Masochistic Web quiz: Can you discern 100 hues?
X-Rite's vision-straining color test.
(Credit: X-Rite)There are some Web quizzes out there that are fun. Then there's X-Rite's test of how well you can distinguish between subtle differences in hue.
X-Rite, which wants you to buy its technology for precisely calibrating your monitor's colors, published the test, which requires you to put 100 colored chits in the right order. It presents you with a score and a color chart showing where you're unreliable.
I confess I enjoyed taking the test--it was intriguing to pay that much attention to the subtle color perception. For example, the part I found easiest also turned out to be the color range where I made the most errors.
Overall, I scored 90, which is better than random but nowhere near Michael Johnston's score of 4 (lower is better). The site shows how your score compares to your peers' scores, but only crudely: it's too bad there's no frequency distribution to show better how people fared.
I'm not sure how much faith to put in the test, which probably scores your monitor's quality and your patience as well as your visual abilities. But if nothing else, it's a good marketing gimmick.
My mediocre score on the test.
(Credit: CNET News)Update 6:50 a.m. PDT October 10: Yup, the technology you're using makes a big difference. Thursday's test was on a Lenovo laptop, but then I redid my test on my home machine's high-gamut Dell 2408WFP monitor. My new score was a less disgraceful 17--and the test was much easier, taking me only about half the time.
One more little tidbit: Lori Grunin, who gauges color fidelity all day long as she reviews cameras for CNET, scored a perfect zero. She uses a Sony Artisan CRT monitor.
My score was less embarrassing using the higher-end monitor I have at home.
(Credit: CNET News)
Stephen Shankland writes about a wide range of technology and products, but has a particular focus on browsers and digital photography. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered Google, Yahoo, servers, supercomputing, Linux and open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/stshank. 
I know when I was finishing up on some of the rows I had to scan back and verify I had them in the proper order. The slight variant in the rows is hard to tell when you are only a few out of line.
I'm a graphic designer and figured I would do pretty well but wow I can't believe I scored ZERO!
I was a bit concerned there for a bit, as my job revolves around my ability to discern color and value (art director), and I also calibrate my monitor with an X-Rite Eye-One. The test was harder than Iwas expecting, and I was worried it would tell me either my eyes or hardware weren't "up to snuff".
Whew!
I tried the same test on an old Compaq Presario 1800 that has never had any hardware replacements and is running PCLinuxOS 2007 using Firefox. I couldn't take the test at all with it. Couldn't drag and drop the color swatches. This was rather disappointing as I really did want to see how "I" fared on the Linux machine for comparison sake.
While using the PCLOS machine I just simply clicked on the "Score Test" button to see what would happen I did get to where you choose your age range and gender. When I clicked on the "Submit" button there, the Firefox 2.0 "NoScript" add-on gave me a "Potential Clickjacking / UI Redressing Attempt!" warning which neither Windows IE 6 nor any of my other onboard "armor-ware" [on the Win XP machine] caught. Is there an app like NoScript for IE 6?
- by lazytoad October 14, 2008 4:36 PM PDT
- I'm a 49 year old male. I scored 12 on a stock Macbook Pro (uncalibrated display).
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