From Wada's dictionary, 1933
Wada combination 144
Its colours, with the book's names: Rosolanc Purple · Orange · Black. 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 6.5:1: AA, it reads.
On screen, the text #f8ebe7 on the background #222222 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 #bf2ab6 stands 3.2:1 from the background (a button needs 3:1) and as a link reaches 4.6:1 (a word needs 4.5:1).
Under Protanopia, your accent and your background drop to 2.7:1. 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: #222222 on 60% of the screen, #000000 on 30% (cards, bands, headers) and #bf2ab6 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 #f8ebe7, 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 #ff5200, where size forgives.
- The button
The accent #bf2ab6 stands 3.2:1 apart from the background: it works as a button, with text in #f6f6f6.
- 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
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 mixed-light ones: it already brings hierarchy. Keep it on screen: lightest at the back, darkest in front.
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.
- 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 · 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.
- Characteristic
Orange and violet, with red skipped. It excites because it hints at pure red without ever showing it.
- With a neutral
Next to black, a colour from the passive side loses.
- With a neutral
Next to black, a colour from the active side gains energy.
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#ffe3fa
- 200#fec6f6
- 300#fc9ef1
- 400#ef75e4
- 500#dc4bd2
- 600#bf2ab6
- 700#9a1792
- 800#75096f
- 900#50034c
- 50#f7f6f7
- 100#edeaec
- 200#dad6d9
- 300#c2bcc1
- 400#a8a1a7
- 500#8f868d
- 600#756d74
- 700#5c555b
- 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 144 — bluenze.com/paletas */
:root {
--fondo: #222222;
--superficie: #000000;
--texto: #f8ebe7;
--tinta: #f8ebe7;
--texto-suave: #bfada6;
--titular: #ff5200;
--acento: #bf2ab6;
--acento-texto: #f6f6f6;
--enlace: #dc4cd2;
--borde: #474747;
/* la lámina de Wada, tal cual */
--lamina-1: #b319ab;
--lamina-2: #ff5200;
--lamina-3: #000000;
--acento-50: #fff3fd;
--acento-100: #ffe3fa;
--acento-200: #fec6f6;
--acento-300: #fc9ef1;
--acento-400: #ef75e4;
--acento-500: #dc4bd2;
--acento-600: #bf2ab6;
--acento-700: #9a1792;
--acento-800: #75096f;
--acento-900: #50034c;
--neutro-50: #f7f6f7;
--neutro-100: #edeaec;
--neutro-200: #dad6d9;
--neutro-300: #c2bcc1;
--neutro-400: #a8a1a7;
--neutro-500: #8f868d;
--neutro-600: #756d74;
--neutro-700: #5c555b;
--neutro-800: #443e43;
--neutro-900: #2d292c;
--boton: #bf2ab6;
--boton-encima: #d442c9;
--boton-pulsado: #e55cda;
--boton-apagado: #483646;
--foco: #c708bf;
--exito: #4ec251;
--aviso: #d3b41c;
--error: #fd8b74;
--info: #6baefe;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: light) {
:root {
--fondo: #fff1fd;
--superficie: #f5e3f2;
--borde: #e1cbdd;
--texto: #2b2029;
--tinta: #2b2029;
--texto-suave: #6d5f6b;
--acento: #bf2ab6;
--acento-texto: #fcf4fa;
}
}