To check the color contrast between foreground and background of the texts
WCAG Color Contrast Checker Chrome Extension
"WCAG Color contrast checker" is a Chrome extension designed to aid web developers and designers in ensuring their site meets accessibility standards. It analyzes text color contrast against backgrounds following WCAG 2.2 guidelines, considering CSS styles and opacity. The extension also simulates color blindness, providing insights on how colorblind users perceive page elements. It features manual color input and picker tools for targeted checks, along with an auto-refresh function for dynamic pages, which is toggleable to suit high-activity sites. This tool is essential for creating inclusive web experiences and can be found along with its privacy statement at the provided link.
Extension stats
Manifest V3
Permissions:
- activeTab
- storage
- webNavigation
Host permissions:
- <all_urls>
Size: 166.91K
Email: ru*****@gmail.com
Full description: See detailed description
Ranking
Other platforms
Not available on Android
User reviews
Pros
- Quickly identifies contrast issues on a page without needing manual capture.
- Provides actual contrast ratios instead of just pass/fail grades.
- Allows manual entry of color values.
- Includes a feature to simulate different types of color blindness.
- Auto-refreshes results when elements change.
Cons
- Doesn't account for text on background images or CSS color-mixing issues.
- Some users report inaccuracies in detecting foreground and background colors.
- Recent updates raised privacy concerns regarding browser history access.
- Can't identify specific elements causing contrast issues easily for large pages.
- Panel cannot be repositioned on the screen, making it harder to use with certain layouts.
Most mentioned
- Inability to precisely identify which elements are causing contrast issues.
- Request for features to improve ease of use and visibility of results.
- Concerns about privacy changes related to browser history access.
- Need for support of newer color standards like APCA and Oklch.
- Functionality issues with local PDFs and nested CSS styles.
User reviews
I tried a bunch of contrast checking extensions and settled on this one!
What I liked:
1) Immediately loads all the contrast pairs it finds in the page with no need to manually capture areas.
2) Provides the actual contrast ratios, not just a pass/fail grade.
3) You can still manually enter colour values if you want.
4) Has an awesome feature where you can quickly switch between different types of colour-blindness to see how those conditions impact the contrasts!
Limitations:
1) Some pages will have problem areas such as text on background images which this system can not account for.
2) In a complex page, it can be difficult to identify a specific area in the page to find its contrast report. It needs to be located in reverse: clicking on the contrast pairs list items puts a red border on that element in the page (& scrolls to it). This helps, but some are still hard to locate.
3) The grading system only offers two levels (WCAG2.2 AA & AAA). It would be nice to have a custom field to set a targeted standard.
4) It would be nice if the custom colour entry had an eye-dropper tool. This would assist in problems 1 & 2.
by
Wednesday Dessauer, 2025-01-29
Haven't had any major issues with it. Works well for what it is and can quickly verify contrast on page across multiple visual deficiencies.
by
K B, 2024-09-27
Does not really work well, in some cases it detects the wrong colors for for- and background.
forground: #ffffff
background: #ffffff
But on page it is:
forground: #ffffff
background: rgba(25, 145, 238, 0.8)
It also does not respect text-shadows which improve the readability, which is confirmed by people with very bad eyesight.
by
Orgoth Dorngree, 2024-08-07
Extension safety
Risk impact
WCAG Color contrast checker requires some sensitive permissions that could impact your browser and data security. Exercise caution before installing.
Risk impact analysis details
- Critical Allows access to all websites, posing a significant security risk as it can monitor and modify data from any visited site.
- High ****** ********* ** * ****** ******** ******** ********** * ******* ******* *****
- High ******* ******* **** *** ****** ***** *** ***** ** ******* **** ********* ********* ** * *********** *****
- Low ******* ****** ** *** ********* ********
Risk likelihood
We don't have sufficient data to confidently determine the risk likelihood of WCAG Color contrast checker. Use it at your own risk.
Risk likelihood analysis details
- High This extension has low user count. Unpopular extensions may not be stable or safe.
- Low **** ********* *** ******* **** **** * ****** **** ***** ******** *** **** ****** ** ** ****** *** *****
- Low **** ********* *** ***** **** **** * ****** **** ***** ********** *** **** ****** ** ** ****** *** *****
- Good **** ********* ** * ******** ********* ** ****** *** *****
- Good **** ********* *** **** **** *******
Upgrade to see full risk analysis details
Similar extensions
Here are some Chrome extensions that are similar to WCAG Color contrast checker:
https://colourcontrast.cc
40K
https://accessibility.oit.ncsu.edu
70K
WebAIM
600K
https://accessibleweb.com
20K
18 Clans
1,000
https://digitala11y.com
1,000
longmatthewh
850
https://www.deque.com
300K
https://pivotalaccessibility.com
4K
Jorge Rumoroso
100K
EqualWeb
10K
Accessibility Insights Team
100K