From Wada's dictionary, 1933
Wada combination 148
Its colours, with the book's names: Olive Ocher · Orange Yellow · Cerulian 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 1.2:1: does not read.
On screen, the text #172724 on the background #fff3e6 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 #9c8d00 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).
How to use it
- Proportion
Distribute, don't equalise: #fff3e6 on 60% of the screen, #ffab00 on 30% (cards, bands, headers) and #9c8d00 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 1.2:1). That is why body text goes in #172724, a near-neutral ink tinted with the palette's hue: it is not in the book, and it is needed.
- The button
The accent #9c8d00 stands 3.1:1 apart from the background: it works as a button, with text in #172724.
- Temperature
Warm and cool together: let one lead and the other point. Here the background #ffab00 leads, and the accent #9c8d00 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 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 · 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 · yellow
Yellow points, but it loses the moment the ground stops being smooth and bright. On screen that means shadows, gradients and small type on top.
- Heading · 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.
- 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.
- Adjacent
Adjacent on the circle, with nothing between them. Ordinary and agreeable: it says little, and it does not offend.
- Adjacent
Adjacent on the circle, with nothing between them. Ordinary and agreeable: it says little, and it does not offend.
#d1bd19 and #29bdad are neighbours on the circle and only 7 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.
#ffab00 and #29bdad are neighbours on the circle and only 7 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 7 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#fdf6e3
- 100#f5ebc9
- 200#e5d7a1
- 300#cfbe71
- 400#b5a43d
- 500#9c8d00
- 600#7d7008
- 700#625802
- 800#484002
- 900#302a01
- 50#f7f6f5
- 100#ecebe8
- 200#d9d7d3
- 300#c0beb8
- 400#a6a39b
- 500#8c8980
- 600#726f67
- 700#595750
- 800#42403a
- 900#2b2a26
- 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 148 — bluenze.com/paletas */
:root {
--fondo: #fff3e6;
--superficie: #ffab00;
--texto: #172724;
--tinta: #172724;
--texto-suave: #536764;
--titular: #127e73;
--acento: #9c8d00;
--acento-texto: #172724;
--enlace: #7a6e08;
--borde: #e0cfbc;
/* la lámina de Wada, tal cual */
--lamina-1: #d1bd19;
--lamina-2: #ffab00;
--lamina-3: #29bdad;
--acento-50: #fdf6e3;
--acento-100: #f5ebc9;
--acento-200: #e5d7a1;
--acento-300: #cfbe71;
--acento-400: #b5a43d;
--acento-500: #9c8d00;
--acento-600: #7d7008;
--acento-700: #625802;
--acento-800: #484002;
--acento-900: #302a01;
--neutro-50: #f7f6f5;
--neutro-100: #ecebe8;
--neutro-200: #d9d7d3;
--neutro-300: #c0beb8;
--neutro-400: #a6a39b;
--neutro-500: #8c8980;
--neutro-600: #726f67;
--neutro-700: #595750;
--neutro-800: #42403a;
--neutro-900: #2b2a26;
--boton: #9c8d00;
--boton-encima: #887b08;
--boton-pulsado: #756906;
--boton-apagado: #d8d2bf;
--foco: #9c8d09;
--exito: #0f7f22;
--aviso: #a38a0e;
--error: #c0422f;
--info: #1070b9;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
:root {
--fondo: #252215;
--superficie: #322e1e;
--borde: #4c4734;
--texto: #f1eee4;
--tinta: #f1eee4;
--texto-suave: #b4b0a6;
--acento: #a79714;
--acento-texto: #272419;
}
}