English Red
- HEX
- RGB
- CMYK
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.
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.
No pair of colors in this combination reaches a contrast of 3:1, so it is best used without text.
Medium & vivid
Lightness 62 (range 61–64)
Colorfulness 0.133
Average OKLCH lightness (0–100) and chroma (colorfulness).
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.
Warm & cool
Reds, oranges and yellows count as warm; greens, blues and violets as cool.
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.
AaBest text pair: English Red on Cerulean Blue (1.0:1)
| Contrast | WCAG | APCA Lc |
|---|---|---|
| AaAaEnglish Red · Cerulean Blue | 1.0:1Low | 0 / 0 |
WCAG 2 contrast ratio for text, and APCA lightness contrast (Lc) for each text/background direction.
The closest palettes in perceptual color space (OKLab).
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 */
}
/* Tailwind CSS v4 – Sanzo Wada, combination No. 1 */
@theme {
--color-english-red: #d96629;
--color-cerulean-blue: #0093a5;
}
{
"id": 1,
"source": "Sanzo Wada, A Dictionary of Color Combinations",
"colors": [
{
"name": "English Red",
"hex": "#d96629",
"rgb": [
217,
102,
41
],
"cmyk": [
13,
73,
100,
0
]
},
{
"name": "Cerulean Blue",
"hex": "#0093a5",
"rgb": [
0,
147,
165
],
"cmyk": [
84,
26,
32,
0
]
}
]
}