The Dictionary of
Color Combinations

Edvard Munch · 1893

The Scream

Oranges and scorched reds over a bruised ground — and yellows that are quietly turning white.

National Gallery, Oslo

Tap any swatch to copy. Ground colours are the three largest areas of the canvas; accent colours are chosen for intensity and may cover very little — which is exactly why they carry the painting. Percentages are each colour's share of the whole canvas, so these six will not add up to 100%: they are six of the 26 distinct colour regions measured, not a division of the surface. How these were sampled

The Scream by Edvard Munch, 1893
Edvard Munch, The Scream (1893). National Gallery, Oslo. Public domain

The scheme is almost entirely warm, and its power comes from value rather than hue contrast: mid-toned oranges sit against browns of similar saturation, so nothing in the picture offers the eye a place to rest. Used in design, this palette produces the same low-level unease, which is worth knowing before applying it to anything that needs to feel calm.

Munch made several versions in different media. The swatches here read one of them, so expect real variation against other reproductions you may have seen.

What the artist actually used

Cadmium yellow (cadmium sulfide, CdS)
Used thickly in the sky and water. Degrading.
Cadmium-based oranges and reds
The sky bands.

Has the colour changed?

Yes, and against the usual assumption. In the c. 1910 version, some cadmium yellow strokes in the sky and the figure's neck have turned off-white, and thickly-painted water is flaking. Synchrotron work found that moisture, not light, is the main driver: chloride compounds at high humidity oxidise cadmium sulfide to cadmium sulfate. The museum's guidance is to hold the work below 45% relative humidity.

Sources

Accessibility

WCAG contrast ratios between every color pair. Use the strongest combinations for text; the weakest ones make good decorative backgrounds.

Strongest pair: #B27432 on #695B52 — 1.69:1 (Fail)

  • #B27432·#866B521.28:1Fail
  • #B27432·#7967571.40:1Fail
  • #B27432·#A24F391.46:1Fail
  • #B27432·#A845301.53:1Fail
  • #B27432·#695B521.69:1Fail
  • #866B52·#7967571.09:1Fail
  • #866B52·#A24F391.14:1Fail
  • #866B52·#A845301.19:1Fail
  • #866B52·#695B521.32:1Fail
  • #796757·#A24F391.05:1Fail
  • #796757·#A845301.09:1Fail
  • #796757·#695B521.21:1Fail
  • #A24F39·#A845301.04:1Fail
  • #A24F39·#695B521.15:1Fail
  • #A84530·#695B521.11:1Fail
How to read this
AAA
Passes WCAG 2.1 AAA for normal text — the highest accessibility bar.
AA
Passes WCAG 2.1 AA for normal text. Standard production requirement.
AA Large
Passes WCAG 2.1 AA for large text only (18pt+ or 14pt+ bold). Avoid for body copy.
Fail
Below WCAG 2.1 AA. Fine for decorative use — not for text.

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Studio

Paint this palette

These are the materials a colour study actually gets made with.

  • This site hands you hex codes. Color Bridge is the deck that shows what an RGB or HTML value becomes as CMYK ink, and which Pantone spot sits nearest it — the translation step between a screen palette and a printed one. Coated and uncoated because the same ink is not the same colour on both stocks.

    Listed on Amazon as Pantone GP6102B Color Bridge Guide Set Coated & Uncoated, Multi-Colour

    View on Amazon

  • The coated half on its own — Pantone to CMYK, RGB and HTML in a single fan. The smaller entry point if your work only ever goes onto coated stock.

    Listed on Amazon as Pantone Color Bridge Guide Coated | Pantone to CMYK, RGB & HTML Color Matching Fan Deck for Graphic Design, Branding & Print | GG6103B

    View on Amazon

  • A spectrophotometer profiles the whole chain — display, printer, projector, scanner — so the colour you picked is the colour that comes out the other end. The full-fidelity option for work that ends up printed.

    Listed on Amazon as Calibrite ColorChecker Studio Spectrophotometer for Complete Color Management for Display, Projector, Printer and Scanner Profiling

    View on Amazon

  • A colorimeter calibrates the monitor itself. Worth saying plainly: an uncalibrated screen is the most common reason a palette that looked right on your desk looks wrong everywhere else.

    Listed on Amazon as Calibrite Video Photo Kit with Display Plus HL Colorimeter and ColorChecker Passport Video 2, 10,000 Nit Monitor Calibration, Camera Color Matching

    View on Amazon

  • A pocket target for fixing white balance and exposure at the moment of capture — the step before any colour correction, if your palette starts from a photograph rather than a screen.

    Listed on Amazon as Calibrite ColorChecker Passport Photo 2 Portable Color Calibration Kit for Photo and Video, 4 Target Set for White Balance, Exposure and Creative Look

    View on Amazon

  • Gansai are traditional Japanese watercolour pans — dense, matte and easy to mix, the closest everyday medium to the flat printed colour Wada's plates were made in. This is the Art Nouveau-themed 'II' edition, a different 24 to the standard set.

    Listed on Amazon as Kuretake GANSAI TAMBI Watercolor Paint Set 24 Colors II - Art Nouveau

    View on Amazon

  • The larger pan set. More range means mixing toward a specific plate rather than approximating it from six colours.

    Listed on Amazon as Kuretake GANSAI TAMBI Watercolor Paint Set 36 Colors

    View on Amazon

  • 140 lb cold press is the weight that takes a wet wash without buckling — the paper most colour studies end up on.

    Listed on Amazon as Strathmore 300 Series Tape Bound Watercolor Pad, 140 lb. Cold Press, 11 X 15 inches, White, 12 Sheets (360-111)

    View on Amazon

  • A felt brush tip for the labelling and linework around a swatch study — the annotation half of a colour notebook.

    Listed on Amazon as Pentel Fude Touch Sign Pen, Black, Felt Pen Like Brush Stroke (SES15C-A) 3 Pieces

    View on Amazon

  • When a palette leaves the screen, this is the shared vocabulary between you and the press. Coated and uncoated because the same ink is not the same colour on both.

    Listed on Amazon as Pantone Formula Guide – Coated & Uncoated | Professional PMS Color Matching System for Print, Packaging & Graphic Design | GP1601B

    View on Amazon

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Library

Further reading

  • A Dictionary of Color Combinations by Sanzo Wada — book cover

    Sanzo Wada

    A Dictionary of Color Combinations

    The 2010 Seigensha republication of the 1933 original. Japanese import.

    Every combination in it is already browsable free here, hex values and all. Buy this one for the object rather than the data — Seigensha's matte plates and Japanese binding, or a citable copy of the 1933 original. If you want plates this archive doesn't have, Vol. 2 is the one.

    View on Amazon
  • A Dictionary of Color Combinations Vol. 2 by Sanzo Wada — book cover

    Sanzo Wada

    A Dictionary of Color Combinations Vol. 2

    Seigensha, 2020. Japanese import.

    Wada's 1935–1938 follow-ups: 72 plates on the Japanese seasons and 165 drawn from early-century fashion, interior, and graphic design. Not in Vol. 1. Not in this archive. The book itself is a design object — Japanese binding, matte pages, zero captions.

    View on Amazon
  • Interaction of Color by Josef Albers — book cover

    Josef Albers

    Interaction of Color

    50th Anniversary Edition, Yale University Press.

    The most important book on how colors behave next to each other. Still the default reference in art schools.

    View on Amazon

Torn between the two Wada dictionaries? Vol 1 vs Vol 2, compared plate by plate →

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