From Wada's dictionary, 1933
Wada combination 152
Its colours, with the book's names: Etruscan Red · Hay's Russet · Light Glaucous 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 8.6:1: AAA, reads with room to spare.
On screen, the text #e8efee on the background #301d1a 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 #c9303e stands 3.0:1 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 2.3:1. 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: #301d1a on 60% of the screen, #681916 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 #e8efee, 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 #a6e6db, where size forgives.
- The button
The accent #c9303e stands 3.0:1 apart from the background: it works as a button, with text in #fff4f2.
- Temperature
Warm and cool together: let one lead and the other point. Here the background #681916 leads, and the accent #c9303e 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 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 whole palette sits on the active side of the circle: the colours that advance, warm and push outward.
- Surface · red
Red at full surface leaves room for nothing else. It is the colour of gravity and dignity, and in a background that reads as constant weight.
- Accent · 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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, 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 152 — bluenze.com/paletas */
:root {
--fondo: #301d1a;
--superficie: #681916;
--texto: #e8efee;
--tinta: #e8efee;
--texto-suave: #a9b2b1;
--titular: #a6e6db;
--acento: #c9303e;
--acento-texto: #fff4f2;
--enlace: #ef545a;
--borde: #59413d;
/* la lámina de Wada, tal cual */
--lamina-1: #c9303e;
--lamina-2: #681916;
--lamina-3: #a6e6db;
--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: #df464e;
--boton-pulsado: #f05f62;
--boton-apagado: #483331;
--foco: #d60f37;
--exito: #59c159;
--aviso: #d2b430;
--error: #ff8a72;
--info: #6daefd;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: light) {
:root {
--fondo: #fff2f1;
--superficie: #fde2e0;
--borde: #eacac8;
--texto: #2f201f;
--tinta: #2f201f;
--texto-suave: #735e5d;
--acento: #c9303e;
--acento-texto: #fff4f3;
}
}