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Browse 378 palettes.

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Library

The colour reference shelf

The books behind the dictionary — colour theory, history and the references designers keep close. Recommended on Amazon.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

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

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