English Red
Cerulean Blue

No. 1

2-color combination

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Colors

English Red

HEX
RGB
CMYK

Combination No. 1 in use

The palette applied to simple layouts. Colors are assigned to roles automatically; try other arrangements.

Color study

A dictionary of color

Background, surface, text and accent, taken from one of Wada’s combinations.

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Combination No. 1 as a living room

Painted following the 60-30-10 rule: about 60% wall color, 30% for the sofa, 10% for cushions, throw and vase. A fourth color goes to the rug and curtains; otherwise they stay undyed. Floor and ceiling stay neutral; the print shows the whole palette.

Readable text pairs

No pair of colors in this combination reaches a contrast of 3:1, so it is best used without text.

Analysis

Character

Medium & vivid

Lightness 62 (range 61–64)
Colorfulness 0.133

Average OKLCH lightness (0–100) and chroma (colorfulness).

Harmony

Color wheel with the combination’s hues; distance from the center shows colorfulnessEnglish RedCerulean Blue

Complementary

Includes hues from opposite sides of the color wheel.

A heuristic based on the painter’s color wheel. Wada’s combinations often ignore textbook rules, which is part of their appeal.

Temperature

Warm & cool

  • English RedWarm
  • Cerulean BlueCool

Reds, oranges and yellows count as warm; greens, blues and violets as cool.

Distinctness

ΔE 48

Closest pair ΔE 47.6 · average ΔE 47.6

CIEDE2000 color difference. Below about 10 colors look related; above 30 they are clearly distinct.

Contrast

AaBest text pair: English Red on Cerulean Blue (1.0:1)

ContrastWCAGAPCA Lc
AaAaEnglish Red · Cerulean Blue1.0:1Low0 / 0

WCAG 2 contrast ratio for text, and APCA lightness contrast (Lc) for each text/background direction.

Similar combinations

The closest palettes in perceptual color space (OKLab).

Export

Copy the palette as code or download it as an image.

/* Sanzo Wada, combination No. 1 */
:root {
  --english-red: #d96629; /* English Red */
  --cerulean-blue: #0093a5; /* Cerulean Blue */
}

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