From Wada's dictionary, 1933
Wada combination 124
It contains a colour very close to yours (Yellow Ocher) and has been in use for almost a century. The original colours are called Pale Burnt Lake · Yellow Ocher · Olive Yellow.
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 6.1:1: AA, it reads.
On screen, the text #2f201f on the background #fdf4e4 gives 14.3:1: AAA, reads with room to spare. APCA gives Lc 96: good for small text, the kind you read a paragraph of.
The accent #7d9812 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 Protanopia, your accent and your background drop to 3.0:1. 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: #fdf4e4 on 60% of the screen, #e0b81f on 30% (cards, bands, headers) and #7d9812 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 #2f201f, 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 #730f1f, where size forgives.
- The button
The accent #7d9812 stands 3.0:1 apart from the background: it works as a button, with text in #2f201f.
- 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 pale ones: muted tones that get along; running text needs an ink from outside, near black. Though this one is not: its mean chroma is 61. The label describes the group in the book, not a measurement of this combination — nearly half the pale group is not pale.
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 active side of the circle: the colours that advance, warm and push outward.
- 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 · 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.
- Heading · 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.
- Characteristic
Yellow and red, with orange skipped between them. The characteristic pair he thinks best: serene and magnificent.
- Characteristic
Yellow and red, with orange skipped between them. The characteristic pair he thinks best: serene and magnificent.
- 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.
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#f6f8e4
- 100#eaeecb
- 200#d4dca3
- 300#b7c575
- 400#97ac42
- 500#7d9812
- 600#617806
- 700#4b5e01
- 800#374501
- 900#252d01
- 50#f6f6f5
- 100#ebebe8
- 200#d7d7d3
- 300#bebfb8
- 400#a3a49c
- 500#898a81
- 600#6f7068
- 700#575851
- 800#40403b
- 900#2a2a26
- 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 124 — bluenze.com/paletas */
:root {
--fondo: #fdf4e4;
--superficie: #e0b81f;
--texto: #2f201f;
--tinta: #2f201f;
--texto-suave: #735e5d;
--titular: #730f1f;
--acento: #7d9812;
--acento-texto: #2f201f;
--enlace: #617800;
--borde: #dbd1bb;
/* la lámina de Wada, tal cual */
--lamina-1: #730f1f;
--lamina-2: #e0b81f;
--lamina-3: #99b333;
--acento-50: #f6f8e4;
--acento-100: #eaeecb;
--acento-200: #d4dca3;
--acento-300: #b7c575;
--acento-400: #97ac42;
--acento-500: #7d9812;
--acento-600: #617806;
--acento-700: #4b5e01;
--acento-800: #374501;
--acento-900: #252d01;
--neutro-50: #f6f6f5;
--neutro-100: #ebebe8;
--neutro-200: #d7d7d3;
--neutro-300: #bebfb8;
--neutro-400: #a3a49c;
--neutro-500: #898a81;
--neutro-600: #6f7068;
--neutro-700: #575851;
--neutro-800: #40403b;
--neutro-900: #2a2a26;
--boton: #7d9812;
--boton-encima: #6d850a;
--boton-pulsado: #5d7207;
--boton-apagado: #d3d6c2;
--foco: #7c980a;
--exito: #047f1f;
--aviso: #a38a05;
--error: #c2402d;
--info: #0070bb;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
:root {
--fondo: #212316;
--superficie: #2d301f;
--borde: #464836;
--texto: #eeefe5;
--tinta: #eeefe5;
--texto-suave: #b0b1a6;
--acento: #86a01e;
--acento-texto: #232519;
}
}