From Wada's dictionary, 1933
Wada combination 322
Its colours, with the book's names: Spectrum Red · Brick Red · Blue Violet · Eupatorium Purple. 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 1.7:1: does not read.
On screen, the text #2e211c on the background #fef1ff gives 14.2:1: AAA, reads with room to spare. APCA gives Lc 96: good for small text, the kind you read a paragraph of.
The accent #e01406 stands 4.5:1 from the background (a button needs 3:1) and as a link reaches 4.7:1 (a word needs 4.5:1).
How to use it
- Proportion
Distribute, don't equalise: #fef1ff on 60% of the screen, #d750f7 on 30% (cards, bands, headers) and #e01406 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 1.7:1). That is why body text goes in #2e211c, a near-neutral ink tinted with the palette's hue: it is not in the book, and it is needed.
- The button
The accent #e01406 stands 4.5:1 apart from the background: it works as a button, with text in #faf5fb.
- Temperature
Warm and cool together: let one lead and the other point. Here the background #d750f7 leads, and the accent #e01406 is the first thing the eye will look for.
- How many
Four colours demand discipline: #d750f7 and #a32100 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 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 and Heading · 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.
- 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
Orange and violet, with red skipped. It excites because it hints at pure red without ever showing it.
- Characteristic
Orange and violet, with red skipped. It excites because it hints at pure red without ever showing it.
- Characteristic
Orange and violet, with red skipped. It excites because it hints at pure red without ever showing it.
- Characteristic
Orange and violet, with red skipped. It excites because it hints at pure red without ever showing it.
- 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.
4 colours at full strength and almost the same lightness. Motley is not having many colours: it is having them all talk at once with nothing deciding the order.
There is nowhere for the eye to rest: no neutral, no muted colour, no green. The whole palette asks for attention at once.
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#ebebeb
- 200#d7d7d7
- 300#fdaa94
- 400#fd7e60
- 500#fc4326
- 600#e01406
- 700#b10902
- 800#820e02
- 900#551001
- 50#f8f6f5
- 100#eeeae9
- 200#dcd6d4
- 300#c5bcba
- 400#aba19e
- 500#928683
- 600#786d6a
- 700#5f5553
- 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 322 — bluenze.com/paletas */
:root {
--fondo: #fef1ff;
--superficie: #d750f7;
--texto: #2e211c;
--tinta: #2e211c;
--texto-suave: #735f58;
--titular: #a32100;
--acento: #e01406;
--acento-texto: #faf5fb;
--enlace: #dd0d03;
--borde: #ddcce0;
--apoyo-1: #4733ff;
/* la lámina de Wada, tal cual */
--lamina-1: #f20000;
--lamina-2: #a32100;
--lamina-3: #4733ff;
--lamina-4: #bf36e0;
--acento-50: #f6f6f6;
--acento-100: #ebebeb;
--acento-200: #d7d7d7;
--acento-300: #fdaa94;
--acento-400: #fd7e60;
--acento-500: #fc4326;
--acento-600: #e01406;
--acento-700: #b10902;
--acento-800: #820e02;
--acento-900: #551001;
--neutro-50: #f8f6f5;
--neutro-100: #eeeae9;
--neutro-200: #dcd6d4;
--neutro-300: #c5bcba;
--neutro-400: #aba19e;
--neutro-500: #928683;
--neutro-600: #786d6a;
--neutro-700: #5f5553;
--neutro-800: #463e3c;
--neutro-900: #2e2927;
--boton: #e01406;
--boton-encima: #c20100;
--boton-pulsado: #9f0f04;
--boton-apagado: #d0ada4;
--foco: #e01607;
--exito: #0b7f21;
--aviso: #a28a0d;
--error: #c93625;
--info: #0470ba;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
:root {
--fondo: #2d1e1a;
--superficie: #3d2924;
--borde: #59413b;
--texto: #f8ebe8;
--tinta: #f8ebe8;
--texto-suave: #bcadaa;
--acento: #fd6444;
--acento-texto: #2e201d;
}
}