Human color vision undergoes remarkable change across the lifespan. Here, we summarize what is known about the development and ageing of color vision. We describe the onset of trichromatic color vision and discuss how color discrimination and sensitivity to color changes across the lifespan. We also outline changes in the perceptual mechanisms that underpin our experience of color, and consider how development and ageing affect the utility of color vision across the lifespan. We aim to show that a lifespan approach can give useful insight in understanding human color vision.