Almanac

What was measured

Closest neighbours

ΔE00 17.4

how alike two adjacent swatches look

Darkest to lightest

5.7:1

WCAG contrast across the set

Lightness covered

68 pts

of OKLCH lightness, 0–100

Under colour blindness

ΔE00 7.9

worst under protanopia

These two are one colour to a reader with protanopia. Fine while the set is read as an order; never use them to mean two different things without a label or an icon as well.

Five colours are not an interface, so this is an offer rather than a token set. It clears WCAG AA as it stands.

/* Almanac — Reference and tabular text with a green used only for confirmations. */
:root {
  --palette-1: #491605;
  --palette-2: #8f452e;
  --palette-3: #f8f0da;
  --palette-4: #1b3727;
  --palette-5: #8ba695;

  /* A suggested mapping, not a token set. It clears WCAG AA as it stands. */
  --bg: #f8f0da;
  --text: #491605;        /* 13.19:1 on --bg */
  --muted: #8f452e;      /* 6.04:1 on --bg */
  --accent: #8f452e;     /* 6.04:1 on --bg */
  --accent-text: #ffffff;
}

// tailwind.config — Almanac
export default {
  theme: {
    extend: {
      colors: {
        almanac: {
        100: "#491605",
        200: "#8f452e",
        300: "#f8f0da",
        400: "#1b3727",
        500: "#8ba695",
        },
      },
    },
  },
};

Use the Almanac palette: #491605, #8F452E, #F8F0DA, #1B3727, #8BA695.

It is for this: Reference and tabular text with a green used only for confirmations.

Map it as ground #F8F0DA, body text #491605, secondary text #8F452E, and one accent #8F452E with #FFFFFF printed on it. Body text measures 13.19:1 against the ground and secondary text 6.04:1, so this mapping clears WCAG AA as it stands.

Do not use it for: Emotional marketing — it reads as a records office.

Do not add a sixth colour, do not tint the greys toward a second hue, and do not carry meaning on hue alone — once colour vision is taken away the closest two of these sit only 7.9 apart on the CIEDE2000 scale, which is too close to tell apart, so pair every coloured state with a label or an icon.

How this palette was built · no hex was chosen by hand

The catalog states a recipe — scene from hue 38 and 158 — and the five colours are derived from it in OKLCH, where a step of lightness is a step your eye agrees with rather than one the hex numbers agree with. That is why the numbers above are properties of this palette rather than claims about it.

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