From Wada's dictionary, 1933
Wada combination 285
Its colours, with the book's names: Light Brown Drab · Burnt Sienna · Peach Red · Turquoise Green. 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 5.7:1: AA, it reads.
On screen, the text #2e211c on the background #e9f9eb gives 14.2:1: AAA, reads with room to spare. APCA gives Lc 96: good for small text, the kind you read a paragraph of.
The accent #dd1204 stands 4.6:1 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: #e9f9eb on 60% of the screen, #a4eeb2 on 30% (cards, bands, headers) and #dd1204 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 #2e211c, 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 #a93400, where size forgives.
- The button
The accent #dd1204 stands 4.6:1 apart from the background: it works as a button, with text in #f1f8f2.
- Temperature
Warm and cool together: let one lead and the other point. Here the background #a4eeb2 leads, and the accent #dd1204 is the first thing the eye will look for.
- How many
Four colours demand discipline: #a4eeb2 and #a93400 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 whole palette sits on the active side of the circle: the colours that advance, warm and push outward.
- Surface · green
Green is where the eye rests. Goethe says whoever looks at it neither wishes nor is able to imagine anything beyond it, which is why it was the colour for rooms you live in. In an interface that is precisely a background.
- Accent and Heading · orange
Orange in a small patch is the accent that needs no explaining: it advances, it is seen, and it does not need size to do it.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
#b08699 and #ff3319 are neighbours on the circle and only 5 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#f6f6f6
- 100#ebebeb
- 200#d7d7d7
- 300#fcaa94
- 400#fd7e60
- 500#ff3f22
- 600#dd1204
- 700#b00c02
- 800#820f02
- 900#551101
- 50#f8f6f5
- 100#eeeae9
- 200#dcd6d4
- 300#c5bcba
- 400#aba19e
- 500#928683
- 600#786d6a
- 700#5f5553
- 800#463e3c
- 900#2e2927
- 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 285 — bluenze.com/paletas */
:root {
--fondo: #e9f9eb;
--superficie: #a4eeb2;
--texto: #2e211c;
--tinta: #2e211c;
--texto-suave: #735f57;
--titular: #a93400;
--acento: #dd1204;
--acento-texto: #f1f8f2;
--enlace: #da0a02;
--borde: #c2d7c5;
--apoyo-1: #b08699;
/* la lámina de Wada, tal cual */
--lamina-1: #b08699;
--lamina-2: #a93400;
--lamina-3: #ff3319;
--lamina-4: #b5ffc2;
--acento-50: #f6f6f6;
--acento-100: #ebebeb;
--acento-200: #d7d7d7;
--acento-300: #fcaa94;
--acento-400: #fd7e60;
--acento-500: #ff3f22;
--acento-600: #dd1204;
--acento-700: #b00c02;
--acento-800: #820f02;
--acento-900: #551101;
--neutro-50: #f8f6f5;
--neutro-100: #eeeae9;
--neutro-200: #dcd6d4;
--neutro-300: #c5bcba;
--neutro-400: #aba19e;
--neutro-500: #928683;
--neutro-600: #786d6a;
--neutro-700: #5f5553;
--neutro-800: #463e3c;
--neutro-900: #2e2927;
--boton: #dd1204;
--boton-encima: #bc1104;
--boton-pulsado: #9c0d03;
--boton-apagado: #ceaba2;
--foco: #dd1204;
--exito: #0b7f21;
--aviso: #a28a0d;
--error: #c93625;
--info: #0470ba;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
:root {
--fondo: #2d1e1a;
--superficie: #3d2924;
--borde: #59413b;
--texto: #f8ebe8;
--tinta: #f8ebe8;
--texto-suave: #bcadaa;
--acento: #fc6544;
--acento-texto: #2e201d;
}
}