Academic slate · Chalkboard dust · Literary serif

Chalkboard slate on dusty chalk type

A warm academic dark theme built on chalkboard slate green. Emulates manual blackboards with dusty-chalk white text, gold chalk rules, and literary typewriter copy.

Editorial & Literary Technical & Dev Tools Minimal & Brutalist

00 — Color Identity

Accent roles

Each accent has a specific role in the design language. Click any swatch below to copy its hex value.

Dusty Chalk

#C2B080

Primary display, rules

Beige Eraser

#F5F5DC

Metadata text

Slate Green

#2D3E35

Deep chalkboard wells

Stark White

#FFFFFF

High contrast labels

01 — Foundation

Color palette

Click any swatch to copy its hex value. Accent colors are shared across modes; surface tokens update when you switch between light and dark.

Accent — shared

Surfaces — dark mode

02 — Tokens

CSS variables

Drop this block into your project's global stylesheet. Includes shared accents plus light and dark surface tokens — toggle data-theme on <html> to switch.

03 — Typography

Type scale

Playfair Display + Courier Prime

Playfair Display delivers reader-friendly editorial displays. Courier Prime delivers chalkboard typewriter structure.

DisplayPlayfair Display Display

Chalkboard Editorial

Heading 1Playfair Display H1

Section title

Heading 2Playfair Display H2

Subsection label

BodyPlayfair Display Regular

Use the text token for primary copy and text-mid for supporting paragraphs. Keep line height around 1.7–1.8 for readability in both light and dark modes.

LabelCourier Prime Medium

Eyebrow · Metadata · Captions

04 — Components

UI patterns

Common building blocks using the palette. Uppercase labels and heavy weight are part of the theme voice.

Buttons

Feature spotlight

Supporting copy sits in text-mid with a short accent rule underneath the headline.

Cards

New 01

Card title

Elevated panel with ember shadow fill and crimson badge accent.

Draft 02

Card title

Hover lifts the card slightly — keep motion on transform only.

Live 03

Card title

Forge background on the card header creates depth without extra imagery.

05 — Contrast & Harmony

Design theory

Mathematical color relationships and accessibility validation. Checks compliance against W3C WCAG 2.1 contrast ratios.

Theme Metrics

Core colors

4.5:1

Min contrast target

WCAG Contrast Validation

Primary Text on Bg

Target: ≥ 7:1 (AAA)

Pass AAA

Body Copy on Bg

Target: ≥ 4.5:1 (AA)

Pass AA

White Copy on Accent

Target: ≥ 3:1 (UI Component)

Pass AA

Accent Color Spectrum

Visual segments detailing color pairing distribution across accents.

Generates high-contrast analogous and monochromatic relationships to ensure active components are highly visible.

06 — Spacing & Geometry

Layout System

Proportional spacing scale guidelines. Built on a modular unit grid to govern container padding, margins, and layout gutters.

Proportional Spacing Scale

--sp-1

4px

--sp-2

8px

--sp-3

12px

--sp-4

16px

--sp-5

24px

--sp-6

32px

Layout Symmetrical Grid

Visual representation of wide-margin gutters and core content boundaries.

Gutter

Max Content Width (1240px)

Gutter

Leverages a symmetrical layout grid to structure blocks. Wide margins ensure high-fidelity reading focus across viewport transitions.

07 — Guidelines

Design principles

Core behavioral guidelines to preserve the design language's integrity when scaling templates.

Chalk-written displays

Keep headings high-contrast, set to an elegant handwritten literary style resembling dry chalk notes.

Slate green backdrops

Rest your eyes with slate green surfaces in both light and dark modes to avoid visual strain.

Flat blackboard shadow

Offset panels using raw, flat, non-blurred shadows for vintage editorial authority.