Color Difference Calculator
Color Difference Calculator. Enter Hex Color A and Hex Color B, and the Color Difference Calculator instantly measures the Difference between them. The fastest way to get a base-8 result from a decimal number is to run it through the decimal to octal converter.
Two shades of blue can look identical on your monitor and still clash once they reach a printed box or a second screen. This color difference calculator turns that gut feeling into a number: you enter two colors and get a Delta E score that says how far apart they look to a human eye, so you can judge a match with data instead of squinting.
How the Hex Color Difference Calculator Works
The hex color difference calculator takes two six-digit color codes, converts both into the same measurement space and reports one distance between them. Designers and developers usually have hex codes on hand, so the tool starts there rather than asking for lab measurements. Every number it returns is calculated in your browser, so nothing you type leaves the page. Think of it as a color delta e calculator that accepts the format your design files already use. Since it isn't capped at 32-bit or 64-bit ranges, the hex to decimal converter stays accurate even on unusually large hexadecimal inputs.
From hex code to Delta E value in four steps
- Enter the first hex code in the top field, for example
#0F4C81. A shorthand hex value such as#F60is expanded to six digits for you. - Enter the second hex code in the next field. Both entries must be valid hex strings, otherwise the tool shows an error instead of guessing.
- Press the calculate difference button. Each hex code is converted to RGB, then to XYZ, then to Lab values.
- Read the result. You get an RGB distance, a ΔE76 score, a ΔE94 score and a ΔE2000 score, plus a short verdict. The clear button resets both fields.
Reading the color preview and the verdict
Above the numbers you see a color preview: the two swatches sit side by side so your own eyes can sanity-check the math, and each swatch is labeled with its color value. A quick visual check costs nothing. The verdict translates the perceptual difference into words such as "not perceptible" or "clearly different". Treat the preview as a first look and the number as the tie-breaker.
What Delta E Measures in a Color Comparison
Delta E (written ΔE, and sometimes DeltaE) is the standard yardstick for how different two colors are. A small value means a close color match and a large value means the shades are far apart. It says how much two colors differ, never in which direction. The score is a single color difference value, nothing more: a Delta E of 5 could be a darker shade, a duller one or a shift toward green.
The Lab color space and CIE Lab values
Hex and RGB describe how much light a screen emits, which is why equal steps in RGB do not look like equal steps to you. The International Commission on Illumination (CIE), which publishes the standards behind every formula below, built the Lab color space to fix that. Standards documents often spell it colour, but the Lab values are the same, and they are what the calculator derives from your hex code. Three CIE Lab numbers describe a color: L* for lightness from 0 (black) to 100 (white), a* for the green-to-red axis and b* for the blue-to-yellow axis. Distances measured between Lab values track what you see far better than distances measured between raw hex digits.
Just noticeable difference and human vision
The just noticeable difference (JND) is the smallest change that human vision can detect, and for Delta E it sits near 1. Your eyes are also more sensitive to a change in chroma than in lightness, so the same score between two yellows and two greens will not always look equal. That quirk of color perception is why newer formulas exist.
Color Difference Formula Options: CIE76, CIE94 and CIEDE2000
Three equations dominate, and the calculator reports all of them so you can compare. Each one adds corrections for how people actually see color. Use the ebcdic to text converter to turn mainframe-style EBCDIC hex data into readable text without manually mapping code points.
CIE76: the straight-line distance
CIE76 is the oldest and simplest. It measures the straight line distance between two points in Lab space:
$$\Delta E_{76} = \sqrt{(L_2 - L_1)^2 + (a_2 - a_1)^2 + (b_2 - b_1)^2}$$
This is the simplest delta e formula there is. It is fast and easy to verify by hand, but it treats every direction in the space as equally visible, which overstates differences in saturated colors.
CIE94: weighting chroma and hue
CIE94 keeps lightness, chroma and hue as separate parts and divides the chroma and hue parts by weight functions that grow with saturation. Vivid colors therefore tolerate a larger gap before the score rises. It was tuned on automotive paint data and is weaker in the blue-violet region.
CIEDE2000: the current industry standard
CIEDE2000, also written ΔE2000 or ΔE00, adds further weight functions and a rotation term that repairs the blue region. ISO and IDEAlliance adopted it as the industry standard for graphic arts, and it is the figure to quote when a contract, a supplier or a brand guide asks for a color tolerance. When the three scores disagree, trust ΔE2000 and use the other two as context.
Worked Example: Comparing Two Navy Brand Colors
Suppose your brand guide specifies navy #0F4C81 and a vendor sends a sample that reads #14568F. The sample looks right in a side-by-side view on screen, so you run the pair through the calculator.
| Step | Color A (#0F4C81) | Color B (#14568F) |
|---|---|---|
| RGB | 15, 76, 129 | 20, 86, 143 |
| L* | 31.47 | 35.57 |
| a* | 2.35 | 1.94 |
| b* | -35.03 | -37.09 |
The gaps are ΔL = 4.10, Δa = -0.41 and Δb = -2.06, so the straight-line result is about 4.6. In the same run the RGB distance is 17.92, ΔE94 is 4.19 and ΔE2000 is 3.50.
| Measure | Value | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| RGB distance | 17.92 | Raw gap in screen values, not perception |
| ΔE76 | 4.60 | Straight-line gap in Lab space |
| ΔE94 | 4.19 | Gap after chroma and hue weighting |
| ΔE2000 | 3.50 | Best match to human perception |
A score of 3.5 means the sample is slightly lighter and a touch more saturated than the spec, and the difference is visible when the two sit next to each other. Whether that passes depends on the job: fine for a web banner, probably not for a logo that has to match across packaging.
