From Wada's dictionary, 1933
Wada combination 168
Its colours, with the book's names: Lemon Yellow · Vernonia Purple · Vandar Poel's Blue. The values are the book's; the roles and advice are ours.
Adapted for screen
The same hue as the plate with the lightness moved to where an interface needs it: the background rests, the surface keeps the colour from the book and the accent earns the button. Each role says which colour it comes from and what was done to it. Click any to copy.
On a website
This is your colour with a whole screen to fill.
This paragraph is here so you can see real text on a real background, which is where half of the pretty palettes fall over. If it's hard to read, now you know. And this is a link.
A card
Secondary surfaces use the support colour. If it doesn't separate from the background, the hierarchy is gone.
Measured, before and after
On the plate, the best pair of colours reads at 9.5:1: AAA, reads with room to spare.
On screen, the text #efeee4 on the background #1d2130 gives 13.7:1: AAA, reads with room to spare. APCA gives Lc 94: good for small text, the kind you read a paragraph of.
The accent #9f4f94 stands 3.1:1 from the background (a button needs 3:1) and as a link reaches 4.7:1 (a word needs 4.5:1).
Under Protanopia, your accent and your background drop to 2.7:1. The button stops standing out: give it a border, change the lightness, or don't rely on colour alone to mark it.
How to use it
- Proportion
Distribute, don't equalise: #1d2130 on 60% of the screen, #003e83 on 30% (cards, bands, headers) and #9f4f94 on 10%, only on buttons and links. A colour loses force the more surface it covers; what looks intense on the plate softens at full screen.
- Text
Body text goes in #efeee4, a near-neutral ink tinted with the palette's hue, even though the plate had a pair that read: a saturated colour as text tires by the third line. The book's colour enters through the heading, in #f2ff26, where size forgives.
- The button
The accent #9f4f94 stands 3.1:1 apart from the background: it works as a button, with text in #f5f6fe.
- Temperature
Warm and cool together: let one lead and the other point. Here the background #003e83 leads, and the accent #9f4f94 is the first thing the eye will look for.
- How many
Three colours is the comfortable measure: background, text and one accent. Don't add a fourth unless it earns its place by contrast or by hue.
- In the dictionary
In the dictionary it sits among the contrasting-hue sets: hues deliberately set against each other. The contrast is already there; don't force it with shadows or blacks. It is one of the dark ones: it needs light text and large surfaces; in small pieces it clogs.
Goethe's reading
What this combination conveys, and why.
Wada tells you which colours go together. Goethe, a century earlier, explains why a combination means something or means nothing, and what each colour does depending on how much of the screen it takes. His circle has six colours and three oppositions, and every verdict below carries the paragraph it comes from.
The palette crosses both sides of the circle, active and passive. It carries the most tension and most needs one of the two to lead.
- Surface · blue
Blue recedes: it draws the eye inward rather than coming out to meet it. It holds a large surface without fighting whatever sits on top.
- Accent · violet
The violet that would be intolerable as a background works in a border or a button. Same colour, different dose: this is a rule about surface, not about hue.
- Heading · yellow
Yellow points, but it loses the moment the ground stops being smooth and bright. On screen that means shadows, gradients and small type on top.
- Opposite
Opposite on the circle: together they complete what the eye asks for on its own. It is the only category Goethe approves without reservation.
- Characteristic
Yellow and blue, with green skipped. Goethe finds it poor: red is missing, and the nearness of green leaves it slight.
- Adjacent
Adjacent on the circle, with no colour between them to keep them apart. They are saved by proportion: one has to lead and the other to follow.
#7e3075 and #003e83 are neighbours on the circle and only 7 points of lightness apart. This is the failure Goethe describes without naming it: well-chosen colours placed at the wrong value. They vibrate, and neither can be read on top of the other.
There is nowhere for the eye to rest: no neutral, no muted colour, no green. The whole palette asks for attention at once.
The kit for building it
A brand needs four colours; an interface needs a good deal more. This is what you'd otherwise invent by hand once you take four hex codes into the editor.
- 50#fff3fd
- 100#fde4f8
- 200#f4cbec
- 300#e5addb
- 400#d48bc8
- 500#be6cb2
- 600#9f4f94
- 700#823e79
- 800#622b5b
- 900#441a3e
- 50#f7f6f7
- 100#edeaec
- 200#dad6d9
- 300#c2bcc1
- 400#a8a1a7
- 500#8f868d
- 600#756d73
- 700#5c555a
- 800#443e43
- 900#2d292c
- Normal
- Hover
- Pressed
- Disabled
- Focus
- Success
- Warning
- Error
- Info
The same colour, by day.
The palette is born dark; this is its light version. The background is not pure white: it carries a little of its hue, just as the dark one was not black.
A button/* Wada combination 168 — bluenze.com/paletas */
:root {
--fondo: #1d2130;
--superficie: #003e83;
--texto: #efeee4;
--tinta: #efeee4;
--texto-suave: #b2b1a2;
--titular: #f2ff26;
--acento: #9f4f94;
--acento-texto: #f5f6fe;
--enlace: #c06eb4;
--borde: #424659;
/* la lámina de Wada, tal cual */
--lamina-1: #f2ff26;
--lamina-2: #7e3075;
--lamina-3: #003e83;
--acento-50: #fff3fd;
--acento-100: #fde4f8;
--acento-200: #f4cbec;
--acento-300: #e5addb;
--acento-400: #d48bc8;
--acento-500: #be6cb2;
--acento-600: #9f4f94;
--acento-700: #823e79;
--acento-800: #622b5b;
--acento-900: #441a3e;
--neutro-50: #f7f6f7;
--neutro-100: #edeaec;
--neutro-200: #dad6d9;
--neutro-300: #c2bcc1;
--neutro-400: #a8a1a7;
--neutro-500: #8f868d;
--neutro-600: #756d73;
--neutro-700: #5c555a;
--neutro-800: #443e43;
--neutro-900: #2d292c;
--boton: #9f4f94;
--boton-encima: #b261a7;
--boton-pulsado: #c276b6;
--boton-apagado: #40353e;
--foco: #b03ca3;
--exito: #75bc70;
--aviso: #ceb45a;
--error: #f98e77;
--info: #6eaefc;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: light) {
:root {
--fondo: #fff1fc;
--superficie: #f5e3f1;
--borde: #e1cbdc;
--texto: #2a2128;
--tinta: #2a2128;
--texto-suave: #6d5f6a;
--acento: #9f4f94;
--acento-texto: #fcf4fa;
}
}