What Is Tritan Color Blindness?

Tritan Color Blindness

Did you know that tritan color blindness is the rarest form of color blindness? It affects the blue cone photopigments in your eye. If you have tritan color blindness, you confuse blue with green and yellow with violet. Tritan color blindness is also known as blue-yellow color blindness.

There are two types of tritan color blindness: tritanopia and tritanomaly.

How Does Tritan Vision Work?

With tritanopia, the color blue looks like it is green, and the color yellow looks violet or light gray. It is a form of color blindness that is extremely rare. While most people with this condition inherit this form of color blindness, it is possible to acquire tritan color blindness over time or even with a head injury.

If you have tritanopia, you are missing a type of cone cell called S-cones. S-cones are short-wavelength cones.

With tritanomaly, S-cones are present, but they are functionally limited. People see blues as greener and the colors yellow and red seem pink. With this type of color blindness, the intensity depends on the functionality of the S-cones.

How Do I Know If I Am Colorblind?

Typically, people who are colorblind have no way of knowing unless they test for it. An eye doctor typically uses a test called the Ishihara test. The test consists of colored plates, aka Ishihara plates, which contain a number among dots, randomized in size and color.

Another way you can test for color blindness is to use the EyeQue Insight available with the Vision Monitoring Kit. It offers a color blind test in addition to other tests like contrast sensitivity and visual acuity from your smartphone. Both color blind tests use the industry-standard Ishihara test to measure color perception and screen color deficiencies.

If you are color blind, here are some tips on how to live with color blindness.