Label decoder and review worksheet
Types of Color Blindness: Decode the Label Before You Compare It
Quick answer
Keep the family key and the label ending separate.
The types of color blindness are easier to read when you keep two parts of the label separate. On this page, protan, deutan, and tritan are the family keys; the endings -anomaly and -anopia map to different function layers in an archived 2007 ColorJack classification. Do not shorten deuteranomaly to deuteranopia or treat those labels as interchangeable. Use the decoder below, preserve the full result wording, and record what still needs to be checked with a qualified professional.
Do this now: copy the exact label from the test or report. Underline the family key, circle the ending, and do not translate it into a more familiar label.
Do not shorten a label into a familiar word. Different labels point to different types, and a difference of only a few letters can completely change a professional interpretation.
Decode the exact labelOne label carries two different questions
The archived ColorJack page from 2007 grouped protanomaly, deuteranomaly, and tritanomaly under Anomalous Trichromacy. It grouped protanopia, deuteranopia, and tritanopia under Dichromacy, with Monochromacy as a separate layer. That is the historical source’s organization, not a classification created by this site.
People may search for different types of color blindness, kinds of color blindness, or types of colour blindness. Those wordings point to the same practical problem here: keep the complete label before comparing definitions, simulations, or historical figures.
Two-axis label decoder
| Exact label | Family key retained here | Layer assigned by ColorJack in 2007 | Do not silently replace it with |
|---|---|---|---|
| Protanomaly | Protan | Anomalous Trichromacy | Protanopia |
| Protanopia | Protan | Dichromacy | Protanomaly |
| Deuteranomaly | Deutan | Anomalous Trichromacy | Deuteranopia |
| Deuteranopia | Deutan | Dichromacy | Deuteranomaly |
| Tritanomaly | Tritan | Anomalous Trichromacy | Tritanopia |
| Tritanopia | Tritan | Dichromacy | Tritanomaly |
| Monochromacy | Separate historical layer | Monochromacy | Any of the six paired labels above |
This table is a reading aid derived from the label pairs and three layers listed on ColorJack’s archived 2007 page. It does not diagnose a condition or determine how strongly an individual perceives a color difference.
Turn the label into a controlled design check
| Label family to preserve | Keep fixed during the comparison | What to inspect | If meaning depends on color alone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Protan | The same image, simulation method, and strength | Whether each state, line, region, or category remains identifiable | Add text, an icon, a shape, a pattern, position, or line style |
| Deutan | The same image, simulation method, and strength | Whether each state, line, region, or category remains identifiable | Add text, an icon, a shape, a pattern, position, or line style |
| Tritan | The same image, simulation method, and strength | Whether each state, line, region, or category remains identifiable | Add text, an icon, a shape, a pattern, position, or line style |
| Monochromacy | The same image and review conditions | Whether the task still works without hue distinctions | Add a non-color cue and retest the same task |
This is a review matrix created by this site. It does not claim that every person with the same label sees the same output. A simulator produces a model-based preview; it is not a diagnosis or a pass/fail certificate.
I would check charts first because a subtle difference can change the result. I insist on adding a non-color cue because a person with a color vision deficiency may be unable to detect the difference between two comparison images.
Keep search wording separate from the recorded label
Deutan color blindness is a family-level search phrase; it is not permission to erase whether the source said deuteranomaly or deuteranopia. The same rule applies when a page discusses protanopia color blindness or tritanopia color blindness: retain the exact term that the test, report, or cited source actually used.
The phrase most common color blindness asks a frequency question, not a label-decoding question. This page does not use an unsourced current ranking to answer it. Any prevalence figure added later must keep its source year and denominator attached.
Result and review worksheet
| Field | Record without rewriting |
|---|---|
| Test, report, or source page | ____________________________ |
| Exact result label | ____________________________ |
| Family key shown in the label | protan / deutan / tritan / other: __________ |
| Ending or historical layer | -anomaly / -anopia / monochromacy / other: __________ |
| Simulation method, if one was used | ____________________________ |
| Simulation strength, if one was used | ____________________________ |
| Task inspected | ____________________________ |
| Meaning that became unclear | ____________________________ |
| Non-color cue added | ____________________________ |
| Question for a qualified professional | ____________________________ |
The worksheet keeps three things apart: what the source called the result, what a simulator was configured to show, and what happened in a specific task. A match between those fields is useful documentation; it is not clinical confirmation.
Historical terminology, source, and scope
ColorJack’s archived 2007 page said the common phrase color blindness could be described more accurately as Color Vision Deficiency, and more strictly as Dyschromatopsia. This page records that as ColorJack’s 2007 wording. It does not present the terminology as a new standard created by this site.
Many modern color blindness test pages give a result without explaining labels, denominators, or sources. I use this 2007 framework to fill that gap: it shows readers how to read a result, preserve the original label, and prepare questions for a qualified professional. I do not want readers to mistake it for a clinical diagnosis or medical guidance.
Historical source: ColorJack, articles/vision.html, Wayback snapshot 20070828150059, page year 2007. No ColorJack contact detail, company identifier, implementation, authorship, or clinical authority is presented as work belonging to this site.