From Wada's dictionary, 1933
Wada combination 25
Its colours, with the book's names: Etruscan Red · Nile 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 4.7:1: AA, it reads.
On screen, the text #2f201f on the background #e4faf1 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 #c9303e stands 4.8:1 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: #e4faf1 on 60% of the screen, #aeeed5 on 30% (cards, bands, headers) and #c9303e 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 #2f201f, 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 #c9303e, where size forgives.
- The button
The accent #c9303e stands 4.8:1 apart from the background: it works as a button, with text in #eff9f5.
- Temperature
Warm and cool together: let one lead and the other point. Here the background #aeeed5 leads, and the accent #c9303e is the first thing the eye will look for.
- 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 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 light ones: works on white and on screen; in print it loses body, so push the ink a notch.
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 · red
Red is the high point of the active side. In a small patch it does exactly what an accent is for: stopping the eye once.
- 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.
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#ffe5e3
- 200#fecbc7
- 300#fea7a3
- 400#fd7b7a
- 500#ed5359
- 600#c9303e
- 700#a62330
- 800#7e1521
- 900#590612
- 50#f8f6f6
- 100#eeeaea
- 200#dcd6d5
- 300#c5bcbb
- 400#aca1a0
- 500#928685
- 600#796d6c
- 700#5f5554
- 800#463e3d
- 900#2f2928
- 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 25 — bluenze.com/paletas */
:root {
--fondo: #e4faf1;
--superficie: #aeeed5;
--texto: #2f201f;
--tinta: #2f201f;
--texto-suave: #755e5c;
--titular: #c9303e;
--acento: #c9303e;
--acento-texto: #eff9f5;
--enlace: #c9303e;
--borde: #bbd8cc;
/* la lámina de Wada, tal cual */
--lamina-1: #c9303e;
--lamina-2: #bfffe6;
--acento-50: #f6f6f6;
--acento-100: #ffe5e3;
--acento-200: #fecbc7;
--acento-300: #fea7a3;
--acento-400: #fd7b7a;
--acento-500: #ed5359;
--acento-600: #c9303e;
--acento-700: #a62330;
--acento-800: #7e1521;
--acento-900: #590612;
--neutro-50: #f8f6f6;
--neutro-100: #eeeaea;
--neutro-200: #dcd6d5;
--neutro-300: #c5bcbb;
--neutro-400: #aca1a0;
--neutro-500: #928685;
--neutro-600: #796d6c;
--neutro-700: #5f5554;
--neutro-800: #463e3d;
--neutro-900: #2f2928;
--boton: #c9303e;
--boton-encima: #b3152f;
--boton-pulsado: #970824;
--boton-apagado: #c4a9a7;
--foco: #d60f37;
--exito: #077f20;
--aviso: #a28a09;
--error: #c43d2b;
--info: #0f70b9;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
:root {
--fondo: #2e1d1c;
--superficie: #3e2927;
--borde: #5a403f;
--texto: #f9ebea;
--tinta: #f9ebea;
--texto-suave: #bdadac;
--acento: #fd6165;
--acento-texto: #2f201f;
}
}