Screen Color Test
Check your screen colors with nine full-screen colors, from red, green and blue to white, black and gray. Works on a monitor, laptop, phone or TV, with nothing to install.
Nine full-screen colors. Click, tap or use the arrow keys to move through them.
What Is a Screen Color Test?
A screen color test fills your display with one solid color at a time. Red, then green, then blue, then white, black and the rest. It is the simplest colour test there is, and it still finds most of the faults people care about.
Every pixel on your screen is built from a red, a green and a blue part. A full screen color test asks all of them to do the same job at once, so a pixel that cannot manage it has nowhere to hide.
A color display test also shows problems that live in the panel rather than in one pixel: a corner that has gone yellow, a pink patch in the middle, or blues that arrive in visible steps instead of a smooth fade.
You will see the same thing called a display colour test or a colour screen test, depending on how the writer spells it. It is all the same check.
This one runs online in your browser, on a PC monitor, a laptop, a phone or a TV. Press the button and step through the colors at your own pace.
What Each Color Shows You
The colors are not random. Each one puts a different part of the panel under pressure, so it helps to know what you are looking for on each screen.
Red, Green and Blue
These check one part of every pixel on its own, which is what a monitor RGB test really is. A pixel that has lost its red part looks wrong on the red screen and normal on the other two.
Green is the color your eyes are most sensitive to, so faults usually show up there first.
White
Every part of every pixel at full power. White shows dead pixels, dust, cracks, and whether one side of the panel is warmer or cooler than the other.
Black
Everything switched off. Black finds stuck and bright pixels, backlight bleed at the edges, and how dark your panel can really go.
Gray
The fairest test of evenness. A flat gray makes cloudy patches, uneven brightness and burn-in far easier to see than white does.
Cyan, Magenta and Yellow
These mix two parts of the pixel at once. They are good at catching a panel where one color is slightly weak, since the mix drifts in a way a pure color does not.
All of Them Together
Running the full set in order is the quickest honest check of a screen. Most faults show up on at least two colors, which is how you tell a real problem from a smudge.
How to Run the Color Test
A color monitor test takes about five minutes. The room matters more than you would think, so start with the lights.
Clean the Screen
Wipe it with a soft dry cloth. Dust and smears change how a solid color looks, and they are the most common reason people think a panel has a problem.
Fix the Room and the Settings
Work in even, indirect light. A window behind you or a lamp reflecting off the glass will fool you every time.
Set the screen to its standard picture mode. Game, film and reading modes all push colors around on purpose, and testing in one of those tells you nothing about the panel.
Start the Test
Press Start Color Test. The page goes full screen and shows the first color with nothing else on it.
Give Each Color a Few Seconds
Click, tap or press the right arrow key to move on, and the left arrow to go back. Your eyes need a moment to settle on each color, especially after a bright one.
Look at the Whole Panel
Check the middle, then the corners and the edges. Look straight at the screen rather than from an angle, because most panels shift color as you move your head.
Press Escape when you are done and the page comes back as it was.
Color Test for Monitor, Laptop, Phone and TV
The same colors work on any screen. What changes is what you are likely to find on each one.
PC Monitor
For a PC monitor color test, open this page on the computer the screen is plugged into. With two monitors, run it on each in turn: side by side, a colour difference that you never noticed becomes obvious.
A monitor screen color test is also the fastest way to judge a second-hand desk setup, since a panel that has aged badly gives itself away the moment a fresh one sits beside it.
Most monitors have their own picture menu with preset modes, and brands like Dell and EIZO ship extra test patterns inside it. Set the monitor to its standard or sRGB mode before you judge anything.
Laptop Screen
A laptop color test is worth running on battery and on mains, because power saving on some laptops dims the panel and shifts the colors with it.
Cheaper laptop panels show their limits on red and on gray, where the color goes flat or grainy.
Phone and Mobile
A phone screen color test needs auto brightness off first, and the colour profile set to standard rather than vivid.
Most phones are OLED, so black is properly black and colors stay strong at an angle. A mobile display color test mostly turns up stuck pixels and, on older phones, burn-in.
TV Screen
Open the page in the TV browser, or cast it. A TV color test is best done from your normal seat rather than up close, since that is the distance that actually matters.
Turn off any motion or dynamic picture setting first. Those change color on the fly and make a steady test impossible.
LCD, LED and IPS Panels
An LCD or LED screen color test usually shows uneven backlight at the edges. An IPS color test often shows glow in one corner, which is normal for the panel type and not a fault.
What a Color Accuracy Test Can and Cannot Tell You
This is worth being straight about. A screen color accuracy test done by eye finds problems. It does not measure anything.
Your eyes are very good at spotting that something is wrong: a yellow corner, a pink band, a red that looks orange next to another screen. They are hopeless at telling you by how much, and they adjust to whatever they are looking at within a minute or two.
