From Wada's dictionary, 1933
Wada combination 183
Its colours, with the book's names: Deep Violet / Plumbeous · Vernonia Purple · Red 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 2.5:1: does not read.
On screen, the text #ebeef1 on the background #251f2d 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 #9f4f94 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 Protanopia, your accent and your background drop to 2.8:1. 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: #251f2d on 60% of the screen, #3400a3 on 30% (cards, bands, headers) and #9f4f94 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 2.5:1). That is why body text goes in #ebeef1, a near-neutral ink tinted with the palette's hue: it is not in the book, and it is needed.
- The button
The accent #9f4f94 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 #3400a3 leads, and the accent #9f4f94 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 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 whole palette sits on the passive side: the colours that recede, cool and draw the eye inward.
- 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 · 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.
- With a neutral
Next to black, a colour from the passive side loses.
- With a neutral
Next to black, a colour from the passive side loses.
- 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.
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#fff3fd
- 100#fde4f8
- 200#f4cbec
- 300#e5addb
- 400#d48bc8
- 500#be6cb2
- 600#9f4f94
- 700#823e79
- 800#622b5b
- 900#441a3e
- 50#f7f6f7
- 100#edeaec
- 200#dad6d9
- 300#c2bcc1
- 400#a8a1a7
- 500#8f868d
- 600#756d73
- 700#5c555a
- 800#443e43
- 900#2d292c
- 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 183 — bluenze.com/paletas */
:root {
--fondo: #251f2d;
--superficie: #3400a3;
--texto: #ebeef1;
--tinta: #ebeef1;
--texto-suave: #aeb1b5;
--titular: #758ba1;
--acento: #9f4f94;
--acento-texto: #f9f5fc;
--enlace: #c06eb4;
--borde: #4c4355;
/* la lámina de Wada, tal cual */
--lamina-1: #5c7287;
--lamina-2: #7e3075;
--lamina-3: #3400a3;
--acento-50: #fff3fd;
--acento-100: #fde4f8;
--acento-200: #f4cbec;
--acento-300: #e5addb;
--acento-400: #d48bc8;
--acento-500: #be6cb2;
--acento-600: #9f4f94;
--acento-700: #823e79;
--acento-800: #622b5b;
--acento-900: #441a3e;
--neutro-50: #f7f6f7;
--neutro-100: #edeaec;
--neutro-200: #dad6d9;
--neutro-300: #c2bcc1;
--neutro-400: #a8a1a7;
--neutro-500: #8f868d;
--neutro-600: #756d73;
--neutro-700: #5c555a;
--neutro-800: #443e43;
--neutro-900: #2d292c;
--boton: #9f4f94;
--boton-encima: #b261a7;
--boton-pulsado: #c276b6;
--boton-apagado: #40353e;
--foco: #b03ca3;
--exito: #75bc70;
--aviso: #ceb45a;
--error: #f98e77;
--info: #6eaefc;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: light) {
:root {
--fondo: #fff1fc;
--superficie: #f5e3f1;
--borde: #e1cbdc;
--texto: #2a2128;
--tinta: #2a2128;
--texto-suave: #6d5f6a;
--acento: #9f4f94;
--acento-texto: #fcf4fa;
}
}