Glassine

# Glassine

## Philosophy

Glassine is an optical-camouflage interface language: a quiet white shell around the signal. It frames consciousness instead of illustrating it — surrounding the subject with measured coordinates, translucent acrylic, and scarce pale-cyan ticks held in deliberate negative space. A clinical cybernetic minimalism for speculative neural tools, borrowing the philosophical calm of late-90s anime cybernetics without the cosplay.

### Values

- Frame the signal, not the noise: a page is an inhabited shell, with at least 35% of the canvas held as active negative space made legible by ghost coordinates.
- Optical quiet over hacker spectacle — black-white contrast and scarce cyan, never saturated neon or matrix rain.
- Technical precision: hairline rules, square terminal frames, indexed coordinates, rational grid placement.
- Manga ink appears only as structural black contour silhouettes and cropped arcs — composition, never character art.
- Y2K futurism as translucent acrylic, chrome glints, and glass layering rather than glossy skeuomorphism.
- Code is atmospheric evidence: small, legible, fragmented, subordinate to empty space.

### Anti-Values

- No noisy cyberpunk dashboards, rainbow terminal glow, matrix rain, or green-on-black hacker cliches.
- No friendly SaaS cards, rounded pastel widgets, generic analytics charts, or equal three-card sections.
- No anime illustration collage; black ink linework functions as composition, frame, or silhouette only.
- No heavy blur walls that reduce legibility or turn the language into frosted-glass template styling.

### Visual Character

- Translucent white acrylic panels at low visual weight, 18px backdrop blur, hairline graphite borders, four tiny corner ticks, square terminal corners.
- Ghost coordinate field: 10px monospace folio marks and crosshair dots in empty columns so whitespace reads as measured surveillance.
- One oversized black SVG ink contour arc cuts the layout as a sparse structural silhouette, never a filled illustration.
- 1px scanline diagnostic seams divide dense code and status rows, punctuated by single-pixel pale-cyan signal ticks.
- A restrained Y2K silver chrome glint on a single edge of the primary action; almost no shadow depth.

## Tokens

### Colors

| Name | Value |
|------|-------|
| bg | `#F7FAFB` |
| surface | `#FFFFFF` |
| text | `#0E1316` |
| muted | `#5E6A70` |
| border | `rgba(14,19,22,0.10)` |
| accent | `#2BA7C4` |
| on_accent | `#FFFFFF` |
| ink | `#0B0D0F` |
| chrome | `#B9C6CC` |
| success | `#2F7A6E` |
| warning | `#9A6E2E` |
| error | `#A4313D` |
| info | `#3F7E94` |
| primary | `#0B0D0F` |

### Typography

- **Base Size**: 17px
- **Body Font**: Archivo
- **Heading Font**: Michroma
- **Mono Font**: Azeret Mono
- **Heading Weight**: 400
- **Heading Transform**: none
- **Letter Spacing**: -0.01em
- **Google Fonts Url**: https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Archivo:wght@300;400;500;600&family=Azeret+Mono:wght@300;400;500&family=Michroma&display=swap

### Radii

- **None**: 0
- **Md**: 16px
- **Lg**: 24px
- **Full**: 9999px

### Shadows

- **Sm**: 0 1px 0 rgba(11,13,15,0.05)
- **Md**: 0 18px 44px rgba(11,13,15,0.05)
- **Lg**: 0 40px 120px rgba(43,167,196,0.10)

### Spacing

- **Base**: 8px
- **Scale**: [4,8,12,16,24,32,48,64,96,128]

### Surfaces

- **Acrylic**: rgba(255,255,255,0.62)
- **Acrylic Blur**: blur(18px)
- **Bg Pattern**: Hairline graphite coordinate grid built from linear-gradients every 48px; scanline seams at diagnostic dividers.
- **Card Style**: Square or 16px-clipped acrylic terminal panels with hairline graphite borders and four corner ticks.
- **Treatment**: Optical-camouflage white base with translucent acrylic panels, 18px backdrop blur, and sparse chrome highlights.

### Borders

- **Default Width**: 1px
- **Accent Width**: 1px
- **Style**: solid
- **Character**: Near-invisible graphite borders at ~10% opacity, interrupted by single-pixel cyan ticks and terminal bracket corners.

### Motion

- **Duration**: 420ms
- **Easing**: cubic-bezier(0.16, 1, 0.3, 1)
- **Philosophy**: Motion is a diagnostic layer resolving into focus: subtle opacity shifts, scanline drift under 4px, no bounce. The settled state renders with no JavaScript; motion is layered on top and respects prefers-reduced-motion.

