From Wada's dictionary, 1933
Wada combination 110
Its colours, with the book's names: Brown · Vandyke Brown. 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 1.4:1: does not read.
On screen, the text #f7ebe7 on the background #282017 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 #a45b3d stands 3.2:1 from the background (a button needs 3:1) and as a link reaches 4.5:1 (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: #282017 on 60% of the screen, #443014 on 30% (cards, bands, headers) and #a45b3d 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 1.4:1). That is why body text goes in #f7ebe7, a near-neutral ink tinted with the palette's hue: it is not in the book, and it is needed.
- The button
The accent #a45b3d stands 3.2:1 apart from the background: it works as a button, with text in #fcf5ef.
- Temperature
All warm: close and unified, but to make something stand out don't rely on colour, rely on light: the important thing darker or lighter than its surroundings.
- How many
Two colours are a pair, not a brand: add a neutral (an off-white or a grey) to get background, text and accent without straining either.
- 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 active side of the circle: the colours that advance, warm and push outward.
- Surface · yellow
Yellow across a large surface is a gamble. It is the least forgiving colour: the slightest drift towards green turns gold into dirt, and on screen that drift is supplied by compression or a gradient.
- 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.
#6c2b11 and #362304 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 are 11 points of lightness between the lightest and darkest colour. With no step in lightness there is no hierarchy: the palette leans entirely on hue, and hue alone does not order a screen.
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#fff4f0
- 100#ffe6dc
- 200#f9cebe
- 300#ebb19a
- 400#d99276
- 500#c27556
- 600#a45b3d
- 700#84472d
- 800#63331e
- 900#452010
- 50#f8f6f5
- 100#eeeae9
- 200#dcd6d4
- 300#c4bdba
- 400#aba19d
- 500#928782
- 600#786d69
- 700#5e5552
- 800#453e3c
- 900#2e2927
- 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 110 — bluenze.com/paletas */
:root {
--fondo: #282017;
--superficie: #443014;
--texto: #f7ebe7;
--tinta: #f7ebe7;
--texto-suave: #bcaea8;
--titular: #c17455;
--acento: #a45b3d;
--acento-texto: #fcf5ef;
--enlace: #c17455;
--borde: #4f453a;
/* la lámina de Wada, tal cual */
--lamina-1: #6c2b11;
--lamina-2: #362304;
--acento-50: #fff4f0;
--acento-100: #ffe6dc;
--acento-200: #f9cebe;
--acento-300: #ebb19a;
--acento-400: #d99276;
--acento-500: #c27556;
--acento-600: #a45b3d;
--acento-700: #84472d;
--acento-800: #63331e;
--acento-900: #452010;
--neutro-50: #f8f6f5;
--neutro-100: #eeeae9;
--neutro-200: #dcd6d4;
--neutro-300: #c4bdba;
--neutro-400: #aba19d;
--neutro-500: #928782;
--neutro-600: #786d69;
--neutro-700: #5e5552;
--neutro-800: #453e3c;
--neutro-900: #2e2927;
--boton: #a45b3d;
--boton-encima: #b86d4d;
--boton-pulsado: #c88163;
--boton-apagado: #443833;
--foco: #b64f25;
--exito: #80b97a;
--aviso: #ccb46b;
--error: #ee9480;
--info: #78aef4;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: light) {
:root {
--fondo: #fff2ee;
--superficie: #f9e4dc;
--borde: #e8ccc1;
--texto: #2b221e;
--tinta: #2b221e;
--texto-suave: #6f605a;
--acento: #a45b3d;
--acento-texto: #fef4f1;
}
}