Payroll

What was measured

Closest neighbours

ΔE00 19.7

how alike two adjacent swatches look

Darkest to lightest

5.42:1

WCAG contrast across the set

Lightness covered

64 pts

of OKLCH lightness, 0–100

Under colour blindness

ΔE00 18.7

worst under deuteranopia

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.

/* Payroll — Finance back ends that need one blue for links and one amber for holds. */
:root {
  --palette-1: #003751;
  --palette-2: #0071a0;
  --palette-3: #f7f0da;
  --palette-4: #4e3501;
  --palette-5: #c2a678;

  /* A suggested mapping, not a token set. It clears WCAG AA as it stands. */
  --bg: #f7f0da;
  --text: #003751;        /* 11.07:1 on --bg */
  --muted: #0071a0;      /* 4.76:1 on --bg */
  --accent: #0071a0;     /* 4.76:1 on --bg */
  --accent-text: #ffffff;
}

// tailwind.config — Payroll
export default {
  theme: {
    extend: {
      colors: {
        payroll: {
        100: "#003751",
        200: "#0071a0",
        300: "#f7f0da",
        400: "#4e3501",
        500: "#c2a678",
        },
      },
    },
  },
};

Use the Payroll palette: #003751, #0071A0, #F7F0DA, #4E3501, #C2A678.

It is for this: Finance back ends that need one blue for links and one amber for holds.

Map it as ground #F7F0DA, body text #003751, secondary text #0071A0, and one accent #0071A0 with #FFFFFF printed on it. Body text measures 11.07:1 against the ground and secondary text 4.76:1, so this mapping clears WCAG AA as it stands.

Do not use it for: Emotional moments — nothing here celebrates anything.

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 18.7 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 236 and 80 — 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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