From Wada's dictionary, 1933
Wada combination 143
It contains a colour very close to yours (Warm Gray) and has been in use for almost a century. The original colours are called Blue · Lilac · Warm Gray.
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 1.9:1: does not read.
On screen, the text #22232e on the background #ebf9ec 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 #b270e5 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).
Under Tritanopia, 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.
How to use it
- Proportion
Distribute, don't equalise: #ebf9ec on 60% of the screen, #9cb29e on 30% (cards, bands, headers) and #b270e5 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 1.9:1). That is why body text goes in #22232e, a near-neutral ink tinted with the palette's hue: it is not in the book, and it is needed.
- The button
The accent #b270e5 stands 3.0:1 apart from the background: it works as a button, with text in #22232e.
- Temperature
All cool: orderly and serious. So it doesn't feel distant, leave plenty of air and use the accent generously on whatever you want touched.
- 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 light ones: works on white and on screen; in print it loses body, so push the ink a notch.
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 whole palette sits on the passive side: the colours that recede, cool and draw the eye inward.
- 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 · 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.
- 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.
- With a neutral
Next to white, a colour from the passive side gains in liveliness.
- With a neutral
Next to white, a colour from the passive side gains in liveliness.
#0d75ff and #b875eb are neighbours on the circle and only 9 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.
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#fbf4ff
- 100#f5e5ff
- 200#ebccff
- 300#dbacfb
- 400#c58bf0
- 500#b270e5
- 600#9153c2
- 700#733e9e
- 800#562b79
- 900#3a1a55
- 50#f7f6f7
- 100#eceaed
- 200#d9d6da
- 300#c0bdc2
- 400#a6a2a9
- 500#8c878f
- 600#736e75
- 700#5a565c
- 800#423f44
- 900#2c292d
- 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 143 — bluenze.com/paletas */
:root {
--fondo: #ebf9ec;
--superficie: #9cb29e;
--texto: #22232e;
--tinta: #22232e;
--texto-suave: #616273;
--titular: #0167e3;
--acento: #b270e5;
--acento-texto: #22232e;
--enlace: #9151c3;
--borde: #c9d5ca;
/* la lámina de Wada, tal cual */
--lamina-1: #0d75ff;
--lamina-2: #b875eb;
--lamina-3: #9cb29e;
--acento-50: #fbf4ff;
--acento-100: #f5e5ff;
--acento-200: #ebccff;
--acento-300: #dbacfb;
--acento-400: #c58bf0;
--acento-500: #b270e5;
--acento-600: #9153c2;
--acento-700: #733e9e;
--acento-800: #562b79;
--acento-900: #3a1a55;
--neutro-50: #f7f6f7;
--neutro-100: #eceaed;
--neutro-200: #d9d6da;
--neutro-300: #c0bdc2;
--neutro-400: #a6a2a9;
--neutro-500: #8c878f;
--neutro-600: #736e75;
--neutro-700: #5a565c;
--neutro-800: #423f44;
--neutro-900: #2c292d;
--boton: #b270e5;
--boton-encima: #9e5ed1;
--boton-pulsado: #894eb8;
--boton-apagado: #dbcfe2;
--foco: #b965fd;
--exito: #0d7f21;
--aviso: #a38a0f;
--error: #c63b29;
--info: #1c70b6;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
:root {
--fondo: #261f2b;
--superficie: #342b3a;
--borde: #4d4354;
--texto: #f1ecf5;
--tinta: #f1ecf5;
--texto-suave: #b5aeb8;
--acento: #bb79ef;
--acento-texto: #28212c;
}
}