From Wada's dictionary, 1933
Wada combination 64
Its colours, with the book's names: Aconite Violet · Dark Soft Violet. 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 1.4:1: does not read.
On screen, the text #24222d on the background #faf2ff 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 #4d52de stands 5.4:1 from the background (a button needs 3:1) and as a link reaches 5.4:1 (a word needs 4.5:1).
How to use it
- Proportion
Distribute, don't equalise: #faf2ff on 60% of the screen, #ad64ff on 30% (cards, bands, headers) and #4d52de 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 1.4:1). That is why body text goes in #24222d, a near-neutral ink tinted with the palette's hue: it is not in the book, and it is needed.
- The button
The accent #4d52de stands 5.4:1 apart from the background: it works as a button, with text in #f9f5fc.
- Temperature
All cool: orderly and serious. So it doesn't feel distant, leave plenty of air and use the accent generously on whatever you want touched.
- How many
Two colours are a pair, not a brand: add a neutral (an off-white or a grey) to get background, text and accent without straining either.
- 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 light ones: works on white and on screen; in print it loses body, so push the ink a notch. Though this one is not: the mean lightness of its colours is 47 out of 100. The label describes the group in the book, not a measurement of this combination.
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 passive side: the colours that recede, cool and draw the eye inward.
- 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 · 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.
#9c52f2 and #4d52de are neighbours on the circle and only 9 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.
There is nowhere for the eye to rest: no neutral, no muted colour, no green. The whole palette asks for attention at once.
There are 9 points of lightness between the lightest and darkest colour. With no step in lightness there is no hierarchy: the palette leans entirely on hue, and hue alone does not order a screen.
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#ede8ff
- 200#dbd1ff
- 300#c2b5fd
- 400#a496fd
- 500#8077fe
- 600#4d52de
- 700#4447bf
- 800#2f3393
- 900#1b2069
- 50#f7f6f8
- 100#ebebed
- 200#d8d7db
- 300#bfbdc3
- 400#a4a2aa
- 500#8a8890
- 600#706e77
- 700#58565d
- 800#403f45
- 900#2a292e
- 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 64 — bluenze.com/paletas */
:root {
--fondo: #faf2ff;
--superficie: #ad64ff;
--texto: #24222d;
--tinta: #24222d;
--texto-suave: #656171;
--titular: #4d52de;
--acento: #4d52de;
--acento-texto: #f9f5fc;
--enlace: #4d52de;
--borde: #d9cde2;
/* la lámina de Wada, tal cual */
--lamina-1: #9c52f2;
--lamina-2: #4d52de;
--acento-50: #f6f6f6;
--acento-100: #ede8ff;
--acento-200: #dbd1ff;
--acento-300: #c2b5fd;
--acento-400: #a496fd;
--acento-500: #8077fe;
--acento-600: #4d52de;
--acento-700: #4447bf;
--acento-800: #2f3393;
--acento-900: #1b2069;
--neutro-50: #f7f6f8;
--neutro-100: #ebebed;
--neutro-200: #d8d7db;
--neutro-300: #bfbdc3;
--neutro-400: #a4a2aa;
--neutro-500: #8a8890;
--neutro-600: #706e77;
--neutro-700: #58565d;
--neutro-800: #403f45;
--neutro-900: #2a292e;
--boton: #4d52de;
--boton-encima: #3242ca;
--boton-pulsado: #1833b0;
--boton-apagado: #aaa4bc;
--foco: #324ef8;
--exito: #0b7f21;
--aviso: #a28a0d;
--error: #c93625;
--info: #0470ba;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
:root {
--fondo: #22202c;
--superficie: #2f2c3c;
--borde: #484457;
--texto: #efedf6;
--tinta: #efedf6;
--texto-suave: #b2afba;
--acento: #9386fd;
--acento-texto: #24222d;
}
}