In short
- For hue discrimination, X-Rite's free online hue test — a simplified Farnsworth-Munsell 100 Hue arrangement — is the closest thing to the standard used in print and colour-critical work. It is not the clinical kit, and says so.
- For colour memory and reproduction, DeltaE (sliders, CIEDE2000 scoring), Dialed (web, three sliders, five rounds) and Percore (daily, hue/saturation/brightness scored to 0–100) each ask you to rebuild a colour you can no longer see.
- For fast recognition from options, Chromatch is the most developed game, with Delta E scoring and a daily challenge.
- Ishihara-style plate tests screen for colour-vision deficiency and are not training tools; only an eye-care professional can diagnose it.
- None of these is a medical test. Monitor, lighting, fatigue and age all move the result, and every honest tool admits it.
How this list was made
Each tool was checked against its own site or App Store listing on 21 October 2026. Prices are what the listings showed on that date in US dollars; stores set local prices. Star ratings and download counts are left out because they move daily and measure marketing, not measurement. Percore, the app this site belongs to, is included where it belongs — colour memory — and not offered as a hue-discrimination test, which it is not.
Three different things called a colour test
- Colour-vision screening. Plates and arrangement tests that look for a deficiency in the cones themselves. Useful once, as a screen; diagnostic only in a clinic.
- Hue discrimination. How finely you can tell two neighbouring hues apart with both in front of you. This is what the Farnsworth-Munsell test measures and what colourists and press operators are assessed on.
- Colour memory and reproduction. How accurately you hold a colour in mind once it is gone and rebuild it. This is the skill designers use when they argue about a grey they saw an hour ago, and it is the one that trains most visibly with practice.
The tests and apps
X-Rite Online Colour Challenge (hue test)
- Best for
- Hue discrimination, against the industry's reference method
- Platform
- Web
- Price
- Free
The physical Farnsworth-Munsell 100 Hue Test is four trays of colour caps that you arrange in order of hue; it has been the standard assessment of colour discrimination in colour-critical trades for decades, and the kit costs several hundred dollars. X-Rite, which makes it, publishes a free online version: four rows of colour chips with the ends fixed, which you drag into hue order. A score of zero is perfect; the result counts how often a chip is misplaced and how far off it sits, and a circular graph shows the region of the spectrum where your discrimination is weakest.
The page is unusually honest for a free test. It states that it is not a replacement for the full test, not a diagnostic tool, and that monitor colour, lighting, the surrounding colour, fatigue and age all change the result between attempts. Take it on a calibrated screen in a dim room and treat the number as a snapshot.
The limit. A one-off discrimination score, not a practice: repeat attempts on the same chips teach the chips, not your eye.
Chromatch: Color Perception
- Best for
- Fast recognition from a set of options, as a game
- Platform
- iPhone and iPad
- Price
- Free, no ads, as shown on the listing on 21 October 2026
A colour appears with six candidates beneath it. You have about a second to compare, then the colour fades and you pick from memory. An exact pick scores 100 per cent; the difference is measured with Delta E, the colour-difference formula the print industry uses. As a streak grows, the colour shows for less time and the options converge, so the difficulty comes from the game rather than from a setting.
It is the most developed of the games here: Classic (one life), Rush (a timer that accurate picks extend), eight tiers, a seven-round daily challenge, friend duels and leaderboards. Solo play works offline.
The limit. Choosing from six options measures recognition, not reproduction; it cannot tell you which of hue, saturation or brightness you misjudged.
DeltaE – Colour Guessing Game
- Best for
- Colour memory with professional-grade scoring
- Platform
- iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Vision
- Price
- Free, as shown on the listing on 21 October 2026
A colour is shown for a few seconds, then hidden, and you rebuild it from memory with hue, saturation and brightness sliders before a timer runs out. A game is five rounds. The match is scored with CIEDE2000, the current standard colour-difference formula in colour science, which weights differences the way human eyes do rather than as raw slider distance.
Because it uses sliders rather than options, it is a reproduction test in the proper sense, and the closest in shape to the professional method. The listing does not say how the CIEDE2000 distance becomes a points total.
The limit. Requires the 2026 operating systems (iOS 26 or later), and there is no record of progress over weeks.
Dialed
- Best for
- Colour memory in a browser, with a shareable round
- Platform
- Web
- Price
- Free
Dialed, made by the design studio Lightspark, shows a colour for five seconds and asks you to rebuild it with three sliders. An exact match earns ten points, a close one fewer; five colours make a round, so fifty is perfect. Hard mode cuts the display to three seconds and flashes unrelated colours during the countdown to disturb your memory of it. A multiplayer link gives several people the same five colours to compare scores on.
Its premise — that people cannot reliably recall colours — is the whole point of this category, and the game makes it felt in about a minute. Overestimating saturation is the most common error in this kind of test, and Dialed makes it visible within a round.
The limit. A one-session game: no history, no per-dimension breakdown of what you got wrong.
ColorCeption
- Best for
- Matching in three colour models — RGB, CMY and HSB
- Platform
- iPhone and Apple Watch
- Price
- Free, with a US$0.99 unlock for unlimited colours, as shown on the listing on 21 October 2026
ColorCeption asks you to match a target colour and scores the match from 0 to 100 per cent on how far your values sit from the correct ones. What makes it different is the choice of model: additive RGB (lights), subtractive CMY (inks) and HSB (hue, saturation, brightness) are each a separate page, so a printer and a screen designer can each practise in the model they think in. The target can be shown around your match or on a separate screen, and hidden if you want a memory test rather than a matching one.
