From Wada's dictionary, 1933
Wada combination 123
It contains a colour very close to yours (Taupe Brown) and has been in use for almost a century. The original colours are called Coral Red · Lemon Yellow · Taupe Brown.
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 8.7:1: AAA, reads with room to spare.
On screen, the text #2a2128 on the background #f7f6e4 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 #e65d84 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 Deuteranopia, 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: #f7f6e4 on 60% of the screen, #e1ed1c on 30% (cards, bands, headers) and #e65d84 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 #2a2128, 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 #6b2e63, where size forgives.
- The button
The accent #e65d84 stands 3.1:1 apart from the background: it works as a button, with text in #2a2128.
- Temperature
All warm: close and unified, but to make something stand out don't rely on colour, rely on light: the important thing darker or lighter than its surroundings.
- 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 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 dense ones: loaded colours that need plenty of air around them; less is more.
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 · 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.
- 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.
- Characteristic
Yellow and red, with orange skipped between them. The characteristic pair he thinks best: serene and magnificent.
- 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.
- 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.
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#f6f6f6
- 100#fee5e9
- 200#fecad4
- 300#ffa5b8
- 400#f57e9c
- 500#e65d84
- 600#c23f68
- 700#9e2b50
- 800#781b3b
- 900#540c26
- 50#f8f6f6
- 100#eeeaeb
- 200#dcd6d7
- 300#c5bcbe
- 400#aba0a2
- 500#928688
- 600#786d6f
- 700#5f5556
- 800#463e3f
- 900#2e2829
- 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 123 — bluenze.com/paletas */
:root {
--fondo: #f7f6e4;
--superficie: #e1ed1c;
--texto: #2a2128;
--tinta: #2a2128;
--texto-suave: #6c6069;
--titular: #6b2e63;
--acento: #e65d84;
--acento-texto: #2a2128;
--enlace: #c23b66;
--borde: #d4d3bc;
/* la lámina de Wada, tal cual */
--lamina-1: #ff7399;
--lamina-2: #f2ff26;
--lamina-3: #6b2e63;
--acento-50: #f6f6f6;
--acento-100: #fee5e9;
--acento-200: #fecad4;
--acento-300: #ffa5b8;
--acento-400: #f57e9c;
--acento-500: #e65d84;
--acento-600: #c23f68;
--acento-700: #9e2b50;
--acento-800: #781b3b;
--acento-900: #540c26;
--neutro-50: #f8f6f6;
--neutro-100: #eeeaeb;
--neutro-200: #dcd6d7;
--neutro-300: #c5bcbe;
--neutro-400: #aba0a2;
--neutro-500: #928688;
--neutro-600: #786d6f;
--neutro-700: #5f5556;
--neutro-800: #463e3f;
--neutro-900: #2e2829;
--boton: #e65d84;
--boton-encima: #d14972;
--boton-pulsado: #b73b62;
--boton-apagado: #e5cdd1;
--foco: #fe3f82;
--exito: #247d2b;
--aviso: #a28a1c;
--error: #ba4835;
--info: #0d70b9;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
:root {
--fondo: #2e1d20;
--superficie: #3e282d;
--borde: #594045;
--texto: #f8ebed;
--tinta: #f8ebed;
--texto-suave: #bcadaf;
--acento: #f1678d;
--acento-texto: #2f2023;
}
}