Color contrast analyzers: why they’re important and how to use them

Ensuring websites are accessible by maintaining appropriate color contrast ratios between text and backgrounds is crucial for designers, especially for users with visual impairments or color blindness. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) provide criteria for contrast levels, including AA (minimum) and AAA (enhanced) ratings, but determining these requires a color contrast analyzer tool. WebAIM offers such tools by allowing users to input hex codes to verify compliance with WCAG standards, though this can be cumbersome. To streamline this process for Webflow users, former product designer Darin Dimitroff, inspired by Chrome DevTools, utilized his designated project time to design a built-in color contrast tool, collaborating with senior frontend engineer Nick Gard to refine and test it. This tool, now integrated into Webflow, enables designers to easily check and adjust color contrast directly within the platform's color picker, thereby facilitating the creation of more accessible websites.