From Wada's dictionary, 1933
Wada combination 318
Its colours, with the book's names: Light Brownish Olive · Blackish Olive · Dusky Green · Deep Slate 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 2.9:1: does not read.
On screen, the text #f0eee7 on the background #1c2321 gives 13.8:1: AAA, reads with room to spare. APCA gives Lc 94: good for small text, the kind you read a paragraph of.
The accent #317c4e stands 3.1:1 from the background (a button needs 3:1) and as a link reaches 4.5:1 (a word needs 4.5:1).
How to use it
- Proportion
Distribute, don't equalise: #1c2321 on 60% of the screen, #1c332b on 30% (cards, bands, headers) and #317c4e 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 2.9:1). That is why body text goes in #f0eee7, a near-neutral ink tinted with the palette's hue: it is not in the book, and it is needed.
- The button
The accent #317c4e stands 3.1:1 apart from the background: it works as a button, with text in #f2f8f6.
- Temperature
Warm and cool together: let one lead and the other point. Here the background #1c332b leads, and the accent #317c4e is the first thing the eye will look for.
- How many
Four colours demand discipline: #1c332b and #f0eee7 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 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 whole palette sits on the active side of the circle: the colours that advance, warm and push outward.
- Accent · green
Green is the colour of rest, so as an accent it points at nothing: the eye accepts it and moves on. If this palette needs something to stop the eye, this is not it.
- 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.
- Adjacent
Adjacent on the circle, with nothing between them. Ordinary and agreeable: it says little, and it does not offend.
- Adjacent
Adjacent on the circle, with nothing between them. Ordinary and agreeable: it says little, and it does not offend.
- With a neutral
Next to black, a colour from the active side gains energy.
- 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.
- With a neutral
A neutral with a colour that has no side on the circle. Goethe has nothing to say here.
- With a neutral
A neutral with a colour that has no side on the circle. Goethe has nothing to say here.
#706934 and #00592e are neighbours on the circle and only 11 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#eef9f0
- 100#dbf0e1
- 200#bedfc7
- 300#99c9a7
- 400#72b186
- 500#4d9868
- 600#317c4e
- 700#22633c
- 800#15492a
- 900#083119
- 50#f5f7f6
- 100#e9ecea
- 200#d4d8d5
- 300#bac0bb
- 400#9da59f
- 500#828b85
- 600#69716b
- 700#525954
- 800#3c413d
- 900#272b28
- 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 318 — bluenze.com/paletas */
:root {
--fondo: #1c2321;
--superficie: #1c332b;
--texto: #f0eee7;
--tinta: #f0eee7;
--texto-suave: #b3b1a8;
--titular: #958c55;
--acento: #317c4e;
--acento-texto: #f2f8f6;
--enlace: #4c9766;
--borde: #404945;
--apoyo-1: #324e2a;
/* la lámina de Wada, tal cual */
--lamina-1: #706934;
--lamina-2: #324e2a;
--lamina-3: #00592e;
--lamina-4: #0f261f;
--acento-50: #eef9f0;
--acento-100: #dbf0e1;
--acento-200: #bedfc7;
--acento-300: #99c9a7;
--acento-400: #72b186;
--acento-500: #4d9868;
--acento-600: #317c4e;
--acento-700: #22633c;
--acento-800: #15492a;
--acento-900: #083119;
--neutro-50: #f5f7f6;
--neutro-100: #e9ecea;
--neutro-200: #d4d8d5;
--neutro-300: #bac0bb;
--neutro-400: #9da59f;
--neutro-500: #828b85;
--neutro-600: #69716b;
--neutro-700: #525954;
--neutro-800: #3c413d;
--neutro-900: #272b28;
--boton: #317c4e;
--boton-encima: #448e5f;
--boton-pulsado: #5ea074;
--boton-apagado: #333c36;
--foco: #017f44;
--exito: #82b97c;
--aviso: #cbb56e;
--error: #ec9581;
--info: #7baef1;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: light) {
:root {
--fondo: #ecf8ef;
--superficie: #dcece0;
--borde: #c1d7c7;
--texto: #1e2520;
--tinta: #1e2520;
--texto-suave: #5b665e;
--acento: #317c4e;
--acento-texto: #f1f8f3;
}
}