My synesthesia map: record your own associations

How to use it

1. Open Letters and numbers. Choose a letter or number, then choose its color from the named colors, mix your own with the red, green and blue sliders, or type a hex color. Choose No color for this one if a character has no color for you.
2. Use Next and Previous to move through the characters in order, or Back to all to see the whole grid again. Turn off Lowercase has the same colors if your lowercase letters have colors of their own.
3. Open Days, months and sequences. Choose a color for each day and month. To add a sequence of your own, such as the numbers 1 to 31 or the seasons, type its name, press Add sequence, then press Add items. You can write where a sequence sits in space, if it does for you.
4. Open Other experiences to write sentences such as "When I hear a bell, I experience a silver circle". Add a color, shape or texture words and how strong it is, then press Add experience.
5. Open About my experience to choose the kinds that sound like yours, say where you experience it, and add notes. Every question there is optional.
6. Press Print my map, Copy my map as text, Download my map as a picture (PNG) or Download as CSV to keep it or to share it with someone you choose.

Good to know

• This is a place to record your own experience. It is not a test. It gives no result and it does not show whether someone has synesthesia. Only you can say what your experience is like.
• Color names are this tool's own plain names. Each one is the nearest color in a list of about 150 names, so a name is approximate. The hex code next to it is exact. Every swatch, tile and page shows the name and the hex code as text, so nothing depends on seeing the color.
• A 2013 article by Julia Simner describes projectors as people whose colors are experienced outside their own body space, projected into the world, and describes the others as associators. Some associators say they see the color in their mind's eye. The tool asks Where do I experience it? in plain words and does not label you. You can answer in your own way or leave it blank.
• The kinds listed under About my experience are the ones the Synesthesia guide on this site describes. There are more kinds than any list can hold. The guide also covers how researchers define and identify synesthesia, and when to ask a doctor.
• Everything is saved in this browser on this device and nothing is sent anywhere. Clearing your browser data erases it, so download a copy of your map if you want to keep it. Limits: 4 sequences of your own with up to 31 items each, 60 other experiences, and 1,000 characters for each note.
• You can change any color at any time, and you can leave any tile empty. A tile that is not filled in is not the same as a tile marked No color for this one. The count at the top of the first tab shows both.
• The picture is drawn in your browser on a white page, 1,200 pixels wide. The printed page and the picture show color names and hex codes as text, so they can still be read in black and white. Printing colors depends on your printer and on your browser setting for printing backgrounds.
• The Colorizer can read your map to show any text in your colors. It only reads the map. It never changes it.

Where this comes from

• A 2013 article by Julia Simner in Frontiers in Psychology says that projector synesthetes experience their colors "outside their own body space, projected into the world", calls other synesthetes "associators", says that some associators "claim to see colors in their mind's eye", and says that the projector and associator distinction was first phrased by Dixon et al. (2004): Simner (2013), Why are there different types of synesthete? Frontiers in Psychology
• The Synesthesia guide

More tools

General support only. These tools are not medical, legal or diagnostic advice, and they do not replace professional help. If you are in crisis, go to Crisis help.