Combination 126 from Wada's dictionary · contrasting hues, dense
Colour palette: Ivory Buff, Yellow Ocher and Deep Lyons Blue.
One of the 348 combinations Sanzō Wada set down in 1933, with roles assigned, contrast checked and advice for using it.
Haishoku Sōkan · 1933
3 colours in equal parts, as in the book. It is the inspiration, not the interface. Click one to copy it.
Combination 126 · the plate, in four leaves
What each one is.
The hex codes come from the book's CMYK run through the FOGRA39 press profile. Under each colour we also list the hex other websites use, which comes from a direct formula and oversaturates.
Ivory Buff
Beige marfil
CMYK 8 · 15 · 40 · 0
Elsewhere: #ebd999
Wada uses it in 16 combinations.
Five palettes from this colour →Yellow Ocher
Ocre amarillo
CMYK 12 · 28 · 88 · 0
Elsewhere: #e0b81f
Wada uses it in 8 combinations.
Five palettes from this colour →Deep Lyons Blue
Azul ultramar
CMYK 100 · 85 · 15 · 6
Elsewhere: #0024cc
Wada uses it in 10 combinations.
Five palettes from this colour →
The three colours, mixed two by two
- 3 parts ivory buff1 part yellow ocher
- 3 parts yellow ocher1 part deep lyons blue
- 3 parts deep lyons blue1 part ivory buff
- 3 parts ivory buff1 part deep lyons blue
- 3 parts yellow ocher1 part ivory buff
- 3 parts deep lyons blue1 part yellow ocher
This is where the in-betweens the plate doesn’t carry come from: borders, card backgrounds, disabled states. The mix is done in OKLab, which is closer to mixing paint than to averaging numbers. Click the result to copy it.
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.
- 60% BackgroundWhere the eye rests: most of the screen. The plate's #efd8a8, lightened.
- 30% SurfaceCards, bands, headers. This is where the book's colour lives. From the plate, as is (#efd8a8).
- 10% AccentOnly what gets clicked. The plate's #e6b730, darkened.
The roles the plate doesn’t carry
Measured, before and after
- On the plate, the best pair of colours reads at 7.7:1: AAA, reads with room to spare.Passes
- On screen, the text #22232e on the background #fdf4e4 gives 14.2:1: AAA, reads with room to spare. APCA gives Lc 97: good for small text, the kind you read a paragraph of.Passes
- The accent #ae880e stands 3.0:1 from the background (a button needs 3:1) and as a link reaches 4.6:1 (a word needs 4.5:1).Passes
- Under deuteranopia, your accent and your background drop to 2.9:1. The button stops standing out: give it a border, change the lightness, or don't rely on colour alone to mark it.Falls short
This is the plate 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.
How to use it
- ProportionDistribute, don't equalise: #fdf4e4 on 60% of the screen, #efd8a8 on 30% (cards, bands, headers) and #ae880e 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.
- TextBody text goes in #22232e, 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 #20397e, where size forgives.
- The buttonThe accent #ae880e stands 3.0:1 apart from the background: it works as a button, with text in #22232e.
- TemperatureWarm and cool together: let one lead and the other point. Here the background #efd8a8 leads, and the accent #ae880e is the first thing the eye will look for.
- How manyThree 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 dictionaryIn 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 dense ones: loaded colours that need plenty of air around them; less is more.
The kit
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.
Click any swatch to copy it.
The accent’s tints
The neutrals, tinted with the accent
Button states and alerts
The same plate, at night
The same colour, at night.
The background isn’t pure black: it carries a little of the accent’s hue. That’s what separates a designed dark mode from one that looks like a fault.
