Tools / Palette Finder
Find a Wada palette.
Start with a color you already have. We'll find the closest matches across all 378 historical combinations from Sanzo Wada's 1933 archive.
Results update as you type. Sorted by closest color distance in the Wada archive.
Studio
Taking these palettes off the screen
You have matching palettes and their hex codes. Where they are going decides what they need next.
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...onto paper
Start here if the palette gets printed. Screen colour and ink colour are not the same colour, and this is the deck that translates between them.
Listed on Amazon as Pantone Formula Guide – Coated & Uncoated | Professional PMS Color Matching System for Print, Packaging & Graphic Design | GP1601B
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...onto a screen you can trust
Start here if it stays digital. An uncalibrated monitor is the single most common reason a palette that looked right on your desk looks wrong everywhere else.
Calibrite
ColorChecker Passport Photo 2
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
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...by hand
Start here if you are mixing it. Wada's plates were flat printed colour; gansai pans are the closest everyday medium to them.
Listed on Amazon as Strathmore 300 Series Tape Bound Watercolor Pad, 140 lb. Cold Press, 11 X 15 inches, White, 12 Sheets (360-111)
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How it works
The matching
We compare your input color against every individual swatch in the full 378-palette archive using Euclidean distance in RGB space. Each palette is scored by its closest color match, then sorted — palettes with a color very close to yours appear first.
Why historical palettes
Sanzo Wada's 1933 dictionary distilled centuries of Japanese textile and lacquerwork tradition into a systematic catalog. These aren't computer-generated harmonies — they're combinations that survived because they work. Anchoring a modern design in one of them is the fastest path to a palette with historical coherence.