From Wada's dictionary, 1933
Wada combination 328
Its colours, with the book's names: Brick Red · Apricot Orange · Light Porcelain Green · Vandyke Brown. 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 6.4:1: AA, it reads.
On screen, the text #27231e on the background #e7faee 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 #a32100 stands 7.0:1 from the background (a button needs 3:1) and as a link reaches 7.0:1 (a word needs 4.5:1).
How to use it
- Proportion
Distribute, don't equalise: #e7faee on 60% of the screen, #23c17c on 30% (cards, bands, headers) and #a32100 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 #27231e, 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 #362304, where size forgives.
- The button
The accent #a32100 stands 7.0:1 apart from the background: it works as a button, with text in #f0f8f3.
- Temperature
Warm and cool together: let one lead and the other point. Here the background #23c17c leads, and the accent #a32100 is the first thing the eye will look for.
- How many
Four colours demand discipline: #23c17c and #362304 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 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 dark ones: it needs light text and large surfaces; in small pieces it clogs.
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 · 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 · 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.
- 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.
- Characteristic
Characteristic by geometry — there is a colour skipped between the two. But Goethe judges only four pairs in this group, and this is not one of them.
- 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.
- Characteristic
Characteristic by geometry — there is a colour skipped between the two. But Goethe judges only four pairs in this group, and this is not one of them.
- 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.
- Adjacent
Adjacent on the circle, with nothing between them. Ordinary and agreeable: it says little, and it does not offend.
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#ffe6de
- 200#fdccbd
- 300#fea98e
- 400#fb805a
- 500#e65d35
- 600#c5431f
- 700#a32100
- 800#791f06
- 900#511500
- 50#f8f6f5
- 100#eeeae9
- 200#dcd6d4
- 300#c5bcba
- 400#aba19e
- 500#928783
- 600#786d6a
- 700#5e5552
- 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 328 — bluenze.com/paletas */
:root {
--fondo: #e7faee;
--superficie: #23c17c;
--texto: #27231e;
--tinta: #27231e;
--texto-suave: #68625c;
--titular: #362304;
--acento: #a32100;
--acento-texto: #f0f8f3;
--enlace: #a32100;
--borde: #bfd7c8;
--apoyo-1: #ff7340;
/* la lámina de Wada, tal cual */
--lamina-1: #a32100;
--lamina-2: #ff7340;
--lamina-3: #23c17c;
--lamina-4: #362304;
--acento-50: #f6f6f6;
--acento-100: #ffe6de;
--acento-200: #fdccbd;
--acento-300: #fea98e;
--acento-400: #fb805a;
--acento-500: #e65d35;
--acento-600: #c5431f;
--acento-700: #a32100;
--acento-800: #791f06;
--acento-900: #511500;
--neutro-50: #f8f6f5;
--neutro-100: #eeeae9;
--neutro-200: #dcd6d4;
--neutro-300: #c5bcba;
--neutro-400: #aba19e;
--neutro-500: #928783;
--neutro-600: #786d6a;
--neutro-700: #5e5552;
--neutro-800: #463e3c;
--neutro-900: #2e2927;
--boton: #a32100;
--boton-encima: #841c00;
--boton-pulsado: #641902;
--boton-apagado: #a99088;
--foco: #a32100;
--exito: #007f1e;
--aviso: #a38a03;
--error: #c83826;
--info: #1070b9;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
:root {
--fondo: #2d1e19;
--superficie: #3d2a23;
--borde: #58423a;
--texto: #f8ebe7;
--tinta: #f8ebe7;
--texto-suave: #bcaea9;
--acento: #f66b41;
--acento-texto: #2e211c;
}
}