From Wada's dictionary, 1933
Wada combination 324
Its colours, with the book's names: Pompeian Red · Olympic Blue · Aconite Violet · Neutral Gray. 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 #2f2020 on the background #e7f9f5 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 #8a42e0 stands 4.9:1 from the background (a button needs 3:1) and as a link reaches 4.6:1 (a word needs 4.5:1).
How to use it
- Proportion
Distribute, don't equalise: #e7f9f5 on 60% of the screen, #b5d1cc on 30% (cards, bands, headers) and #8a42e0 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 #8a42e0 stands 4.9:1 apart from the background: it works as a button, with text in #f2f8f7.
- Temperature
Warm and cool together: let one lead and the other point. Here the background #b5d1cc leads, and the accent #8a42e0 is the first thing the eye will look for.
- How many
Four colours demand discipline: #b5d1cc 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 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 pale ones: muted tones that get along; running text needs an ink from outside, near black.
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.
- Accent · violet
The violet that would be intolerable as a background works in a border or a button. Same colour, different dose: this is a rule about surface, not about hue.
- 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
Blue and red, with violet skipped. It approaches the effect of the violet their mixture would produce.
- 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.
- With a neutral
Next to white, a colour from the active side loses force.
- 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.
- With a neutral
Next to white, a colour from the passive side gains in liveliness.
- With a neutral
Next to white, a colour from the passive side gains in liveliness.
#4f8fe6 and #9c52f2 are neighbours on the circle and only 8 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#f6f6f6
- 100#f3e6fe
- 200#e7cdfd
- 300#d7adfe
- 400#c389fd
- 500#ac64fe
- 600#8a42e0
- 700#7134ba
- 800#54238f
- 900#391366
- 50#f7f6f7
- 100#eceaed
- 200#d9d6da
- 300#c0bdc3
- 400#a6a2a9
- 500#8c878f
- 600#726e76
- 700#59565c
- 800#423f44
- 900#2b292d
- 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 324 — bluenze.com/paletas */
:root {
--fondo: #e7f9f5;
--superficie: #b5d1cc;
--texto: #2f2020;
--tinta: #2f2020;
--texto-suave: #755e5e;
--titular: #a90636;
--acento: #8a42e0;
--acento-texto: #f2f8f7;
--enlace: #9047e6;
--borde: #c7d4d2;
--apoyo-1: #4f8fe6;
/* la lámina de Wada, tal cual */
--lamina-1: #a90636;
--lamina-2: #4f8fe6;
--lamina-3: #9c52f2;
--lamina-4: #b5d1cc;
--acento-50: #f6f6f6;
--acento-100: #f3e6fe;
--acento-200: #e7cdfd;
--acento-300: #d7adfe;
--acento-400: #c389fd;
--acento-500: #ac64fe;
--acento-600: #8a42e0;
--acento-700: #7134ba;
--acento-800: #54238f;
--acento-900: #391366;
--neutro-50: #f7f6f7;
--neutro-100: #eceaed;
--neutro-200: #d9d6da;
--neutro-300: #c0bdc3;
--neutro-400: #a6a2a9;
--neutro-500: #8c878f;
--neutro-600: #726e76;
--neutro-700: #59565c;
--neutro-800: #423f44;
--neutro-900: #2b292d;
--boton: #8a42e0;
--boton-encima: #752fcc;
--boton-pulsado: #611eb3;
--boton-apagado: #b7a9c2;
--foco: #8b3ceb;
--exito: #0b7f21;
--aviso: #a28a0d;
--error: #c93625;
--info: #0470ba;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
:root {
--fondo: #251f2b;
--superficie: #332b3a;
--borde: #4d4355;
--texto: #f1ecf5;
--tinta: #f1ecf5;
--texto-suave: #b4aeb9;
--acento: #b877fd;
--acento-texto: #27212c;
}
}