Color perception: calibrate your color markers

Color perception seems self-evident. Red, green, blue, yellow, pink and violet seem obvious to most people, but between dark red, blood red and scarlet, the nuances are more subtle.

Lightspark Design offers Color Game to improve our perception of colors.

How it works

A color is presented for one second, and then you must reproduce it using the color wheel. From memory, you select the right color, then adjust the hue. Your score is then shown in comparison with the original hue.

Operation is intuitive, the learning curve fast and interest remains high during the minute or two of the exercise, which you tend to want to repeat.

The exercise is interesting because, at first, most people have only very general cues and get results that are quite far from the original. But as the exercise progresses, precision increases. We don't think in words, but with impressions of the "plus" or "minus" of a particular color or hue.

Three modes of exercise are proposed: alone, in a group or with the whole world, with a daily challenge. When you compare yourself to 2,000 other people, it gives you some idea of your color acuity and how far you've come.

It remains to be seen whether this skill increases or is maintained day after day, depending on ambient brightness or our level of visual fatigue. Color Game offers an interesting tool for experimentation.

Try: Color Game - Dialed