An inspection method of color shading defects on the anti-reflection coating is described. In general, it is hard to automatically inspect these defects because of its difficulty to quantify what kind of impression the defect gives to viewers. Therefore, the sensory inspections depending on the human perceptions are adopted for these defects, reluctantly. This paper shows the mechanism of the color shading defects on the anti-reflection coating by using a simulation method. The simulation results were validated by corresponding experimental results being in accord with each other. Then, the correlation between coating thickness and the color shading is described. A quantification method, which is based on the Equivalent Coating Thickness estimated by observed color distributions, is suggested. In addition, the observation condition to have a good view of defects is described.