From Wada's dictionary, 1933
Wada combination 159
Its colours, with the book's names: Khaki · Calamine Blue · Grayish Lavender - A. 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 2.7:1: does not read.
On screen, the text #292319 on the background #e5faf0 gives 14.3:1: AAA, reads with room to spare. APCA gives Lc 97: good for small text, the kind you read a paragraph of.
The accent #6165a6 stands 4.9:1 from the background (a button needs 3:1) and as a link reaches 4.6:1 (a word needs 4.5:1).
How to use it
- Proportion
Distribute, don't equalise: #e5faf0 on 60% of the screen, #80ffcc on 30% (cards, bands, headers) and #6165a6 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
No pair on the plate read as text (the best gave 2.7:1). That is why body text goes in #292319, a near-neutral ink tinted with the palette's hue: it is not in the book, and it is needed.
- The button
The accent #6165a6 stands 4.9:1 apart from the background: it works as a button, with text in #eff9f4.
- Temperature
Warm and cool together: let one lead and the other point. Here the background #80ffcc leads, and the accent #6165a6 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 mixed-light ones: it already brings hierarchy. Keep it on screen: lightest at the back, darkest in front.
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 · green
Green is where the eye rests. Goethe says whoever looks at it neither wishes nor is able to imagine anything beyond it, which is why it was the colour for rooms you live in. In an interface that is precisely a background.
- Accent · 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.
- 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.
- Adjacent
Adjacent on the circle, with nothing between them. Ordinary and agreeable: it says little, and it does not offend.
- 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. This is the one pair Goethe dismisses outright, and that judgement does not hold today — teal is well liked. What does hold is the measurable half: two neighbours with no difference in lightness produce no contrast.
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#f6f5ff
- 100#eae9fe
- 200#d6d4f6
- 300#bbbae9
- 400#9e9eda
- 500#8183c7
- 600#6165a6
- 700#4f5289
- 800#393c68
- 900#242748
- 50#f6f6f8
- 100#ebebed
- 200#d7d7db
- 300#bebec4
- 400#a3a2aa
- 500#898891
- 600#6f6f77
- 700#57565d
- 800#403f45
- 900#2a292e
- Normal
- Hover
- Pressed
- Disabled
- Focus
- Success
- Warning
- Error
- Info
The same colour, at night.
The background isn't pure black: it carries a little of your hue. That's what separates a designed dark mode from one that looks like a fault.
A button/* Wada combination 159 — bluenze.com/paletas */
:root {
--fondo: #e5faf0;
--superficie: #80ffcc;
--texto: #292319;
--tinta: #292319;
--texto-suave: #6c6253;
--titular: #8f6700;
--acento: #6165a6;
--acento-texto: #eff9f4;
--enlace: #676aab;
--borde: #bdd8cb;
/* la lámina de Wada, tal cual */
--lamina-1: #b68400;
--lamina-2: #80ffcc;
--lamina-3: #b8b8ff;
--acento-50: #f6f5ff;
--acento-100: #eae9fe;
--acento-200: #d6d4f6;
--acento-300: #bbbae9;
--acento-400: #9e9eda;
--acento-500: #8183c7;
--acento-600: #6165a6;
--acento-700: #4f5289;
--acento-800: #393c68;
--acento-900: #242748;
--neutro-50: #f6f6f8;
--neutro-100: #ebebed;
--neutro-200: #d7d7db;
--neutro-300: #bebec4;
--neutro-400: #a3a2aa;
--neutro-500: #898891;
--neutro-600: #6f6f77;
--neutro-700: #57565d;
--neutro-800: #403f45;
--neutro-900: #2a292e;
--boton: #6165a6;
--boton-encima: #4f5493;
--boton-pulsado: #3f447b;
--boton-apagado: #aeadb8;
--foco: #5363c2;
--exito: #447942;
--aviso: #9e8b46;
--error: #a55747;
--info: #3370ae;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
:root {
--fondo: #21202c;
--superficie: #2d2d3b;
--borde: #464557;
--texto: #eeedf5;
--tinta: #eeedf5;
--texto-suave: #b0b0b8;
--acento: #8e90d5;
--acento-texto: #23232b;
}
}