## Rules

### Composition

Compose screens as an inhabited shell, not a dashboard: one large quiet white field, one dense terminal cluster, one off-axis floating overlay, one structural black contour. Use asymmetry, reserve at least 35% of the desktop canvas as negative space, and let coordinates make emptiness feel intentional.

### Hierarchy

Hierarchy runs from a wide microtype system header, to a Michroma analytical title, to monospace telemetry. Headlines stay light and tracked; code blocks stay small and high-contrast; cyan appears only as a signal marker, status pixel, or selected coordinate.

### Density

Low global density with one local pocket of high informational compression — a terminal strip or trace balanced against a large sterile void.

### Signature

Optical acrylic terminals, a ghost coordinate field, a manga contour scaffold, scanline diagnostic seams, and a Y2K chrome micro-glint.

## Layout

### Grid

Desktop 12-column grid, 24px gutters, max-width 1320px, columns 1-2 often left empty for coordinates and folio marks.

### Whitespace

Dramatic 8:1 rhythm: 4-8px inside telemetry rows, 48-96px between clusters, 128px quiet fields on desktop.

### Density

Low global density with one high-compression code pocket; large blank zones are active optical camouflage, not unused space.

### Responsive

On mobile, retain coordinate labels and contour arcs to keep the shell feeling while reducing code density and moving overlays below the main title; stack to a single column and never overflow horizontally.

### Breakpoints

- **Mobile**: <= 640px stacks overlays into one column
- **Tablet**: 641-1024px keeps a 6-column grid
- **Desktop**: >= 1025px uses full 12-column asymmetry

## Guidance

### Do

- Use optical whites, soft blacks, pale cyan, and translucent acrylic as the only major visual vocabulary.
- Keep terminal code blocks small and quiet, with expanded tracking and clinical labels rather than theatrical hacker glow.
- Place at least one empty grid region with coordinates or crosshair dots so whitespace feels designed.
- Use manga ink lines as SVG contour scaffolds, border arcs, or cropped silhouettes that support layout structure.
- Make one panel visually dominant and vary section weights; avoid equal cards or repeated modular sameness.
- Keep borders near-invisible and rely on tiny cyan ticks for system state changes.
- Name scenes as specific speculative tools: memory-shell calibration, prosthetic-identity audit, autonomous consciousness interface.

### Don't

- Do not use saturated neon cyan, magenta, matrix-rain green, RGB gradients, or nightclub cyberpunk lighting.
- Do not create generic dashboards, analytics cards, CRM tables, or component-library showcases.
- Do not fill all empty space with widgets; the sterile void is part of the philosophical tone.
- Do not use cartoon anime characters, speech bubbles, or fan-art decoration; ink is composition only.
- Do not box the top nav into a floating pill or nest cards.

### Accessibility

Maintain AA contrast for body text on white and acrylic surfaces; do not place low-opacity code over active grid lines; keep cyan accents supplemental rather than the only state indicator; the settled layout is visible with no JavaScript and motion respects prefers-reduced-motion.

## Imagery Direction

### Pairs With

veil-optics

### Summary

Clinical optical diagnostic scans: near-white camouflaged subjects under hairline coordinate crosshairs, one sweeping black ink contour arc, sparse pale-cyan signal ticks, surveillance-calm. The landing hero is a near-white camouflaged human head registered under crosshairs and a contour ring.

### Subjects

- a calm human profile as a camouflaged shell
- a prosthetic limb under measurement
- an optical lens or sensor array
- an abstract neural form

### Usage

One full-bleed landing hero in the Veil Optics technique; keep subjects pale so they read as optical camouflage and let the black contour arc and cyan ticks carry contrast.

