What’s on the Colour Contrast poster
A 5-row table: Case · Minimum · Enhanced.
WCAG contrast ratios between text and its background.
- Body text — 4.5:1 — 7:1
- Large text, 24px and up — 3:1 — 4.5:1
- Bold text, 18.66px and up — 3:1 — 4.5:1
- Interface components — 3:1 — not defined
- Decorative or disabled — no minimum — no minimum
About one man in twelve has some colour vision deficiency. Never let colour alone carry a distinction a reader must make.
Questions about the Colour Contrast poster
- What’s on the Colour Contrast poster?
- A 5-row table: Case · Minimum · Enhanced. WCAG contrast ratios between text and its background. Body text — 4.5:1 — 7:1; Large text, 24px and up — 3:1 — 4.5:1; Bold text, 18.66px and up — 3:1 — 4.5:1; Interface components — 3:1 — not defined; Decorative or disabled — no minimum — no minimum. About one man in twelve has some colour vision deficiency. Never let colour alone carry a distinction a reader must make.
- Who is the Colour Contrast poster for?
- Colour Contrast belongs to the Art & Design section rather than to a school year, because design is not something one grade owns. Anyone learning colour & composition can pin it up — a beginner, a student mid-course, or someone revising years later.
- When should you use the Colour Contrast poster?
- Use it before signing off any layout where colour carries part of the reading. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so Colour Contrast belongs on the wall where that design work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.
- What other posters go with Colour Contrast?
- Additive & Subtractive, Scale & Proportion and Colour Schemes sit alongside Colour Contrast in the Art & Design section. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.Additive & SubtractiveScale & ProportionColour Schemes
- Is the Colour Contrast poster free to download and print?
- Yes. Colour Contrast downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the Art & Design section. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence
- What size does the Colour Contrast poster print at?
- Colour Contrast is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of Colour Contrast loses nothing.Printing guide
Related posters
Charts that sit alongside Colour Contrast on the same wall.
Browse every Art & Design poster, or start from the full catalogue.