ChromaBridge

An easy to use and low latency color blindness tool for simulated trichromatism.

Quick Start Guide

Download and Install ChromaBridge by clicking HERE.

Step 1: Select the color blind type. - contrast-interlaced makes contrasts perceptually similar to trichromats. - true-interlaced maintains color fidelity. Step 2: Select an Interlace Pattern to simulate trichromia. Step 3: Press Start Overlay

User Interface

Menu

_{Click the menu's application icon (top left) rapidly five times to enable Developer options}

System Tray

Left click to open settings.
Right click:

• Open Settings
• Enable Overlay - Toggle overlay
• Exit - Close application

Features

• Real-time GPU acceleration: Ultra-low latency and negligible performance impact (suited for running video games alongside)
• Multi-monitor support: Automatic refresh rate detection
• Automatic startup option launches ChromaBridge when Windows starts

Limitations

• Minimum 1 frame latency
• Currently only implemented for Windows 10/11
• One overlay per display (multiple ChromaBridge instances can run concurrently)

Installation

The latest installation binary is available here [Releases]
The installer will walk you through installing the ChromaBridge application to your user account.

• Install Location: %LOCALAPPDATA%\ChromaBridge\
• Appdata Location: %APPDATA%\ChromaBridge\
• Optional Shortcuts: Start Menu and Desktop
• Includes Uninstaller

Building

Prerequisites

• Rust toolchain (MSRV 2021 edition)
• Windows 10/11 (required for DirectComposition + D3D11)
• NSIS (for installer creation with ./build-installer.ps1)

Build Binary

./build-installer.ps1 builds for release and places installer at target/ChromaBridge-Setup.exe

OR

cargo build --release

Adding new Spectra

1. Create JSON file in chromabridge\assets\spectrums\
2. Test with visualize_spectrum.py (tested with Python 3.13+ and requires PIL + numpy)
3. View output spectra in chromabridge\tools\output\
4. Copy JSON to %APPDATA%\ChromaBridge\assets\spectrums\
5. Refresh assets in ChromaBridge settings

Spectrum example

Node-Based

{
  "spectra": [
    {
      "nodes": [
        {"color": "#FF0000", "position": 0.0},
        {"color": "#00FF00", "position": 0.333},
        {"color": "#0000FF", "position": 0.667},
        {"color": "#FF0000", "position": 1.0}
      ]
    }
  ]
}

spectra value supports a list of spectra described by nodes ranging between position 0.0 and 1.0 (float).
ChromaBridge currently supports single or double spectra for interlacing by noise textures.

Versioning

ChromaBridge follows the versioning format: 0.YEAR.COMMIT_COUNT

• Year: Current calendar year
• Commit Count: Total number of commits in the repository

Example: 0.2025.29 represents the 29th commit in the year 2025.

Acknowledgements

This project was inspired by Kilian-Roy Lachner's Custom Color Vision application. Their research and discoveries in regards to "functional trichomacy for the colorblind" enabled this project.