From Wada's dictionary, 1933
Wada combination 314
Its colours, with the book's names: Eosine Pink · Hay's Russet · Deep Lyons Blue · Dusky Madder Violet. 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 6.0:1: AA, it reads.
On screen, the text #f6ebf1 on the background #261f2d gives 13.7:1: AAA, reads with room to spare. APCA gives Lc 94: good for small text, the kind you read a paragraph of.
The accent #6451fa stands 3.1:1 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: #261f2d on 60% of the screen, #3d106f on 30% (cards, bands, headers) and #6451fa 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 #f6ebf1, 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 #ff5ec4, where size forgives.
- The button
The accent #6451fa stands 3.1:1 apart from the background: it works as a button, with text in #f9f5fc.
- Temperature
Warm and cool together: let one lead and the other point. Here the background #3d106f leads, and the accent #6451fa is the first thing the eye will look for.
- How many
Four colours demand discipline: #3d106f and #f6ebf1 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 dark ones: it needs light text and large surfaces; in small pieces it clogs.
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 and 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
#681916 and #0024cc are neighbours on the circle and only 6 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.
#681916 and #2d0060 are neighbours on the circle and only 11 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.
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#ebebeb
- 200#dfd0ff
- 300#c8b3fe
- 400#ad92ff
- 500#8e73fc
- 600#6451fa
- 700#4d3fce
- 800#362c9f
- 900#211b72
- 50#f7f6f8
- 100#ebeaed
- 200#d8d6db
- 300#bfbdc3
- 400#a4a2a9
- 500#8a8890
- 600#716e76
- 700#58565d
- 800#413f45
- 900#2b292d
- Normal
- Hover
- Pressed
- Disabled
- Focus
- Success
- Warning
- Error
- Info
The same colour, by day.
The palette is born dark; this is its light version. The background is not pure white: it carries a little of its hue, just as the dark one was not black.
A button/* Wada combination 314 — bluenze.com/paletas */
:root {
--fondo: #261f2d;
--superficie: #3d106f;
--texto: #f6ebf1;
--tinta: #f6ebf1;
--texto-suave: #bdacb5;
--titular: #ff5ec4;
--acento: #6451fa;
--acento-texto: #f9f5fc;
--enlace: #9276ff;
--borde: #4d4355;
--apoyo-1: #681916;
/* la lámina de Wada, tal cual */
--lamina-1: #ff5ec4;
--lamina-2: #681916;
--lamina-3: #0024cc;
--lamina-4: #2d0060;
--acento-50: #f6f6f6;
--acento-100: #ebebeb;
--acento-200: #dfd0ff;
--acento-300: #c8b3fe;
--acento-400: #ad92ff;
--acento-500: #8e73fc;
--acento-600: #6451fa;
--acento-700: #4d3fce;
--acento-800: #362c9f;
--acento-900: #211b72;
--neutro-50: #f7f6f8;
--neutro-100: #ebeaed;
--neutro-200: #d8d6db;
--neutro-300: #bfbdc3;
--neutro-400: #a4a2a9;
--neutro-500: #8a8890;
--neutro-600: #716e76;
--neutro-700: #58565d;
--neutro-800: #413f45;
--neutro-900: #2b292d;
--boton: #6451fa;
--boton-encima: #8067fd;
--boton-pulsado: #997dfb;
--boton-apagado: #3d364d;
--foco: #6250fd;
--exito: #4ec251;
--aviso: #d3b41c;
--error: #fd8b74;
--info: #6baefe;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: light) {
:root {
--fondo: #f7f3ff;
--superficie: #ebe5f8;
--borde: #d5cee4;
--texto: #25222d;
--tinta: #25222d;
--texto-suave: #66616f;
--acento: #6451fa;
--acento-texto: #f8f5fd;
}
}