Re-coloring methods considering meanings of colors in different color vision characteristics

Abstract

Utilizing red as an indicator of emphasis is said to be not very effective, as red is to be recognized as very dark for protan, one of type of color vision deficiency. However, such color's psychological effects, generally called "meanings of color" or "color codes," are as effective as perceptual aspects from the viewpoint of information conveying among individuals especially with normal color vision, trichromats, so infographic designers want to utilize these effects. In this paper, we examined to what degree the color's effects (visibility, saliency, significance, danger and safety) were maintained in each trichromats, protans and deutans, and what colors would be effective to use, when we need to modify colors so that the people who have color vision deficiencies are able to differentiate the colors and to have similar meanings. We found that orange and blue gained high scores other than red in visibility and saliency in protans and deutans, on the other hand, red gained the highest score in significance and danger likewise trichromats. Additionally, there were differences between the evaluation scores in dichromats and in trichromats using a color vision simulator, especially in red. We propose re-coloring methods considering their meaning of color based on the evaluation results.