From Wada's dictionary, 1933
Wada combination 274
Its colours, with the book's names: Peach Red · Dark Citrine · Olympic Blue · Light Mauve. 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 #26222c on the background #f1f5ff gives 14.3:1: AAA, reads with room to spare. APCA gives Lc 97: 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: #f1f5ff on 60% of the screen, #4f8fe6 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
No pair on the plate read as text (the best gave 1.2:1). That is why body text goes in #26222c, a near-neutral ink tinted with the palette's hue: it is not in the book, and it is needed.
- The button
The accent #dd1204 stands 4.6:1 apart from the background: it works as a button, with text in #f4f6fe.
- Temperature
Warm and cool together: let one lead and the other point. Here the background #4f8fe6 leads, and the accent #dd1204 is the first thing the eye will look for.
- How many
Four colours demand discipline: #4f8fe6 and #8052e1 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 pale ones: muted tones that get along; running text needs an ink from outside, near black. Though this one is not: its mean chroma is 67. The label describes the group in the book, not a measurement of this combination — nearly half the pale group is not pale.
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.
- Surface · blue
Blue recedes: it draws the eye inward rather than coming out to meet it. It holds a large surface without fighting whatever sits on top.
- Accent · 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.
- Heading · 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.
- 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.
- Characteristic
Orange and violet, with red skipped. It excites because it hints at pure red without ever showing it.
- Characteristic
Yellow and blue, with green skipped. Goethe finds it poor: red is missing, and the nearness of green leaves it slight.
- 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.
- 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.
#ff3319 and #7e8743 are neighbours on the circle and only 2 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.
#4f8fe6 and #9161f2 are neighbours on the circle and only 6 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 is nowhere for the eye to rest: no neutral, no muted colour, no green. The whole palette asks for attention at once.
There are 6 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#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 274 — bluenze.com/paletas */
:root {
--fondo: #f1f5ff;
--superficie: #4f8fe6;
--texto: #26222c;
--tinta: #26222c;
--texto-suave: #676070;
--titular: #8052e1;
--acento: #dd1204;
--acento-texto: #f4f6fe;
--enlace: #da0a02;
--borde: #c9d1e8;
--apoyo-1: #7e8743;
/* la lámina de Wada, tal cual */
--lamina-1: #ff3319;
--lamina-2: #7e8743;
--lamina-3: #4f8fe6;
--lamina-4: #9161f2;
--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;
}
}