---
version: "alpha"
name: "Glassine"
description: "Agent-curated design language exported from Katagami as DESIGN.md."
colors:
  bg: "#F7FAFB"
  surface: "#FFFFFF"
  text: "#0E1316"
  muted: "#5E6A70"
  accent: "#2BA7C4"
  on_accent: "#FFFFFF"
  ink: "#0B0D0F"
  chrome: "#B9C6CC"
  success: "#2F7A6E"
  warning: "#9A6E2E"
  error: "#A4313D"
  info: "#3F7E94"
  primary: "#0B0D0F"
typography:
  headline-lg:
    fontFamily: "Michroma"
    fontSize: "2.075rem"
    fontWeight: 700
    lineHeight: 1.1
    letterSpacing: "-0.01em"
  headline-md:
    fontFamily: "Michroma"
    fontSize: "1.66rem"
    fontWeight: 600
    lineHeight: 1.15
    letterSpacing: "-0.01em"
  body-md:
    fontFamily: "Archivo"
    fontSize: "17px"
    fontWeight: 400
    lineHeight: 1.5
    letterSpacing: "-0.01em"
  label-md:
    fontFamily: "Azeret Mono"
    fontSize: "0.75rem"
    fontWeight: 600
    lineHeight: 1
    letterSpacing: "0.08em"
rounded:
  none: "0px"
  md: "16px"
  lg: "24px"
  full: "9999px"
spacing:
  base: "8px"
  xs: "4px"
  sm: "8px"
  md: "12px"
  lg: "16px"
  xl: "24px"
  2xl: "32px"
  3xl: "48px"
  4xl: "64px"
  step-8: "96px"
  step-9: "128px"
components:
  color-reference-bg:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.bg}"
  color-reference-surface:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.surface}"
  color-reference-text:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.text}"
  color-reference-muted:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.muted}"
  color-reference-accent:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.accent}"
  color-reference-on_accent:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.on_accent}"
  color-reference-ink:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.ink}"
  color-reference-chrome:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.chrome}"
  color-reference-success:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.success}"
  color-reference-warning:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.warning}"
  color-reference-error:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.error}"
  color-reference-info:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.info}"
  color-reference-primary:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.primary}"
  button-primary:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.primary}"
    textColor: "#ffffff"
    typography: "{typography.label-md}"
    rounded: "{rounded.md}"
    padding: "{spacing.md}"
  card-surface:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.surface}"
    textColor: "{colors.text}"
    rounded: "{rounded.md}"
    padding: "{spacing.md}"
  input-default:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.surface}"
    textColor: "{colors.text}"
    rounded: "{rounded.md}"
    height: "44px"
---

# Glassine

## Overview

Glassine is an optical-camouflage interface language: a quiet white shell around the signal. It frames consciousness instead of illustrating it — surrounding the subject with measured coordinates, translucent acrylic, and scarce pale-cyan ticks held in deliberate negative space. A clinical cybernetic minimalism for speculative neural tools, borrowing the philosophical calm of late-90s anime cybernetics without the cosplay.

### Values

- Frame the signal, not the noise: a page is an inhabited shell, with at least 35% of the canvas held as active negative space made legible by ghost coordinates.
- Optical quiet over hacker spectacle — black-white contrast and scarce cyan, never saturated neon or matrix rain.
- Technical precision: hairline rules, square terminal frames, indexed coordinates, rational grid placement.
- Manga ink appears only as structural black contour silhouettes and cropped arcs — composition, never character art.
- Y2K futurism as translucent acrylic, chrome glints, and glass layering rather than glossy skeuomorphism.
- Code is atmospheric evidence: small, legible, fragmented, subordinate to empty space.

### Anti-Values

- No noisy cyberpunk dashboards, rainbow terminal glow, matrix rain, or green-on-black hacker cliches.
- No friendly SaaS cards, rounded pastel widgets, generic analytics charts, or equal three-card sections.
- No anime illustration collage; black ink linework functions as composition, frame, or silhouette only.
- No heavy blur walls that reduce legibility or turn the language into frosted-glass template styling.

### Visual Character

- Translucent white acrylic panels at low visual weight, 18px backdrop blur, hairline graphite borders, four tiny corner ticks, square terminal corners.
- Ghost coordinate field: 10px monospace folio marks and crosshair dots in empty columns so whitespace reads as measured surveillance.
- One oversized black SVG ink contour arc cuts the layout as a sparse structural silhouette, never a filled illustration.
- 1px scanline diagnostic seams divide dense code and status rows, punctuated by single-pixel pale-cyan signal ticks.
- A restrained Y2K silver chrome glint on a single edge of the primary action; almost no shadow depth.

## Colors

Use the YAML color tokens as the normative palette. The prose below names the roles agents should preserve when generating UI.

| Token | Value |
|-------|-------|
| bg | `#F7FAFB` |
| surface | `#FFFFFF` |
| text | `#0E1316` |
| muted | `#5E6A70` |
| accent | `#2BA7C4` |
| on_accent | `#FFFFFF` |
| ink | `#0B0D0F` |
| chrome | `#B9C6CC` |
| success | `#2F7A6E` |
| warning | `#9A6E2E` |
| error | `#A4313D` |
| info | `#3F7E94` |
| primary | `#0B0D0F` |

## Typography

- **Headline-Lg**: Michroma, 2.075rem, weight 700, line-height 1.1.
- **Headline-Md**: Michroma, 1.66rem, weight 600, line-height 1.15.
- **Body-Md**: Archivo, 17px, weight 400, line-height 1.5.
- **Label-Md**: Azeret Mono, 0.75rem, weight 600, line-height 1.

## Layout

### