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Palette Contrast Matrix

Paste a palette and see every colour tested against every other in a single grid, each cell showing the real ratio and whether it passes. Eight brand colours make fifty-six pairs, which is how a palette ends up with one combination nobody ever checked.

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Paste your palette
Test against
Colours7
Pairs tested42
Pairs that pass18 of 42
Text on →
#15181A
·
Aa✕ 2.6:1
Aa✕ 3.5:1
Aa✕ 1.8:1
Aa✕ 2.8:1
Aa15.8:1
Aa17.8:1
#565E5F
Aa✕ 2.6:1
·
Aa✕ 1.3:1
Aa✕ 1.4:1
Aa✕ 1.0:1
Aa5.9:1
Aa6.6:1
#C1490D
Aa✕ 3.5:1
Aa✕ 1.3:1
·
Aa✕ 1.9:1
Aa✕ 1.2:1
Aa✕ 4.4:1
Aa4.9:1
#33484F
Aa✕ 1.8:1
Aa✕ 1.4:1
Aa✕ 1.9:1
·
Aa✕ 1.5:1
Aa8.5:1
Aa9.6:1
#3F6B47
Aa✕ 2.8:1
Aa✕ 1.0:1
Aa✕ 1.2:1
Aa✕ 1.5:1
·
Aa5.4:1
Aa6.1:1
#F1F2EF
Aa15.8:1
Aa5.9:1
Aa✕ 4.4:1
Aa8.5:1
Aa5.4:1
·
Aa✕ 1.1:1
#FFFFFF
Aa17.8:1
Aa6.6:1
Aa4.9:1
Aa9.6:1
Aa6.1:1
Aa✕ 1.1:1
·

Each cell is the row colour used as text on the column colour as background. A cross means that pair falls below 4.5. The ratio is the same in both directions, so the grid is symmetric; both halves are shown because you read it looking for a specific combination rather than scanning it whole.

What this does

Paste a palette and every colour is tested against every other one, in a grid. Each cell shows the row colour as text on the column colour as background, with the real ratio and a cross when it falls short.

Why a grid rather than a checker

Checking pairs one at a time is how a palette ends up with a combination nobody tested. Eight brand colours produce fifty-six ordered pairs. Nobody works through fifty-six pairs in a single checker, so in practice people test the four combinations they expect to use and discover the fifth in a review.

Reading it

The grid is symmetric, because contrast is the same in either direction. Both halves are shown anyway, since you read it looking for one particular combination rather than scanning the whole thing, and hunting for the half that exists is worse than a little redundancy.

What it will not do

It reads up to twelve colours. Past that the grid stops being something a person can scan, and a palette with more than twelve colours has a different problem. It also says nothing about which pairs you should use, only which ones you can.

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