From Wada's dictionary, 1933
Wada combination 220
Its colours, with the book's names: Pomegranate Purple · Ochraceous Salmon · Aconite 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 2.7:1: does not read.
On screen, the text #2d2026 on the background #fff3eb 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 #8a42e0 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: #fff3eb on 60% of the screen, #d99e73 on 30% (cards, bands, headers) and #8a42e0 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 2.7:1). That is why body text goes in #2d2026, a near-neutral ink tinted with the palette's hue: it is not in the book, and it is needed.
- The button
The accent #8a42e0 stands 4.9:1 apart from the background: it works as a button, with text in #fdf5f0.
- Temperature
Warm and cool together: let one lead and the other point. Here the background #d99e73 leads, and the accent #8a42e0 is the first thing the eye will look for.
- 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 · orange
Orange fills a surface with energy and never lets go. It works if the rest of the palette keeps quiet; otherwise it tires before the first screenful is over.
- 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 · 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.
- 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.
- Characteristic
Orange and violet, with red skipped. It excites because it hints at pure red without ever showing it.
#b90078 and #9c52f2 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#f3e6fe
- 200#e7cdfd
- 300#d7adfe
- 400#c389fd
- 500#ac64fe
- 600#8a42e0
- 700#7134ba
- 800#54238f
- 900#391366
- 50#f7f6f7
- 100#eceaed
- 200#d9d6da
- 300#c0bdc3
- 400#a6a2a9
- 500#8c878f
- 600#726e76
- 700#59565c
- 800#423f44
- 900#2b292d
- 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 220 — bluenze.com/paletas */
:root {
--fondo: #fff3eb;
--superficie: #d99e73;
--texto: #2d2026;
--tinta: #2d2026;
--texto-suave: #725e67;
--titular: #b90078;
--acento: #8a42e0;
--acento-texto: #fdf5f0;
--enlace: #9047e6;
--borde: #e5cdbe;
/* la lámina de Wada, tal cual */
--lamina-1: #b90078;
--lamina-2: #d99e73;
--lamina-3: #9c52f2;
--acento-50: #f6f6f6;
--acento-100: #f3e6fe;
--acento-200: #e7cdfd;
--acento-300: #d7adfe;
--acento-400: #c389fd;
--acento-500: #ac64fe;
--acento-600: #8a42e0;
--acento-700: #7134ba;
--acento-800: #54238f;
--acento-900: #391366;
--neutro-50: #f7f6f7;
--neutro-100: #eceaed;
--neutro-200: #d9d6da;
--neutro-300: #c0bdc3;
--neutro-400: #a6a2a9;
--neutro-500: #8c878f;
--neutro-600: #726e76;
--neutro-700: #59565c;
--neutro-800: #423f44;
--neutro-900: #2b292d;
--boton: #8a42e0;
--boton-encima: #752fcc;
--boton-pulsado: #611eb3;
--boton-apagado: #b7a9c2;
--foco: #8b3ceb;
--exito: #0b7f21;
--aviso: #a28a0d;
--error: #c93625;
--info: #0470ba;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
:root {
--fondo: #251f2b;
--superficie: #332b3a;
--borde: #4d4355;
--texto: #f1ecf5;
--tinta: #f1ecf5;
--texto-suave: #b4aeb9;
--acento: #b877fd;
--acento-texto: #27212c;
}
}