Fun Friday! Want to test your color acuity?

Last weekend I was wigged out by this fascinating episode on RadioLab. It discusses the history of recorded color, the science of color and the phenomenons within this scientific process of perceiving color. I was fascinated about how in any ancient developing civilization, the recording of words for color always start with black...then white...then red....then yellow or green but last is ALWAYS blue. Poor blue! My 13-year-old daughter and I were riveted. There is also a great soundtrack of color songs covered by various artists.

It does hurt my head a little bit to wonder about color and how it's perceived by humans. But as a graphic designer, it's my job to be very attuned to varying colors. I imagine it's the same for a musician who can hear that a note is ever-so-flat or sharp to their ears. The variations are perceivable if we exercise that muscle in our brain or eye or ear that does that particular job.

Do you want to check your hue acuity? An online Munsell Hue Test is one way to do it. This online test takes just a few minutes and it's interesting to see how accurate your perceptions are. If you scored a 0 then perhaps you are a tetrachromat (<--new word for me!). I took the test quickly and was surprised that I scored a 15--really, I expected more of myself! ;oD {Margot}