / (L2 + 0.05)$$ where:

+0.05 because luminance is a scale value that can be 0

### Minimum

Minimum Specification as defined by the w3c. The contrast ratio must be least 4.5, except for the following:

• Large Text: Large-scale text and images of large-scale text have a contrast ratio of at least 3
• Incidental: cosmetic, decoration, not visible to anyone, no significant
• Logo: Text that is part of a logo or brand name has no contrast requirement.

Translation in web by Google Lighthouse:

• 3 for text that is 18 pt, or 14 pt and bold
• 4.5 for All other text

### Tool

#### Get and Set: Chrome Color Picker

With the chrome devtool, you can show the color picker that calculate the contrast.

Below the contrast has a value of 2.57 and that is not good.