Carmine & Black

About this combination

Combination 117 of 348 in Wada's six-volume 1933 work. A two-colour pairing of Carmine, Black, as documented in the original plates.

Historical context

Plate 117 of Wada's 348 anchors Carmine and Black in the red family — a 2-colour grouping with a solemn, warm, austere character, recorded in the Showa-era volumes of Sanzo Wada's 1933 Dictionary of Color Combinations, where these shikisai names have sat in the public domain for generations. Its strongest pairing — Carmine on Black — reaches a contrast ratio of 3.29:1, usable for large text but not body copy, so it reads best in decorative blocks rather than text pairings.