accessibility color tool

[William Gill]

In the past I have not done enough to make my pages accessible, but want
to make a better effort now.

I thought it would be fairly easy, but so far I have only succeeded in
producing a major headache.

I started out with a color scheme (based on client logo and their
current print material), and for most of my text black is fine.

I want to add a css navigation bar and have discovered that using trial
and error to find foreground/background color combinations for css
pseudo-classes (link, visited, hover, active) yields the aforementioned
headache, but no new combinations meeting the W3C color brightness and
color difference recommendations.

Is there a tool, formula, or simple method to help find colors that are
acceptable?

[Chris F.A. Johnson]

On 2007-08-07, William Gill wrote:

In the past I have not done enough to make my pages accessible, but want
to make a better effort now.

I thought it would be fairly easy, but so far I have only succeeded in
producing a major headache.

I started out with a color scheme (based on client logo and their
current print material), and for most of my text black is fine.

I want to add a css navigation bar and have discovered that using trial
and error to find foreground/background color combinations for css
pseudo-classes (link, visited, hover, active) yields the aforementioned
headache, but no new combinations meeting the W3C color brightness and
color difference recommendations.

Is there a tool, formula, or simple method to help find colors that are
acceptable?

Dark on light or light on dark. Stay as close to black and white
as you can.

--
Chris F.A. Johnson <http://cfaj.freeshell.org>
================================================== =================
Author:
Shell Scripting Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (2005, Apress)

[John Hosking]

William Gill wrote:

In the past I have not done enough to make my pages accessible, but want
to make a better effort now.

>
Is there a tool, formula, or simple method to help find colors that are
acceptable?

http://juicystudio.com/services/colourcontrast.php might help you.

--
John
Pondering the value of the UIP: http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html

[William Gill]

http://juicystudio.com/services/colourcontrast.php might help you.

Thanks, John. That is one of the tools I'm using to test.

Unfortunately trying to find values other than #000 and #fff, that work
with a particular color scheme (i.e browns, blues, pinks, or whatever)
means trial and error, mostly error. I am surprised that colors that
look good to me, fall so short of the 125 and 500 targets.

What would be great is a tool that when given a background color, yields
a group of passing foreground colors to chose from.

If I knew a formula that would work, I'd write my own program or script.

Maybe I will try to convert the w3.org's formula to a spreadsheet that
can work backwards.

[John Hosking]

William Gill wrote:

>http://juicystudio.com/services/colourcontrast.php might help you.

Thanks, John. That is one of the tools I'm using to test.

Unfortunately trying to find values other than #000 and #fff, that work
with a particular color scheme (i.e browns, blues, pinks, or whatever)
means trial and error, mostly error. [...]

What would be great is a tool that when given a background color, yields
a group of passing foreground colors to chose from.

If I knew a formula that would work, I'd write my own program or script.

Well, you probably don't need to write your own. Just picking out the
color-related sites I have bookmarked, here's a list you may find handy:

Wellstyled's Color schemes
http://www.wellstyled.com/tools/colo...e/free-en.html
and
http://www.wellstyled.com/tools/colo.../index-en.html
and
[ws] Color Scheme Generator 2
http://www.wellstyled.com/tools/colo.../index-en.html

....apparently powerful but not always easy for me to use.

Color Schemer Online v2
http://www.colorschemer.com/online.html

Toby Inkster's Colour Calculator, allowing the "averaging" of colors
http://buzzword.org.uk/colours/

Color Blender from Eric Meyer, allowing blending like Toby's page
http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/color-blend/

The RGB Color Calculator - A Web Page Color Choosing Tool
http://webdeveloper.earthweb.com/rep...48571/hex.html

....interesting but not as useful for me as other tools. Not what you're
looking for here.
Of course, if the above links don't do satisfy you, you can also comb
the Internet further, and maybe find the perfect tool.

About the calculators: I can't say if they're really good or bad, since
I am chromatically challenged. It's not a problem with my eyes, just the
part of the brain that's supposed to tell me when colors "go" together. :-)

HTH. GL.

--
John
Pondering the value of the UIP: http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html

[William Gill]

Well, you probably don't need to write your own. Just picking out the
color-related sites I have bookmarked, here's a list you may find handy:

Wellstyled's Color schemes
http://www.wellstyled.com/tools/colo...e/free-en.html
and
http://www.wellstyled.com/tools/colo.../index-en.html
and
[ws] Color Scheme Generator 2
http://www.wellstyled.com/tools/colo.../index-en.html

...apparently powerful but not always easy for me to use.

Color Schemer Online v2
http://www.colorschemer.com/online.html

Toby Inkster's Colour Calculator, allowing the "averaging" of colors
http://buzzword.org.uk/colours/

Color Blender from Eric Meyer, allowing blending like Toby's page
http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/color-blend/

The RGB Color Calculator - A Web Page Color Choosing Tool
http://webdeveloper.earthweb.com/rep...48571/hex.html

Good links. I had some, lost a couple others, but there are a couple
that may work well.

just for grins, try plugging a couple combos that you think will work
into http://juicystudio.com/services/colourcontrast.php

You may be surprised at the results.

>
About the calculators: I can't say if they're really good or bad, since
I am chromatically challenged. It's not a problem with my eyes, just the
part of the brain that's supposed to tell me when colors "go" together. :-)

I can relate. I had a 55 MPH (88.5 KPH) head on that re-wired some of
my brain. My dentist doesn't like having to numb the lower left to work
on the upper, and my Dr. doesn't like it when the right ear aches for an
infection in the left. Neither likes it when I can't remember details,
but I remind them "If you think it's annoying from where you sit.
Think how much of a pain in the A it is for me."

[Neredbojias]

Well bust mah britches and call me cheeky, on Wed, 08 Aug 2007 04:20:03
GMT William Gill scribed:

>About the calculators: I can't say if they're really good or bad,
since I am chromatically challenged. It's not a problem with my eyes,
just the part of the brain that's supposed to tell me when colors
"go" together. :-)

I can relate. I had a 55 MPH (88.5 KPH) head on that re-wired some of
my brain. My dentist doesn't like having to numb the lower left to
work on the upper, and my Dr. doesn't like it when the right ear aches
for an infection in the left. Neither likes it when I can't remember
details, but I remind them "If you think it's annoying from where you
sit. Think how much of a pain in the A it is for me."

I can sympathize. Whenever I have to sneeze and hold my nose, I end up
breaking wind. (People find that annoying, as well.)

PS: Is your name really "Bill Gill"?

--
Neredbojias
Half lies are worth twice as much as whole lies.

[William Gill]

PS: Is your name really "Bill Gill"?

>

Yep. Do you think anyone would pick that as a nom de plume?

[Neredbojias]

Well bust mah britches and call me cheeky, on Wed, 08 Aug 2007 13:48:17 GMT
William Gill scribed:

>PS: Is your name really "Bill Gill"?

Yep. Do you think anyone would pick that as a nom de plume?

Non! Mais j'mappel "Neredbojias". :)

--
Neredbojias
Half lies are worth twice as much as whole lies.