From Wada's dictionary, 1933
Wada combination 299
Its colours, with the book's names: Indian Lake · Vinaceous Cinnamon · Oil Green · Antwarp Blue. 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 2.4:1: does not read.
On screen, the text #2d2027 on the background #fff2f1 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 #4d7707 stands 4.9:1 from the background (a button needs 3:1) and as a link reaches 4.6:1 (a word needs 4.5:1).
How to use it
- Proportion
Distribute, don't equalise: #fff2f1 on 60% of the screen, #f59994 on 30% (cards, bands, headers) and #4d7707 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 2.4:1). That is why body text goes in #2d2027, a near-neutral ink tinted with the palette's hue: it is not in the book, and it is needed.
- The button
The accent #4d7707 stands 4.9:1 apart from the background: it works as a button, with text in #fff4f3.
- Temperature
Warm and cool together: let one lead and the other point. Here the background #f59994 leads, and the accent #4d7707 is the first thing the eye will look for.
- How many
Four colours demand discipline: #f59994 and #cc1a97 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 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 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 · red
Red at full surface leaves room for nothing else. It is the colour of gravity and dignity, and in a background that reads as constant weight.
- Accent · green
Green is the colour of rest, so as an accent it points at nothing: the eye accepts it and moves on. If this palette needs something to stop the eye, this is not it.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Characteristic
Blue and red, with violet skipped. It approaches the effect of the violet their mixture would produce.
- Adjacent
Adjacent on the circle. This is the one pair Goethe dismisses outright, and that judgement does not hold today — teal is well liked. What does hold is the measurable half: two neighbours with no difference in lightness produce no contrast.
#cc1a97 and #008aa1 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.
#6ea900 and #008aa1 are neighbours on the circle and only 10 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#f3f9e7
- 100#e5efd1
- 200#cddeac
- 300#aec782
- 400#8cae55
- 500#6c952c
- 600#4d7707
- 700#3d6102
- 800#2c4701
- 900#1f2f02
- 50#f6f7f5
- 100#eaebe9
- 200#d6d8d3
- 300#bdbfb9
- 400#a2a49c
- 500#878a81
- 600#6e7168
- 700#565851
- 800#3f413b
- 900#292a26
- 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 299 — bluenze.com/paletas */
:root {
--fondo: #fff2f1;
--superficie: #f59994;
--texto: #2d2027;
--tinta: #2d2027;
--texto-suave: #715e68;
--titular: #cc1a97;
--acento: #4d7707;
--acento-texto: #fff4f3;
--enlace: #527b0c;
--borde: #eacac8;
--apoyo-1: #008aa1;
/* la lámina de Wada, tal cual */
--lamina-1: #cc1a97;
--lamina-2: #f59994;
--lamina-3: #6ea900;
--lamina-4: #008aa1;
--acento-50: #f3f9e7;
--acento-100: #e5efd1;
--acento-200: #cddeac;
--acento-300: #aec782;
--acento-400: #8cae55;
--acento-500: #6c952c;
--acento-600: #4d7707;
--acento-700: #3d6102;
--acento-800: #2c4701;
--acento-900: #1f2f02;
--neutro-50: #f6f7f5;
--neutro-100: #eaebe9;
--neutro-200: #d6d8d3;
--neutro-300: #bdbfb9;
--neutro-400: #a2a49c;
--neutro-500: #878a81;
--neutro-600: #6e7168;
--neutro-700: #565851;
--neutro-800: #3f413b;
--neutro-900: #292a26;
--boton: #4d7707;
--boton-encima: #406406;
--boton-pulsado: #335202;
--boton-apagado: #acb1a0;
--foco: #4d7708;
--exito: #227d2a;
--aviso: #a38a19;
--error: #ba4734;
--info: #0570ba;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
:root {
--fondo: #1f2317;
--superficie: #2b3021;
--borde: #434937;
--texto: #ecefe6;
--tinta: #ecefe6;
--texto-suave: #aeb2a7;
--acento: #79a339;
--acento-texto: #21251a;
}
}