From Wada's dictionary, 1933
Wada combination 199
Its colours, with the book's names: Ocher Red · Light Brownish Olive · Deep Lyons 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 1.8:1: does not read.
On screen, the text #f0eee7 on the background #241f2e gives 13.8:1: AAA, reads with room to spare. APCA gives Lc 94: good for small text, the kind you read a paragraph of.
The accent #b94759 stands 3.1:1 from the background (a button needs 3:1) and as a link reaches 4.8:1 (a word needs 4.5:1).
Under Protanopia, your accent and your background drop to 2.5:1. 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: #241f2e on 60% of the screen, #0024cc on 30% (cards, bands, headers) and #b94759 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 1.8:1). That is why body text goes in #f0eee7, a near-neutral ink tinted with the palette's hue: it is not in the book, and it is needed.
- The button
The accent #b94759 stands 3.1:1 apart from the background: it works as a button, with text in #f8f5fd.
- Temperature
Warm and cool together: let one lead and the other point. Here the background #0024cc leads, and the accent #b94759 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 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 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 · violet
Goethe puts it bluntly: a large surface of pure violet would be intolerable. It holds up here because the screen adaptation has taken the chroma down. On the plate, at full saturation, it would not.
- 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 · 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.
- Characteristic
Yellow and red, with orange skipped between them. The characteristic pair he thinks best: serene and magnificent.
- 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.
#a7374b and #0024cc are neighbours on the circle and only 12 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.
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#fff4f4
- 100#ffe5e6
- 200#ffcacd
- 300#fba8af
- 400#ed8590
- 500#d96373
- 600#b94759
- 700#963645
- 800#722432
- 900#50141f
- 50#f8f6f6
- 100#eeeaea
- 200#dcd6d6
- 300#c5bcbc
- 400#aca1a1
- 500#928686
- 600#796d6d
- 700#5f5555
- 800#463e3e
- 900#2f2829
- 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 199 — bluenze.com/paletas */
:root {
--fondo: #241f2e;
--superficie: #0024cc;
--texto: #f0eee7;
--tinta: #f0eee7;
--texto-suave: #b3b1a8;
--titular: #958c55;
--acento: #b94759;
--acento-texto: #f8f5fd;
--enlace: #dc6777;
--borde: #4a4456;
/* la lámina de Wada, tal cual */
--lamina-1: #a7374b;
--lamina-2: #706934;
--lamina-3: #0024cc;
--acento-50: #fff4f4;
--acento-100: #ffe5e6;
--acento-200: #ffcacd;
--acento-300: #fba8af;
--acento-400: #ed8590;
--acento-500: #d96373;
--acento-600: #b94759;
--acento-700: #963645;
--acento-800: #722432;
--acento-900: #50141f;
--neutro-50: #f8f6f6;
--neutro-100: #eeeaea;
--neutro-200: #dcd6d6;
--neutro-300: #c5bcbc;
--neutro-400: #aca1a1;
--neutro-500: #928686;
--neutro-600: #796d6d;
--neutro-700: #5f5555;
--neutro-800: #463e3e;
--neutro-900: #2f2829;
--boton: #b94759;
--boton-encima: #ce5a6a;
--boton-pulsado: #dd707d;
--boton-apagado: #463637;
--foco: #d02952;
--exito: #74bc6f;
--aviso: #cfb459;
--error: #fa8d76;
--info: #6caefd;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: light) {
:root {
--fondo: #fff2f2;
--superficie: #fde2e3;
--borde: #eacacc;
--texto: #2e2021;
--tinta: #2e2021;
--texto-suave: #735e5f;
--acento: #b94759;
--acento-texto: #fff4f4;
}
}