Colour seein test

Is it blue or green? Find whaur blue begins for ye, then sort colours bi hue. Aboot 3 minutes, free: nae sign-up.

Bi the Helibrain teamChecked bi Robert(Inglis), PhD candidate in biophysicsPit oot Last checked

Hou tae read yer result

  • Whaur yer blue begins: the hue whaur yer answers changed fae "green" tae "blue". Hue is a colour's angle on a colour circle; we uise the OKLCH colour space, whaur equal steps in hue luik aboot equally different. On oor scale, green is near 140° and blue near 250°.
  • The three swatches: a colour a wee bit greener than yer boundary, the boundary itsel, and a colour a wee bit bluer. A freend micht ca the yin in the middle bi the ither name.
  • Mistak score: hou far the colours in yer rows were fae bein in the richt order. Ilk colour gets a score for the gap tae its twa neebours, minus 2, sae a row in perfect order gets 0. A lower score is better.
  • The ring: ilka colour o the hue circle, in its ain colour. A langer spike means a bigger mix-up at that hue; "maist mix-ups" names the airt wi the maist.

Yer boundary has nae richt or wrang answer. The mistak score does: 0 is perfect. Neither yin is a medical result.

Is ma blue the same as yers?

Fowk draw the line at different places atween green and blue. In studies o "unique" hues, the pure green and pure blue that fowk pick vary sae muckle that ae body's blue can be anither body's green [1]. Leids differ an aw: in a survey o 120 leids, 68 uise ae wird for baith green and blue [2]. Sae a freend's boundary micht weel be different fae yours.

Quick facts

  • Colour vision deficiency: aboot 8% o men and 0.4% o women o European ancestry hae a red-green colour deficiency, and 4 to 6.5% o men o Chinese and Japanese ancestry [3]. This page isnae a test for it.
  • Wirds and colours: Russian has separate basic wirds for licht blue and dark blue. In ae wee study, Russian speakers telt twa blues apairt quicker when the blues were on opposite sides o that line; English speakers didnae shaw ony sic effect [4].
  • The classic sortin test: the Farnsworth–Munsell 100-hue test, uised in clinics, has 85 coloured caps in 4 trays. Oor pairt 2 taks inspiration fae it, wi oor ain colours and fewer caps.
  • Age: on that clinical test, colour sortin is best at aboot age 19 and slowly gets waur as fowk age (382 fowk wi normal colour vision) [5].
  • Colours that can gang either gate: in an online survey o 1,401 fowk aboot the "dress" photo, 57% saw it as blue and black and 30% as white and gowd [6]. A bigger online survey fand the opposite majority [7], sae fowk are split aboot in hauf.

Hou the colour seein test works

  1. Blue or green? Yin colour appears at a time, on a neutral grey. Tap Green or Blue, or press ← and →. Gang wi yer first thocht.
  2. Gettin closer. Twa sequences o colours rin at the same time, yin stertin near the green end and yin near the blue end, 12 colours ilka ane. A "green" answer moves that sequence towards blue, a "blue" answer towards green, and the steps get smawer ilka time ye change yer mind. Baith meet near yer boundary.
  3. Colours in order. Then ye get 4 rows o 12 colours. Ilk row has a fixed colour at baith ends; drag the colours, or tap twa tae swap them, till the row changes smoothly. There's nae clock.

Aw 52 colours in pairt 2 gang roond the colour circle yince, aboot 6.9° o hue apairt, at the same lichtness and colourfulness, sae anely the hue changes. The boundary is the 50% pynt o a curve fitted tae yer answers. The mistak score follows the 100-hue test's rule.

Whit affects yer result?

  • Yer screen. Screens differ in colour, brichtness and settins. Nicht mode, blue-licht filters, "true tone" and a dim screen aw shift colours towards yellae. E'en the maker o the clinical 100-hue test says an online version cannae be definitive, acause monitors vary [8]. Compare results on the same screen.
  • The room. Bricht or coloured licht aroond ye changes hou the screen luiks.
  • Yer leid. The wirds ye uise for colours shape whaur ye pit the line. Leids that name licht and dark blue separately, or green and blue thegither, draw different boundaries [2][4][9].
  • Age and tiredness. Colour sortin gets harder as fowk age [5], and tired een mak close colours harder tae sort.
  • Colour vision. Fowk wi a red-green colour deficiency uisually find some rows muckle harder. If pairts o the test felt impossible, an eye doctor or optometrist can test yer colour vision properly.

Whit this test can and cannae tell ye

The colour seein test shows whaur ye yersel pit the line atween green and blue, and hou finely ye can order vera similar colours on this screen. It's a gemme based on research tasks. It's no a colour blindness test, no a medical test, and no the Farnsworth–Munsell test itsel: its scores cannae be compared wi clinical norms. We're no affiliated wi X-Rite or Munsell.

