#EF4444 on black
Tailwind red-500 — roughly Scarlet — measured against black to WCAG 2.2 and APCA.
5.58:1
contrast ratio · APCA Lc 40
The quick brown fox
…and the same at 13 px
…and the same at 13 px
✓ Body text (AA, 4.5:1)
✕ Body text (AAA, 7:1)
✓ Large text (AA, 3:1)
✓ Borders and icons (1.4.11, 3:1)
Where you can use it
#EF4444 clears AA on black, so it works for body copy at any size. It also clears the 3:1 required of borders, icons and focus rings.
Under colour blindness
Contrast is a lightness relationship, so a ratio survives colour blindness — but the pair can still lose the distinction it was carrying. This is the same two colours as seen with each dichromacy.
| Vision | Foreground | Background | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Normal | #EF4444 |
#000000 |
5.58:1 |
| Protanopia red-blind, ~1% of men |
#BEBD44 |
#000000 |
10.55:1 |
| Deuteranopia green-blind, ~6% of men |
#C5CF44 |
#000000 |
12.38:1 |
| Tritanopia blue-blind, rare |
#EA4444 |
#000000 |
5.41:1 |
What the thresholds mean
- 4.5:1 — WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.4.3, the minimum for body text.
- 3:1 — the minimum for large text (18.66 px bold or 24 px regular) and, under 1.4.11, for any non-text thing you have to perceive: input borders, icons, focus indicators.
- 7:1 — AAA, criterion 1.4.6.
- APCA Lc 40 — a perceptual model that accounts for polarity, so dark-on-light and light-on-dark are not treated as the same problem. It is the direction WCAG 3 is heading and it disagrees with the ratio often enough to be worth reading alongside it.
Related
One passing pair is not a system
ColorsMine checks every pairing a palette implies, in light and dark, and names the single change that moves the grade most.
Open ColorsMine