A buttonTake it with you
/* Wada combination 126 — bluenze.com/paletas */
:root {
--fondo: #fdf4e4;
--superficie: #efd8a8;
--texto: #22232e;
--tinta: #22232e;
--texto-suave: #626271;
--titular: #20397e;
--acento: #ae880e;
--acento-texto: #22232e;
--enlace: #896a02;
--borde: #dcd0bb;
/* la lámina de Wada, tal cual */
--lamina-1: #efd8a8;
--lamina-2: #e6b730;
--lamina-3: #20397e;
--acento-50: #fff5e5;
--acento-100: #fbe9ca;
--acento-200: #eed4a2;
--acento-300: #dbba73;
--acento-400: #c49e40;
--acento-500: #ae880e;
--acento-600: #8a6b04;
--acento-700: #6d5400;
--acento-800: #513d00;
--acento-900: #352803;
--neutro-50: #f7f6f5;
--neutro-100: #ecebe8;
--neutro-200: #d9d7d3;
--neutro-300: #c1beb8;
--neutro-400: #a7a39b;
--neutro-500: #8d8880;
--neutro-600: #746f67;
--neutro-700: #5b5750;
--neutro-800: #433f3a;
--neutro-900: #2c2a26;
--boton: #ae880e;
--boton-encima: #987706;
--boton-pulsado: #836605;
--boton-apagado: #dcd2c1;
--foco: #af8801;
--exito: #157e24;
--aviso: #a28a08;
--error: #be4330;
--info: #1970b7;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
:root {
--fondo: #272115;
--superficie: #352d1e;
--borde: #4f4634;
--texto: #f3ede4;
--tinta: #f3ede4;
--texto-suave: #b6b0a6;
--acento: #b8911b;
--acento-texto: #292319;
}
}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.
What it conveys, by where each colour landed
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 · yellow
Yellow across a large surface is a gamble. It is the least forgiving colour: the slightest drift towards green turns gold into dirt, and on screen that drift is supplied by compression or a gradient. § 770
- Accent · 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. § 771
- Heading · blue
Blue recedes, and an accent is asked to do the opposite. As a link it only has to be distinguishable; as a primary button it needs contrast to do the work the colour will not. § 781
How each pair reads on the circle
- Same sector #efd8a8 · #e6b730
Both fall in the same sector of the circle. There is no hue contrast, so whatever separates them will have to be lightness. § 832
This verdict is ours. Goethe judges four of the six pairs in this group and says so himself, or one of the two colours sits right between two sectors of the circle.
- Characteristic #efd8a8 · #20397e
Yellow and blue, with green skipped. Goethe finds it poor: red is missing, and the nearness of green leaves it slight. § 819
- Characteristic #e6b730 · #20397e
Yellow and blue, with green skipped. Goethe finds it poor: red is missing, and the nearness of green leaves it slight. § 819
Criteria taken from Zur Farbenlehre (1810), in Eastlake's 1840 translation, which is public domain. The explanations are ours: from a book you take the substance, not the wording. The light values usually credited to Goethe for working out surface proportions are not in the Farbenlehre — they are Itten's, 1961, and that is how they are credited in the adaptation rules.
The card, as it gets shared
They share a colour
Other dictionary combinations with these colours.
- 011Ivory Buff · Mineral Gray
- 022Yellow · Deep Lyons Blue
- 038Diamine Green · Deep Lyons Blue
- 042Yellow Ocher · Violet
- 050Ivory Buff · Dusky Madder Violet
- 094Ivory Buff · Dusky Green
- 096Yellow Ocher · Olive
- 101Deep Lyons Blue · Cameo Pink
This combination also lives under a colour.
Chapter 3
From plate to screen: six rules that are not ours
Wada worked with ink. You work with light.
Wada designed for ink, cloth and pigment. A screen emits light, is read for minutes at a time and has a law. These are the rules colour for interfaces is built with, and the ones we adapt each plate with; none of them is ours, so each one carries its owner.
- Johannes Itten · Hype4 Academy (opens in a new tab)
Distribute 60 · 30 · 10
- Refactoring UI (opens in a new tab)
The background rests
- Material 3 · colour roles (opens in a new tab)
The book's colour lives on the surface
- GOV.UK Design System (opens in a new tab)
Paragraphs don't go in colour
- WCAG 2.2 · 1.4.3 and 1.4.11 (opens in a new tab)
The accent earns the button
- Evil Martians · OKLCH in CSS (opens in a new tab)
Move the lightness, not the hue
Colophon
Colour is where it starts, not the whole job
If it is for your brand, this is what we do: custom websites that start with colour and end in code.
And something Wada already warned about back then: the plate is not the application. His samples sit on equal surfaces only so they can be compared. On a website the background leads, the text reads and the accent points, and a colour loses strength the more surface it covers. That is why every palette comes with its roles and some advice, not four equal squares.
Combinations based on Sanzō Wada's system (Haishoku Sōkan, 1933-34; Seigensha selection, 2010). Colour values are checked against that edition; the Spanish names, each combination's character and the explanations are ours.