If ye think ye micht be colour-blind, an optometrist or eye doctor can test ye wi proper plates and lichtin.

Aksed questions

Is ma blue the same as yers?

No aye. When fowk pick their purest green and purest blue, the choices vary a lot frae body tae body; ae body's blue can be anither body's green [1]. The Helibrain colour seein test finds yer ain boundary atween green and blue, sae ye can compare it wi a freend's on the same screen.

Is turquoise blue or green?

Turquoise and teal sit richt on the line atween green and blue, which is why fowk disagree aboot them. Whether ye ca them blue or green depends on yer een, yer screen and yer leid: 68 o 120 leids surveyed uise ae wird for baith green and blue [2]. The test shows which gate ye lean.

Is this a colour blindness test?

Naw. The Helibrain colour seein test disnae screen for colour blindness and cannae diagnose onything. Colour blindness tests uise special plates and controlled lichtin. Aboot 1 in 12 men has a colour vision deficiency [3][10]; if ye think ye micht hae yin, see an optometrist or eye doctor.

Why does ma result change on anither screen?

Screens shaw colours differently, and settins like nicht mode, blue-licht filters and brichtness shift them mair [8]. A boundary measured on a phone wi nicht mode on can differ fae yin measured on a laptop. For the fairest comparison, uise the same screen and settins ilka time.

Is this the Farnsworth–Munsell 100 hue test?

Naw. Pairt 2 taks inspiration fae the Farnsworth–Munsell 100 hue test and uises its scorin rule, but oor colours are oor ain, there's fewer o them, and they're shown on a screen instead o as physical caps under standard licht. Oor scores cannae be compared wi clinical norms.

Is the Helibrain colour seein test really free?

Aye. The test and yer hale result are free: nae sign-up, nae email, nae peyment. Helibrain maks siller fae its app, which has a free plan and peyed plans; ye dinnae need the app tae tak the test.

Related tests

See aw 43 free brain tests

Want tae wark on this ilka day? The Helibrain app (in Inglis for noo) has a free plan an paid plans.

Cite this page: Colour seein test. Helibrain. 2026. https://helibrain.com/sco/color-perception-test. CC BY 4.0.

How this test works

This test has two parts. First, one color at a time appears, and you say whether it looks blue or green; the colors close in on the hue where your blue begins. Then you put four rows of colors in order, so that each row changes smoothly. You get your blue–green boundary, which has no right answer, and an error score for the ordering, where 0 is perfect. Vision labs and eye clinics have used color-sorting tasks like this since 1943.

Version 1 · Cite this test:

Helibrain (2026). Color perception test, v1. https://helibrain.com/color-perception-test/methods

Full method →

Sources

  1. Kuehni RG (2004). Variability in unique hue selection: a surprising phenomenon. Color Research & Application 29(2):158–162. doi.org/10.1002/col.10237
  2. Kay P, Maffi L (2013). Green and Blue. In: Dryer MS, Haspelmath M (eds.), The World Atlas of Language Structures Online, chapter 134. wals.info/chapter/134
  3. Birch J (2012). Worldwide prevalence of red-green color deficiency. Journal of the Optical Society of America A 29(3):313–320. doi.org/10.1364/JOSAA.29.000313
  4. Winawer J, Witthoft N, Frank MC, Wu L, Wade AR, Boroditsky L (2007). Russian blues reveal effects of language on color discrimination. PNAS 104(19):7780–7785. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0701644104
  5. Kinnear PR, Sahraie A (2002). New Farnsworth-Munsell 100 hue test norms of normal observers for each year of age 5–22 and for age decades 30–70. British Journal of Ophthalmology 86(12):1408–1411. doi.org/10.1136/bjo.86.12.1408
  6. Lafer-Sousa R, Hermann KL, Conway BR (2015). Striking individual differences in color perception uncovered by "the dress" photograph. Current Biology 25(13):R545–R546. doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2015.04.053
  7. Wallisch P (2017). Illumination assumptions account for individual differences in the perceptual interpretation of a profoundly ambiguous stimulus in the color domain: "The dress". Journal of Vision 17(4):5. doi.org/10.1167/17.4.5
  8. X-Rite. Online color challenge and hue test (product information page; notes that monitor differences limit online versions). www.xrite.com/hue-test (checked 4 November 2026)
  9. Regier T, Kay P (2009). Language, thought, and color: Whorf was half right. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 13(10):439–446. doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2009.07.001
  10. National Eye Institute. Color blindness. www.nei.nih.gov/eye-health-information/eye-conditions-and-diseases/color-blindness (checked 4 November 2026)

How we made this page: scrieved bi the Helibrain team fae the studies listed abuin, an checked bi Robert(Inglis) (PhD candidate in biophysics) on 11/4/2026. We update it when the soorces chynges.