From Wada's dictionary, 1933
Wada combination 280
Its colours, with the book's names: Eugenia Red | B · Lincoln Green · Laelia Pink · Taupe Brown. 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 3.6:1: only good for large text.
On screen, the text #2a2128 on the background #fff1ff 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 #d40f65 stands 4.8:1 from the background (a button needs 3:1) and as a link reaches 4.8:1 (a word needs 4.5:1).
How to use it
- Proportion
Distribute, don't equalise: #fff1ff on 60% of the screen, #cc85d1 on 30% (cards, bands, headers) and #d40f65 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 3.6:1). That is why body text goes in #2a2128, a near-neutral ink tinted with the palette's hue: it is not in the book, and it is needed.
- The button
The accent #d40f65 stands 4.8:1 apart from the background: it works as a button, with text in #fbf4fb.
- Temperature
Warm and cool together: let one lead and the other point. Here the background #cc85d1 leads, and the accent #d40f65 is the first thing the eye will look for.
- How many
Four colours demand discipline: #cc85d1 and #6b2e63 are the base, the other two are detail. If in doubt, drop the support colour before the accent.
- In the dictionary
In the dictionary it sits among the tone-on-tone sets: colours from one family. Hierarchy comes from light, not hue, so order elements from lightest to darkest. It is one of the pale ones: muted tones that get along; running text needs an ink from outside, near black.
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 · violet
Goethe puts it bluntly: a large surface of pure violet would be intolerable. It holds up here because the screen adaptation has taken the chroma down. On the plate, at full saturation, it would not.
- Accent · red
Red is the high point of the active side. In a small patch it does exactly what an accent is for: stopping the eye once.
- Heading · 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Characteristic
Characteristic by geometry — there is a colour skipped between the two. But Goethe judges only four pairs in this group, and this is not one of them.
- Characteristic
Characteristic by geometry — there is a colour skipped between the two. But Goethe judges only four pairs in this group, and this is not one of them.
- Same sector
Both fall in the same sector of the circle. There is no hue contrast, so whatever separates them will have to be lightness.
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#f6f6f6
- 100#ebebeb
- 200#fecad4
- 300#ffa5b9
- 400#fd789c
- 500#f64080
- 600#d40f65
- 700#ab0e51
- 800#82003b
- 900#580326
- 50#f8f6f6
- 100#eeeaeb
- 200#dcd6d7
- 300#c5bcbe
- 400#aba0a2
- 500#928688
- 600#786d6f
- 700#5f5557
- 800#463e3f
- 900#2e282a
- 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 280 — bluenze.com/paletas */
:root {
--fondo: #fff1ff;
--superficie: #cc85d1;
--texto: #2a2128;
--tinta: #2a2128;
--texto-suave: #6c6069;
--titular: #6b2e63;
--acento: #d40f65;
--acento-texto: #fbf4fb;
--enlace: #d30f64;
--borde: #deccdf;
--apoyo-1: #405416;
/* la lámina de Wada, tal cual */
--lamina-1: #e62e73;
--lamina-2: #405416;
--lamina-3: #cc85d1;
--lamina-4: #6b2e63;
--acento-50: #f6f6f6;
--acento-100: #ebebeb;
--acento-200: #fecad4;
--acento-300: #ffa5b9;
--acento-400: #fd789c;
--acento-500: #f64080;
--acento-600: #d40f65;
--acento-700: #ab0e51;
--acento-800: #82003b;
--acento-900: #580326;
--neutro-50: #f8f6f6;
--neutro-100: #eeeaeb;
--neutro-200: #dcd6d7;
--neutro-300: #c5bcbe;
--neutro-400: #aba0a2;
--neutro-500: #928688;
--neutro-600: #786d6f;
--neutro-700: #5f5557;
--neutro-800: #463e3f;
--neutro-900: #2e282a;
--boton: #d40f65;
--boton-encima: #b40e55;
--boton-pulsado: #980045;
--boton-apagado: #c6a9af;
--foco: #d40f65;
--exito: #0b7f21;
--aviso: #a28a0d;
--error: #c93625;
--info: #0470ba;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
:root {
--fondo: #2e1d21;
--superficie: #3e282d;
--borde: #594045;
--texto: #f8ebed;
--tinta: #f8ebed;
--texto-suave: #bcadb0;
--acento: #fe5a8e;
--acento-texto: #2f2023;
}
}