Compute (and visualize) the contrast ratio of pairs of colors, as defined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

contrast_ratio(
col,
col2 = "white",
plot = FALSE,
border = FALSE,
cex = 2,
off = 0.05,
mar = rep(0.5, 4),
digits = 2L,
...
)

Arguments

col, col2 vectors of any of the three kind of R colors, i.e., either a color name (an element of colors), a hexadecimal string of the form "#rrggbb" or "#rrggbbaa" (see rgb), or an integer i meaning palette()[i]. Both can be vectors and are recycled as necessary. logical indicating whether the contrast ratios should also be visualized by simple color swatches. Can also be a vector of length 2, indicating whether the foreground color should be visualized on the background color and/or the background color on the foreground color. logical or color specification for the borders around the color swatches (only used if plot = TRUE). The default is FALSE which is equivalent to "transparent". If TRUE the border is drawn in the same color as the text in the rectangle. numeric. Size of the text in the color color swatches (only if plot = TRUE). numeric. Vertical offset between the different color swatches (only if plot = TRUE). Can also be of length 2 giving both vertical and horizontal offsets, respectively. numeric. Size of the margins around the color swatches (only if plot = TRUE). numeric. Number of digits for the contrast ratios displayed in the color swatches (only if plot = TRUE) further arguments passed to the plot of the color swatches (only if plot = TRUE).

Value

A numeric vector with the contrast ratios is returned (invisibly, if plot is TRUE).

Details

The W3C Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) recommend a contrast ratio of at least 4.5 for the color of regular text on the background color, and a ratio of at least 3 for large text. See https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/#contrast-minimum.

The contrast ratio is defined in https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/#dfn-contrast-ratio as (L1 + 0.05) / (L2 + 0.05) where L1 and L2 are the relative luminances (see https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/#dfn-relative-luminance) of the lighter and darker colors, respectively. The relative luminances are weighted sums of scaled sRGB coordinates: 0.2126 * R + 0.7152 * G + 0.0722 * B where each of R, G, and B is defined as ifelse(RGB <= 0.03928, RGB/12.92, ((RGB + 0.055)/1.055)^2.4) based on the RGB coordinates between 0 and 1.

References

W3C (2018). “Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1.” https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/

desaturate
# check contrast ratio of default palette on white background