# espectro.dev

> A modern interface for timeless colors: palettes from historic color dictionaries. Collections: Werner's Nomenclature of Colours (1814), 110 named colors; Ridgway's Color Standards and Color Nomenclature (1912), 1,115 named colors on 53 plates; and Sanzo Wada's A Dictionary of Color Combinations (1933–34): 348 combinations built from 159 named colors, each with hex, RGB, CMYK and CIE L*a*b* values, Tailwind CSS and CSS variable exports, a free JSON API and an MCP server.

Every combination page has a written description of the palette's character and uses. Color values are digital approximations of printed swatches.

## Collections

- [Color systems](https://espectro.dev/color-systems): the color dictionaries published here
- [Sanzo Wada](https://espectro.dev/sanzo-wada): the Sanzo Wada color system, all 348 combinations, and a biography of Sanzo Wada (1883–1967)
- [All combinations](https://espectro.dev/combinations): every color system that publishes combinations
- [All Sanzo Wada combinations](https://espectro.dev/combinations/sanzo-wada): the 348 combinations
- [All colors](https://espectro.dev/colors): every color system, each with its own colors page
- [All Sanzo Wada colors](https://espectro.dev/colors/sanzo-wada): the 159 colors with hex, RGB, CMYK and L*a*b* values
- [Werner's Nomenclature of Colours](https://espectro.dev/werner): the 110 named colors of the 1814 edition, each with the book's animal, vegetable and mineral examples
- [All Werner colors](https://espectro.dev/colors/werner): the 110 colors, filterable by family
- Werner color pages: https://espectro.dev/colors/werner/{slug}, e.g. [Scotch Blue](https://espectro.dev/colors/werner/scotch-blue), with the closest Sanzo Wada colors
- [Ridgway's Color Standards and Color Nomenclature](https://espectro.dev/ridgway): the 1,115 named colors of the 1912 edition, plate by plate, with hue and tone
- [All Ridgway colors](https://espectro.dev/colors/ridgway): the 53 plates; each plate has a page at https://espectro.dev/colors/ridgway/plates/{numeral}, e.g. [Plate XXII](https://espectro.dev/colors/ridgway/plates/xxii)
- Ridgway color pages: https://espectro.dev/colors/ridgway/{slug}, e.g. [Indulin Blue](https://espectro.dev/colors/ridgway/indulin-blue), with the Sanzo Wada color of the same name and the closest Sanzo Wada colors
- Combination pages: https://espectro.dev/combinations/{id} for id 1–348, e.g. [Combination 245](https://espectro.dev/combinations/245)
- Color pages: https://espectro.dev/colors/{slug}, e.g. [Carmine Red](https://espectro.dev/colors/carmine-red)

## Journal

- [Journal](https://espectro.dev/journal): articles about color and color dictionaries
- [Ridgway's Color Standards and Color Nomenclature](https://espectro.dev/journal/ridgways-color-standards.md): In 1912 the Smithsonian's curator of birds published, at his own expense, a book of 1,115 named colors arranged by hue, tint, shade and greyness. Here is why he made it, how it was built, and where its names turn up today.
- [A Dictionary of Color Combinations: The Original and Its Editions](https://espectro.dev/journal/a-dictionary-of-color-combinations-editions.md): A Dictionary of Color Combinations is a 2010 reissue of a much larger set of color books that Sanzo Wada published in Tokyo in the 1930s, and a second volume followed in 2020. Here is what each edition contains, why the numbers quoted for it disagree, and how its printed swatches became the hex values on this site.
- [Mark Rothko and the Weight of Color](https://espectro.dev/journal/mark-rothko-color.md): Mark Rothko built a career on stacked rectangles of soft color, then spent it telling people not to look at them as color. Here is how his idea of color worked: as scale, light, layering and drama.
- [From Print to Screen](https://espectro.dev/journal/sanzo-wada-colors-from-print-to-screen.md): Every hex value for Sanzo Wada's colors starts as four ink percentages printed in a book, passed through a pair of color profiles. Here is how that conversion works, where it bends the original, and how to judge and use the numbers well.
- [Who Was Sanzo Wada?](https://espectro.dev/journal/who-was-sanzo-wada.md): Sanzo Wada (1883–1967) was a Western-style painter who spent much of his life on color: founding a color standards body, compiling the combination books now reissued as A Dictionary of Color Combinations, and designing the color of an Oscar-winning film. This is his life as the sources record it.
- [Color at the Bauhaus](https://espectro.dev/journal/bauhaus-color-theories.md): The Bauhaus never had one color theory. It had several, taught side by side: Itten's sphere and seven contrasts, Klee's moving color circle, Kandinsky's forces, Scheper's color plans for buildings and Albers's lesson that color is the most relative medium of all.
- [Sanzo Wada's Colors in Your Code](https://espectro.dev/journal/sanzo-wada-colors-in-your-code.md): A story about aesthetic, a forgotten Japanese artist, and turning 348 curated palettes into an MCP server that actually helps build better interfaces.
- [Werner's Nomenclature of Colours](https://espectro.dev/journal/werners-nomenclature-of-colours.md): In 1814 an Edinburgh flower painter published a book of 110 painted colors, each named and pinned to examples from animals, plants and minerals. Here is how it was built, how Darwin used it, and why its approach to naming colors still holds up.
- [Kandinsky's Logic of Color](https://espectro.dev/journal/kandinsky-color-logic.md): Wassily Kandinsky treated color as a set of forces: yellow advances, blue retreats, green stands still, white and black are two kinds of silence. Here is his system, read closely.

## API (JSON, free, rate limited)

- [GET /api/sanzo-wada/colors](https://espectro.dev/api/sanzo-wada/colors): all colors
- GET /api/sanzo-wada/colors/{slug}: one color
- [GET /api/sanzo-wada/combinations](https://espectro.dev/api/sanzo-wada/combinations): all combinations; filter with ?size=2, 3 or 4
- GET /api/sanzo-wada/combinations/{id}: one combination with full color data
- [GET /api/sanzo-wada/combinations/random](https://espectro.dev/api/sanzo-wada/combinations/random): a random combination
- [GET /api/werner/colors](https://espectro.dev/api/werner/colors): Werner's 110 colors; search with ?search=moss
- GET /api/werner/colors/{slug}: one Werner color
- [GET /api/ridgway/colors](https://espectro.dev/api/ridgway/colors): Ridgway's 1,115 colors; search with ?search=olive or a plate such as ?search=xxii
- GET /api/ridgway/colors/{slug}: one Ridgway color
- [API documentation](https://espectro.dev/usage)
- [Swatch downloads](https://espectro.dev/downloads): ASE, GIMP palette, CSS variables and Tailwind CSS v4 theme files for every collection and combination

## MCP server

- Endpoint: https://espectro.dev/mcp/espectro
- Tools (namespaced by color system): sanzo-wada-search-combinations, sanzo-wada-get-combination, sanzo-wada-random-combination, sanzo-wada-search-colors, sanzo-wada-get-color, sanzo-wada-export-combination (Tailwind config or CSS variables), werner-search-colors, werner-get-color, ridgway-search-colors, ridgway-get-color

## Optional

- [About](https://espectro.dev/about)
- [Terms of use](https://espectro.dev/terms)
- [Sitemap](https://espectro.dev/sitemap.xml)