Masochistic Web quiz: Can you discern 100 hues?

X-Rite’s vision-straining color test.

(Credit: X-Rite)

There are some Web quizzes out there that are fun. Then there’s X-Rite’s test of how well you can distinguish between subtle differences in hue.

X-Rite, which wants you to buy its technology for precisely calibrating your monitor’s colors, published the test, which requires you to put 100 colored chits in the right order. It presents you with a score and a color chart showing where you’re unreliable.

I confess I enjoyed taking the test–it was intriguing to pay that much attention to the subtle color perception. For example, the part I found easiest also turned out to be the color range where I made the most errors.

Overall, I scored 90, which is better than random but nowhere near Michael Johnston’s score of 4 (lower is better). The site shows how your score compares to your peers’ scores, but only crudely: it’s too bad there’s no frequency distribution to show better how people fared.

I’m not sure how much faith to put in the test, which probably scores your monitor’s quality and your patience as well as your visual abilities. But if nothing else, it’s a good marketing gimmick.

My mediocre score on the test.

(Credit: CNET News)