Color can be used to enhance web content, making it more perceivable and understandable. This can be accomplished by maintaining good contrast between foreground and background colors and by using color as one means among many to highlight elements.
Color Contrast
To make text perceivable, there must be sufficient contrast between text color and the background or surrounding color. Contrast is basically the difference between lightness and darkness, regardless of the color or hue. As long as one color is dark enough and the other is light enough, text and background can be any colors—although neutral colors are often easiest to read.
Color and:
Because color cannot be perceived by all users with all devices, color should be used along with other means to highlight elements or express meaning. For example, the bars in a bar graph can be distinguished by color and text labels; a missing assignment in a spreadsheet can be indicated by color and the absence of a check mark. When this is achieved, the page can be viewed in grayscale without losing any information.
Resources
Consider checking images with a color blindness simulator.
- Upload an image to test with Coblis
- Download a free color blindness simulator from Color Oracle
See if your links stand out by using the link contrast checker
