Data + API

The full archive, downloadable.

All 378 palettes, 210 named colors, and 69 thematic collections — as CSV downloads and machine-readable JSON endpoints. Free, CORS-enabled, attributed under CC-BY-4.0.

New — data study: What 348 plates of Sanzo Wada's 1933 color dictionary reveal about 1930s taste — computed hue distribution, most-used colors, and a downloadable CSV. (Spoiler: the 1933 dictionary was 92% warm.)

New — data study: Can a 1933 color bible pass 2026 accessibility rules? — every Wada combination tested against WCAG AA/AAA contrast, with per-plate pass rates and a downloadable CSV.

Bulk CSV downloads

RFC 4180–compliant. UTF-8. Includes all canonical, JSON, embed, and OG URLs per row so a single CSV is sufficient to traverse the full dataset.

palettes.csv

378 rows

One row per palette. Includes slug, English + Japanese title, summary, dominant hue, moods, era, color count, hex codes, color names, plus canonical/api/embed/og URLs.

Download palettes.csv

colors.csv

210 rows

One row per named color. Includes slug, English + Japanese name, meaning, hex, RGB, hue family, palette count, plus canonical and API URLs.

Download colors.csv

collections.csv

69 rows

One row per thematic collection. Includes slug, title, tagline, accent hex, palette count, keywords, and canonical/api/og/embed URLs.

Download collections.csv

JSON API

Per-record JSON endpoints with versioned schemas. CORS enabled. Each HTML detail page advertises its JSON counterpart via <link rel="alternate" type="application/json">.

/api/palettes/[slug].json · 378 endpoints · schema colorcombinations-palette/v1
/api/collections/[slug].json · 69 endpoints · schema colorcombinations-collection/v1
/api/colors/[slug].json · 210 endpoints · schema colorcombinations-color/v1

License + attribution

Released under CC-BY-4.0. When citing or reusing, please attribute colorcombinations.org.

348 of the 378 palettes are derived from the mattdesl/dictionary-of-colour-combinations dataset (MIT). Original source: Sanzo Wada, A Dictionary of Color Combinations, 1933 (six volumes). Modern reprint: Seigensha Art Publishing, 2010.

Questions or partnership inquiries: hello@caslonmedia.com.

Library

The source book

This entire dataset is a digitisation of Sanzo Wada's 1933 dictionary. The printed original — both volumes.

Book links are Amazon Associates affiliate links. Your price is unchanged; a small commission supports the archive. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

Sanzo Wada

A Dictionary of Color Combinations

Seigensha, 2010 reprint of the 1933 original. Japanese import.

The book this entire archive is a digitisation of — 348 combinations, organised by tone rather than hue, the way a working colourist actually sorts them. Every plate is free to browse here; this is the printed original, matte Seigensha binding and all.

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Sanzo Wada

A Dictionary of Color Combinations Vol. 2

Seigensha, 2020. Japanese import.

Wada's 1935-1938 follow-up sets — 237 further plates across seasonal, fashion, interior and graphic-design colourways — none of them digitised in this archive, so this volume is the only place to see them.

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