From Wada's dictionary, 1933
Wada combination 286
Its colours, with the book's names: Burnt Sienna · Orange Yellow · Peacock Blue · Violet 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 6.2:1: AA, it reads.
On screen, the text #24222d on the background #fff3e6 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 #a93400 stands 6.0:1 from the background (a button needs 3:1) and as a link reaches 6.0:1 (a word needs 4.5:1).
How to use it
- Proportion
Distribute, don't equalise: #fff3e6 on 60% of the screen, #ffab00 on 30% (cards, bands, headers) and #a93400 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 #24222d, 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 #202d85, where size forgives.
- The button
The accent #a93400 stands 6.0:1 apart from the background: it works as a button, with text in #fcf5ef.
- Temperature
Warm and cool together: let one lead and the other point. Here the background #ffab00 leads, and the accent #a93400 is the first thing the eye will look for.
- How many
Four colours demand discipline: #ffab00 and #202d85 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 dark ones: it needs light text and large surfaces; in small pieces it clogs.
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 · 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 · 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Characteristic
Characteristic by geometry — there is a colour skipped between the two. But Goethe judges only four pairs in this group, and this is not one of them.
- 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.
- Characteristic
Yellow and blue, with green skipped. Goethe finds it poor: red is missing, and the nearness of green leaves it slight.
- Adjacent
Adjacent on the circle. This is the one pair Goethe dismisses outright, and that judgement does not hold today — teal is well liked. What does hold is the measurable half: two neighbours with no difference in lightness produce no contrast.
#ffab00 and #00cf91 are neighbours on the circle and only 2 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#fee6dd
- 200#ffccb8
- 300#fdaa88
- 400#f68455
- 500#e0632f
- 600#bf4918
- 700#a93400
- 800#752401
- 900#4c1a02
- 50#f8f6f5
- 100#eeeae9
- 200#dcd6d4
- 300#c4bdba
- 400#aba19d
- 500#928782
- 600#786d69
- 700#5e5552
- 800#453e3c
- 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 286 — bluenze.com/paletas */
:root {
--fondo: #fff3e6;
--superficie: #ffab00;
--texto: #24222d;
--tinta: #24222d;
--texto-suave: #646172;
--titular: #202d85;
--acento: #a93400;
--acento-texto: #fcf5ef;
--enlace: #a93400;
--borde: #e0cfbc;
--apoyo-1: #00cf91;
/* la lámina de Wada, tal cual */
--lamina-1: #a93400;
--lamina-2: #ffab00;
--lamina-3: #00cf91;
--lamina-4: #202d85;
--acento-50: #f6f6f6;
--acento-100: #fee6dd;
--acento-200: #ffccb8;
--acento-300: #fdaa88;
--acento-400: #f68455;
--acento-500: #e0632f;
--acento-600: #bf4918;
--acento-700: #a93400;
--acento-800: #752401;
--acento-900: #4c1a02;
--neutro-50: #f8f6f5;
--neutro-100: #eeeae9;
--neutro-200: #dcd6d4;
--neutro-300: #c4bdba;
--neutro-400: #aba19d;
--neutro-500: #928782;
--neutro-600: #786d69;
--neutro-700: #5e5552;
--neutro-800: #453e3c;
--neutro-900: #2e2927;
--boton: #a93400;
--boton-encima: #8b2c03;
--boton-pulsado: #702200;
--boton-apagado: #b29a90;
--foco: #a73706;
--exito: #0a7f20;
--aviso: #a38a0c;
--error: #c63a28;
--info: #1970b7;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
:root {
--fondo: #2d1e19;
--superficie: #3c2a23;
--borde: #584239;
--texto: #f8ebe7;
--tinta: #f8ebe7;
--texto-suave: #bcaea9;
--acento: #f0703b;
--acento-texto: #2e211c;
}
}