From Wada's dictionary, 1933
Wada combination 201
Its colours, with the book's names: Grenadine Pink · Olive · Cobalt Green. 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 3.3:1: only good for large text.
On screen, the text #232519 on the background #ebf9ea 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 #f25661 stands 3.1:1 from the background (a button needs 3:1) and as a link reaches 4.7:1 (a word needs 4.5:1).
Under Deuteranopia, your accent and your background drop to 2.6:1. 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: #ebf9ea on 60% of the screen, #94ff94 on 30% (cards, bands, headers) and #f25661 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 3.3:1). That is why body text goes in #232519, a near-neutral ink tinted with the palette's hue: it is not in the book, and it is needed.
- The button
The accent #f25661 stands 3.1:1 apart from the background: it works as a button, with text in #232519.
- Temperature
Warm and cool together: let one lead and the other point. Here the background #94ff94 leads, and the accent #f25661 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 mixed-light ones: it already brings hierarchy. Keep it on screen: lightest at the back, darkest in front.
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 · green
Green is where the eye rests. Goethe says whoever looks at it neither wishes nor is able to imagine anything beyond it, which is why it was the colour for rooms you live in. In an interface that is precisely a background.
- 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.
- 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.
- Adjacent
Adjacent on the circle, with nothing between them. Ordinary and agreeable: it says little, and it does not offend.
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#ffe5e4
- 200#fecbc9
- 300#fea7a5
- 400#fd7b7e
- 500#f25661
- 600#cd3647
- 700#a62234
- 800#7f1324
- 900#590615
- 50#f8f6f6
- 100#eeeaea
- 200#dcd6d5
- 300#c5bcbc
- 400#aca1a0
- 500#928685
- 600#796d6c
- 700#5f5554
- 800#463e3e
- 900#2f2928
- 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 201 — bluenze.com/paletas */
:root {
--fondo: #ebf9ea;
--superficie: #94ff94;
--texto: #232519;
--tinta: #232519;
--texto-suave: #636454;
--titular: #647609;
--acento: #f25661;
--acento-texto: #232519;
--enlace: #cd3145;
--borde: #c5d6c3;
/* la lámina de Wada, tal cual */
--lamina-1: #ff616b;
--lamina-2: #718600;
--lamina-3: #94ff94;
--acento-50: #f6f6f6;
--acento-100: #ffe5e4;
--acento-200: #fecbc9;
--acento-300: #fea7a5;
--acento-400: #fd7b7e;
--acento-500: #f25661;
--acento-600: #cd3647;
--acento-700: #a62234;
--acento-800: #7f1324;
--acento-900: #590615;
--neutro-50: #f8f6f6;
--neutro-100: #eeeaea;
--neutro-200: #dcd6d5;
--neutro-300: #c5bcbc;
--neutro-400: #aca1a0;
--neutro-500: #928685;
--neutro-600: #796d6c;
--neutro-700: #5f5554;
--neutro-800: #463e3e;
--neutro-900: #2f2928;
--boton: #f25661;
--boton-encima: #dc4150;
--boton-pulsado: #c13342;
--boton-apagado: #e9cccb;
--foco: #fc4a5c;
--exito: #0a7f20;
--aviso: #a28a0b;
--error: #c33e2b;
--info: #1370b8;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
:root {
--fondo: #2e1d1d;
--superficie: #3e2928;
--borde: #5a403f;
--texto: #f9ebea;
--tinta: #f9ebea;
--texto-suave: #bdadac;
--acento: #fd606a;
--acento-texto: #2f201f;
}
}