Born in 1879 to a family in Tokyo, Shinobu Ishihara began his education at the Imperial University where he attended on a military scholarship.

[medical citation needed] Being a printed plate, the accuracy of the test depends on using the proper lighting to illuminate the page.

Fluorescent lighting showed better results and faster recognition speed compared to CFL and LED luminance in trichromats.

[citation needed] Incandescent bulbs should not be used, as their low temperature (yellow-color) gives highly inaccurate results, allowing some color vision deficient persons to pass.

Proper testing technique is to give only three seconds per plate for an answer, and not allow coaching, touching or tracing of the numbers by the subject.