The free version has ten colours; the unlock adds ten million. It has not changed much in years, which is either a limitation or a relief depending on your view of app updates.
The limit. Scoring is distance in the chosen model's raw values, not a perceptual formula, so a point of error in one model is not a point in another.
Dehancer Color Test
- Best for
- A rough count of how many colours you distinguish
- Platform
- iPhone
- Price
- Free, as shown on the listing on 21 October 2026
Made by the developers of the Dehancer film-emulation software, this test estimates how many colours you can tell apart under the display conditions it sets, and reports it as a count. A first score is described as an index of colour perception involving short-term memory; a second compares your result to a theoretical ceiling for the visual system. The developers present repeat testing as a way to improve, and their own blog describes it as an experimental tool rather than an examination.
The number is engaging and the method is opaque: the listing does not explain how the count is derived or what a typical result is, so it is best treated as a curiosity with a trend rather than a measurement.
The limit. No published method and no reference range, so the count cannot be compared with anything but your own earlier count.
Ishihara-style plate tests
- Best for
- A first screen for red-green colour-vision deficiency — not training
- Platform
- Web, print, and in every optometrist's drawer
- Price
- Free online versions; the clinical plates are administered by a professional
The familiar plates of coloured dots with a number hidden inside are a screen for red-green deficiency. Online reproductions exist by the dozen and are fine for curiosity, but a screen is not a diagnosis: the printed plates are calibrated, the lighting is controlled, and the result is read by someone trained to read it. If an online plate test gives you a surprising result, the next step is an eye-care professional, not another website.
These are on the list to say clearly what they are. They do not train anything, and no amount of practice changes what the cones can do.
The limit. A screen, not a diagnosis, and not a measure of discrimination or memory in people with normal colour vision.
Percore
- Best for
- Colour memory, measured daily and broken into hue, saturation and brightness
- Platform
- iPhone
- Price
- Free daily practice; Pro US$39.99 a year or US$4.99 a week
Percore's Colour session fills the screen with one colour for a few seconds, with no controls on screen, then takes it away. You rebuild it with hue, saturation and brightness sliders and see yours and the original side by side with the distance between them. The score is the three errors normalised — hue over 180°, the furthest two hues can be apart — and averaged into an accuracy from 0 to 100, and the breakdown says which of the three you actually misjudged. The formula is published in full.
It is one session of five rounds in a daily practice that also covers pitch, duration and shape, and everyone gets the same five colours on the same day, so today's result is comparable with yesterday's and with a friend's. Pro adds two more vision modules — Contrast and Brightness — and practice outside the daily. It is a measurement over time, not a hue-discrimination test, and not a colour-vision screen: the app says so when a session cannot be meaningful for someone.
The limit. It measures colour memory, not discrimination with the target in view; for a Farnsworth-Munsell-style assessment use X-Rite's test.
Which one, for which question
| You want to know… | Use |
|---|---|
| How finely I tell neighbouring hues apart, by the industry method | X-Rite online hue test |
| Whether I might have a colour-vision deficiency | An Ishihara-style screen, then a professional |
| How well I rebuild a colour from memory, scored perceptually | DeltaE, or Dialed in a browser |
| Which of hue, saturation or brightness I keep getting wrong | Percore |
| How fast I recognise a colour among near-matches | Chromatch |
| How I do in RGB versus CMY versus HSB | ColorCeption |
| Roughly how many colours I distinguish | Dehancer Color Test |
Whichever you choose, take it on a calibrated display in a dim room with a neutral background, and do not read anything into one attempt. How to improve your colour perception covers what to do with the result, and Hue, saturation and brightness explained covers the model most of these tools score in.
Find out which of the three you misjudge.
Download on the App StoreFrequently asked
What is the most accurate colour perception test?
For hue discrimination, the physical Farnsworth-Munsell 100 Hue Test administered under controlled lighting. X-Rite's free online version is the same method on a screen and is explicitly not a replacement for it. For colour-vision deficiency, a clinical examination; no website can diagnose it.
Can I take a colour blindness test online?
You can take a screen online, and it may tell you something is worth checking. It cannot diagnose anything: screens vary, lighting varies, and the plates are calibrated for print. If an online result surprises you, see an eye-care professional.
Can colour perception be trained?
The cones cannot be changed, so colour-vision deficiency is not trainable. Discrimination between hues and memory for colour are both skills, and both improve with practice that gives feedback. The tools on this list that score a reproduction are the ones that train rather than only test.
Why do my scores change from day to day?
Monitor settings, ambient light, the colour around the target, fatigue and time of day all move a colour score, which is why X-Rite warns about it on its own test page. Judge a trend over weeks, not a single result.
What is Delta E?
A number for the difference between two colours, computed in a colour space built to match human perception. Several formulas exist; CIEDE2000 is the current standard. A Delta E around 1 is at the edge of what most people can see; several of the apps here score with it.
Were these apps tested?
Each was checked against its own listing or site on 21 October 2026, and the descriptions stay within what those say. Prices are as shown in US dollars on that date; check the store page before buying.