From Wada's dictionary, 1933
Wada combination 311
Its colours, with the book's names: Pompeian Red · Cream Yellow · Dark Greenish Glaucous · Light Green Yellow. 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 5.8:1: AA, it reads.
On screen, the text #2f2020 on the background #f4f7e5 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 #bc7e13 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 Deuteranopia, your accent and your background drop to 2.9:1. 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: #f4f7e5 on 60% of the screen, #bdf226 on 30% (cards, bands, headers) and #bc7e13 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 #2f2020, 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 #a90636, where size forgives.
- The button
The accent #bc7e13 stands 3.1:1 apart from the background: it works as a button, with text in #2f2020.
- Temperature
Warm and cool together: let one lead and the other point. Here the background #bdf226 leads, and the accent #bc7e13 is the first thing the eye will look for.
- How many
Four colours demand discipline: #bdf226 and #a90636 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 dense ones: loaded colours that need plenty of air around them; less is more.
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 · yellow
Yellow across a large surface is a gamble. It is the least forgiving colour: the slightest drift towards green turns gold into dirt, and on screen that drift is supplied by compression or a gradient.
- Accent · 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.
- 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.
- Characteristic
Yellow and red, with orange skipped between them. The characteristic pair he thinks best: serene and magnificent.
- 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
Yellow and red, with orange skipped between them. The characteristic pair he thinks best: serene and magnificent.
- Adjacent
Adjacent on the circle, with nothing between them. Ordinary and agreeable: it says little, and it does not offend.
- 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.
- Adjacent
Adjacent on the circle, with nothing between them. Ordinary and agreeable: it says little, and it does not offend.
#ffb852 and #b3d9a3 are neighbours on the circle and only 3 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.
#b3d9a3 and #bdf226 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.
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#fff5ea
- 100#ffe7cd
- 200#f8d1a3
- 300#e8b575
- 400#d39843
- 500#bc7e13
- 600#996401
- 700#784e04
- 800#593903
- 900#3b2601
- 50#f7f6f5
- 100#edebe8
- 200#dad7d3
- 300#c2bdb8
- 400#a8a29c
- 500#8f8880
- 600#756e68
- 700#5c5650
- 800#443f3a
- 900#2d2926
- 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 311 — bluenze.com/paletas */
:root {
--fondo: #f4f7e5;
--superficie: #bdf226;
--texto: #2f2020;
--tinta: #2f2020;
--texto-suave: #755e5e;
--titular: #a90636;
--acento: #bc7e13;
--acento-texto: #2f2020;
--enlace: #956202;
--borde: #d0d4bd;
--apoyo-1: #b3d9a3;
/* la lámina de Wada, tal cual */
--lamina-1: #a90636;
--lamina-2: #ffb852;
--lamina-3: #b3d9a3;
--lamina-4: #bdf226;
--acento-50: #fff5ea;
--acento-100: #ffe7cd;
--acento-200: #f8d1a3;
--acento-300: #e8b575;
--acento-400: #d39843;
--acento-500: #bc7e13;
--acento-600: #996401;
--acento-700: #784e04;
--acento-800: #593903;
--acento-900: #3b2601;
--neutro-50: #f7f6f5;
--neutro-100: #edebe8;
--neutro-200: #dad7d3;
--neutro-300: #c2bdb8;
--neutro-400: #a8a29c;
--neutro-500: #8f8880;
--neutro-600: #756e68;
--neutro-700: #5c5650;
--neutro-800: #443f3a;
--neutro-900: #2d2926;
--boton: #bc7e13;
--boton-encima: #a66d00;
--boton-pulsado: #8f5d00;
--boton-apagado: #ddcebf;
--foco: #bd7e0a;
--exito: #117e22;
--aviso: #a38a01;
--error: #bf422f;
--info: #1470b8;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
:root {
--fondo: #292016;
--superficie: #382c1f;
--borde: #524435;
--texto: #f4ede5;
--tinta: #f4ede5;
--texto-suave: #b8afa6;
--acento: #c98921;
--acento-texto: #2a2219;
}
}