Paper Mill

What was measured

Closest neighbours

ΔE00 20.8

how alike two adjacent swatches look

Darkest to lightest

5.67:1

WCAG contrast across the set

Lightness covered

70 pts

of OKLCH lightness, 0–100

Under colour blindness

ΔE00 19.1

worst under tritanopia

Every pair here survives protanopia, deuteranopia and tritanopia, so these five can stand for five different things.

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

/* Paper Mill — Long-form articles: two ink weights, a stock, and one blue for links. */
:root {
  --palette-1: #3c1300;
  --palette-2: #8f3b01;
  --palette-3: #fbeeda;
  --palette-4: #052756;
  --palette-5: #799aca;

  /* A suggested mapping, not a token set. It clears WCAG AA as it stands. */
  --bg: #fbeeda;
  --text: #3c1300;        /* 14.27:1 on --bg */
  --muted: #8f3b01;      /* 6.57:1 on --bg */
  --accent: #8f3b01;     /* 6.57:1 on --bg */
  --accent-text: #ffffff;
}

// tailwind.config — Paper Mill
export default {
  theme: {
    extend: {
      colors: {
        papermill: {
        100: "#3c1300",
        200: "#8f3b01",
        300: "#fbeeda",
        400: "#052756",
        500: "#799aca",
        },
      },
    },
  },
};

Use the Paper Mill palette: #3C1300, #8F3B01, #FBEEDA, #052756, #799ACA.

It is for this: Long-form articles: two ink weights, a stock, and one blue for links.

Map it as ground #FBEEDA, body text #3C1300, secondary text #8F3B01, and one accent #8F3B01 with #FFFFFF printed on it. Body text measures 14.27:1 against the ground and secondary text 6.57:1, so this mapping clears WCAG AA as it stands.

Do not use it for: Charts — there are only two usable series here.

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 19.1 apart on the CIEDE2000 scale, 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 46 and 258 — 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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