Tip of the Week: Viewing Color-blind Previews of Your Pages

Mike Rankin

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This InDesign tip on viewing color-blind previews of your pages was sent to Tip of the Week email subscribers on May 31, 2018.

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Want to see what your layout might look like to someone with color blindness? InDesign itself doesn’t have a feature that will help you, but Illustrator does! Just export your file to PDF and open it in Illustrator.

Then choose View > Proof Setup > Color blindness

The two kinds of color blindness that Illustrator can simulate are Protanopia and Deuteranopia. Here’s an explanation of the difference from Colourblindawarness.org:

Protanopia

Protanopes are more likely to confuse:-
1. Black with many shades of red
2. Dark brown with dark green, dark orange and dark red
2. Some blues with some reds, purples and dark pinks
3. Mid-greens with some oranges

Deuteranopes

Deuteranopes are more likely to confuse:-
1. Mid-reds with mid-greens
2. Blue-greens with grey and mid-pinks
3. Bright greens with yellows
4. Pale pinks with light grey
5. Mid-reds with mid-brown
6. Light blues with lilac