Delta E Interpretation Table: How to Read Your Result
Use this table to turn a Delta E value into a decision. Thresholds vary a little between industries, so confirm your own tolerance before you reject a batch.
| Delta E | Perception | Typical decision |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 1 | Imperceptible, or barely perceptible | Treat as an exact match |
| 1 to 2 | Perceptible only to trained eyes | Excellent for professional work |
| 2 to 5 | Noticeable difference up close | Fine for less critical uses |
| 5 to 10 | Clearly visible difference | Correct it for precise work |
| Above 10 | Colors read as different | Not a match |
The table also explains why the navy pair above sits in a gray zone: a 3.5 is easy to see in a side by side test and nearly impossible to spot when the two are viewed on different days.
Matching a Terracotta Glaze Swatch to Its Web Color with Delta E
Marisol runs a small ceramics shop, and her mug glaze is specified as #B5483A on the kiln sheet. The product photo on her store page, sampled with an eyedropper at the mug's center, reads #C25A47. Customers have been writing that the mug arrives darker than pictured, so she wants a figure before she touches the photo again.
She types both hex codes into the calculator and presses the calculate button. The glaze converts to L* 45.31, a* 43.36, b* 30.95 and the photo to L* 50.97, a* 40.21, b* 30.83. The result panel shows an RGB distance of 25.73, ΔE76 of 6.47, ΔE94 of 5.79 and ΔE2000 of 5.76.
That number lands in the 5 to 10 band of the interpretation table: a clearly visible difference, not a rounding quirk. Her own rule for repeat orders is a ΔE2000 under 2, the bar print buyers commonly set for a proof, so the photo fails by almost four points. The lightness gap of 5.66 explains the complaint, because the photo is lighter than the glaze while chroma and hue barely move.
She lowers the exposure in her editor until the sampled value reads #B84C3C, then runs the pair a second time:
- Glaze
#B5483Aagainst photo#B84C3C: ΔE76 1.50, ΔE94 1.32, ΔE2000 1.30. - 1.30 is inside her limit of 2, in the "perceptible only to trained eyes" band.
The next action is concrete: she saves that exposure as a preset and applies it to the other four glaze photos, rerunning each against its kiln-sheet value before the listing goes live. Instead of arguing about whether the mug "looks darker," she now has a pass line of 2.0 and a recorded score for every colorway.
Where a Color Distance Calculator Earns Its Keep
A color distance calculator is useful anywhere two colors must agree. The most common uses are listed here.
- Printing: check a proof against the final press sheet before the print run is approved.
- Paint and coatings: confirm that paint colors stay consistent from batch to batch.
- Textiles and fashion: compare dye lots measured with a colorimeter or spectrophotometer.
- Web development: make sure branding holds across components, themes and devices.
- Quality control: protect color consistency and flag off-spec product before it ships.
Painting, photography and any textile mill follow the same rule: you compare a printed proof, a painted swatch or a dyed cloth against the original hex with one score, which keeps color reproduction faithful.
Web-to-print and web-to-paint matching
Screens add light and ink absorbs it, so a hex value never prints exactly. A web-to-print check shows how far the printed sample drifted from the digital file, and for print production a ΔE2000 under 2 is the usual aim. The same logic applies when you carry a screen color to a paint counter or a fabric mill.
Design tokens, button states and UI systems
UI and UX teams use the calculator to confirm that design tokens stay distinct from each other and that button states such as hover and pressed differ enough to notice. If a hover shade scores 1.2 against the default, users will not see it change. A product design team can also keep a dark mode palette visually consistent with its light twin. A single brand color often has to survive dozens of components, and this kind of visual consistency is what protects brand colors across mobile, web and packaging.
Delta E Calculator vs Color Wheel and Contrast Checker
A delta e calculator answers "how alike are these two colors?" Other tools answer different questions, so pick the right one:
- A color wheel shows relationships between hues and helps you build a color scheme such as complementary or analogous.
- A contrast checker compares text against its background for accessibility, which depends on luminance rather than on overall difference.
- A color converter changes one notation into another, for instance hex to HSL or CMYK.
Color theory and the wheel generate a color scheme; the calculator then verifies how far apart its colors really are. Pick a hex color on the wheel, build a scheme around it, and bring the finished colors here to confirm each pair stays distinct.
A big Delta E does not guarantee readable text, and good contrast does not guarantee a close match. Use the calculator for matching, then check contrast separately; a hex color that is distinct from its neighbor can still fail on readability. The wheel is the place to start when you are still choosing a color palette rather than verifying one.
Tips for Accurate Color Matching and Color Accuracy
Numbers only help when the inputs are trustworthy. Keep these habits in mind:
- Pick one formula and stick to it. Never average or convert between scores from different equations.
- Compare colors under the same lighting. The standard viewing condition is D65 daylight.
- Use measured Lab values for physical samples. A hex code comes from a screen; a measurement comes from the object.
- Confirm with your eyes. Nobody accepts or rejects a shade because of a number, so use the score as a first approximation and verify it visually.
- Follow the published standards. Quote the equation and its weights so a supplier can repeat your numbers, and keep all hex codes in six-digit form.
- Write the tolerance down. A supplier needs a figure such as ΔE2000 under 2, not the word "close".
With a stated tolerance and a consistent method, a quick color comparison on every revision keeps color shifts from creeping in. A color comparer or color matcher built on RGB alone is quicker but lacks the precision of a perceptual score, which matters most in manufacturing. If you only have Lab numbers, a Lab calculator or RGB calculator converts them first, and the color conversion from hex is what this color difference tool does for you automatically. Use ΔE2000 as the default, and keep it beside your DeltaE tolerance sheet, since a DeltaE figure only matters next to the tolerance it must meet.