From Wada's dictionary, 1933
Wada combination 212
Its colours, with the book's names: Pompeian Red · Orange Citrine · Salvia 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 3.9:1: only good for large text.
On screen, the text #eaeef3 on the background #311c1d 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 #8c6510 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 2.9:1. 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: #311c1d on 60% of the screen, #a90636 on 30% (cards, bands, headers) and #8c6510 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 3.9:1). That is why body text goes in #eaeef3, a near-neutral ink tinted with the palette's hue: it is not in the book, and it is needed.
- The button
The accent #8c6510 stands 3.0:1 apart from the background: it works as a button, with text in #fff4f4.
- Temperature
Warm and cool together: let one lead and the other point. Here the background #a90636 leads, and the accent #8c6510 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 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.
- 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 · 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 · blue
Blue recedes, and an accent is asked to do the opposite. As a link it only has to be distinguishable; as a primary button it needs contrast to do the work the colour will not.
- Characteristic
Yellow and red, with orange skipped between them. The characteristic pair he thinks best: serene and magnificent.
- Characteristic
Blue and red, with violet skipped. It approaches the effect of the violet their mixture would produce.
- Characteristic
Yellow and blue, with green skipped. Goethe finds it poor: red is missing, and the nearness of green leaves it slight.
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#fff5e8
- 100#fae8d1
- 200#efd3ad
- 300#dcb983
- 400#c69d57
- 500#ad8230
- 600#8c6510
- 700#725108
- 800#553b01
- 900#392700
- 50#f7f6f5
- 100#edebe8
- 200#dad7d3
- 300#c2beb8
- 400#a8a29b
- 500#8e8880
- 600#746f67
- 700#5b5650
- 800#433f3a
- 900#2c2926
- 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 212 — bluenze.com/paletas */
:root {
--fondo: #311c1d;
--superficie: #a90636;
--texto: #eaeef3;
--tinta: #eaeef3;
--texto-suave: #acb1b7;
--titular: #96bfe6;
--acento: #8c6510;
--acento-texto: #fff4f4;
--enlace: #ae8331;
--borde: #5a4041;
/* la lámina de Wada, tal cual */
--lamina-1: #a90636;
--lamina-2: #8c6510;
--lamina-3: #96bfe6;
--acento-50: #fff5e8;
--acento-100: #fae8d1;
--acento-200: #efd3ad;
--acento-300: #dcb983;
--acento-400: #c69d57;
--acento-500: #ad8230;
--acento-600: #8c6510;
--acento-700: #725108;
--acento-800: #553b01;
--acento-900: #392700;
--neutro-50: #f7f6f5;
--neutro-100: #edebe8;
--neutro-200: #dad7d3;
--neutro-300: #c2beb8;
--neutro-400: #a8a29b;
--neutro-500: #8e8880;
--neutro-600: #746f67;
--neutro-700: #5b5650;
--neutro-800: #433f3a;
--neutro-900: #2c2926;
--boton: #8c6510;
--boton-encima: #a07624;
--boton-pulsado: #b2893e;
--boton-apagado: #3f372c;
--foco: #8d6509;
--exito: #74bc6f;
--aviso: #cfb458;
--error: #fa8d76;
--info: #6caefd;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: light) {
:root {
--fondo: #fef4e6;
--superficie: #f3e6d5;
--borde: #dfcfbb;
--texto: #29231a;
--tinta: #29231a;
--texto-suave: #6b6255;
--acento: #8c6510;
--acento-texto: #fbf6ef;
}
}