Real numbers need hardware. A colorimeter is a small sensor you hang on the screen, and it measures what the panel actually puts out. That is the only way to check display color accuracy against a standard like sRGB, or to see how much of a wide gamut a monitor really covers.
So use this test to find out whether something is wrong, and use a colorimeter if you need to know how wrong. For most people the first question is the only one that matters.
One thing you can do by eye is compare. Put the same solid color on two screens next to each other, and the difference between them is easy to see even though neither number is known.
Color Test and Monitor Calibration
Calibration and testing are not the same thing. A test shows you the state of the screen. Calibration changes it.
Windows and macOS both include a basic calibration wizard that walks you through brightness, contrast and gamma using test images. It works from your eyes, so it is a rough adjustment rather than a measured one, but it is free and it helps a screen that is clearly off.
A monitor calibration screen like this one is useful before and after. Run the colors first to see what you are dealing with, change the settings, then run them again to check you have not made things worse. Brightness is the setting most people get wrong: far too high in a normal room, which crushes dark tones and tires your eyes.
If you edit photos or work with print, that is where a colorimeter earns its money. For everything else, the standard picture mode plus a sensible brightness gets you most of the way there.
Color Problems This Test Finds
A screen discoloration test is really just solid colors and a careful look. These are the faults that turn up most often.
Yellow or Pink Tint
A patch of white that leans yellow or pink, usually in one corner or along an edge. Panels age unevenly, and pressure from a case or a bag can leave a permanent tint.
One Color Missing
If the red screen looks dark or patchy while green and blue look fine, part of the panel or the cable is dropping that color. Try a different cable before you blame the screen.
Banding
A smooth fade that arrives in steps instead of blending. It shows the panel is short of color depth, and it is easiest to see on dark blues and grays.
Uneven Color
One side of the screen warmer than the other. Common on large panels and hard to unsee once you have noticed it.
Stuck Pixels
A single dot stuck on red, green or blue. The color screens are where these show up most clearly.
Burn-in
A faint shape left behind by something that sat in one place for months. Solid gray shows it better than any other color.
Color Test Images and Pictures
People often look for a monitor color test image to download and open in a photo viewer. A full screen page does the same job with less trouble.
An image gets scaled to fit the window, and scaling changes the pixels. A compressed file can also turn a flat color into faint blocks, which is exactly the thing you are trying to spot. A page draws the color directly, at the size of your screen, with nothing in between.
Test pictures still have their place. Photos of faces and skin tones tell you things a flat color cannot, and calibration images with gray steps and gradients are worth having if you are adjusting a monitor properly. For finding faults, solid colors win.
This kind of page has been around for a long time. Some people still know it as the W4ZT screen color test, after an old page that did the same thing years ago, and monitor makers like EIZO publish their own test patterns as well.
Open One Color on Its Own
Sometimes you want to sit with a single color rather than step through them. Each of these opens full screen and stays there.
White Screen
Dead pixels, dust, cracks and marks on the glass.
Black Screen
Stuck pixels, bright dots and backlight bleed.
Red Screen
The red part of every pixel on its own.
Green Screen
The color your eyes read most easily.
Blue Screen
Good for banding and uneven dark areas.
Gray Screen
The best background for evenness and burn-in.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a screen color test do?
It fills your screen with one solid color at a time, so you can see dead and stuck pixels, tints, banding and uneven areas that a normal picture hides.
Which colors does the test show?
White, black, red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, yellow and gray. You move through them yourself, so you can stay on one as long as you like.
Can this test check color accuracy?
It finds colour problems but it cannot measure them. Real accuracy against a standard like sRGB needs a colorimeter, which is a sensor you hang on the screen.
How do I check the colors on my monitor?
Set the monitor to its standard or sRGB picture mode, work in even light, then run the colors full screen and look at the middle, the corners and the edges.
Is a color test the same as calibration?
No. A test shows the state of the screen. Calibration changes it. Windows and macOS both have a basic calibration wizard you can run afterwards.
Do I need a color test image to download?
No. A full screen page draws each color directly at the size of your screen, with no scaling or compression to spoil what you are looking at.
Why does one corner of my screen look yellow?
Panels age unevenly, and pressure from a case or a bag can leave a tint. If it stays in the same place on white and gray, it is the panel.
Can I run a color test on my phone or TV?
Yes. Open the page in the browser on either one. Turn off auto brightness on a phone and any dynamic picture mode on a TV first.
Why does the red screen look patchy?
Try another cable first, since a failing cable can drop part of a color. If red still looks wrong while green and blue look fine, the panel is at fault.
Is this screen color test free?
Yes. It is free, it needs no app and there is no account to make.
Ready to Test Your Screen Colors?
Nine solid colors, full screen, at your own pace. Test screen colors on any device you can open a browser on.
Free, no app to install, and Escape brings you back at any time.
Start Color Test