Five Stations
ChartsCategorical comparisons where the categories have no natural order.
Click a swatch to copy its hex.
Do not use this for
Sequential data — the hue jumps imply differences that are not there.
What was measured
- Closest neighbours
- ΔE00 32
- how alike two adjacent swatches look
- Darkest to lightest
- 7.29:1
- WCAG contrast across the set
- Lightness covered
- 48 pts
- of OKLCH lightness, 0–100
- Under colour blindness
- ΔE00 22
- worst under deuteranopia
Every pair here survives protanopia, deuteranopia and tritanopia, so these five can stand for five different things.
A suggested mapping · derived, then measured
Five colours are not an interface, so this is an offer rather than a token set. It does not clear WCAG AA on secondary text and the accent — stated here rather than left for you to discover.
/* Five Stations — Categorical comparisons where the categories have no natural order. */
:root {
--palette-1: #1b1c97;Tailwind
// tailwind.config — Five Stations
export default {
theme: {For your coding agent · printed from the colours
Use the Five Stations palette: #1B1C97, #AB4046, #5C79F6, #45D7FF, #DEC50B. It is for this: Categorical comparisons where the categories have no natural order.
How this palette was built · no hex was chosen by hand
The catalog states a recipe — series from hue 20 — 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.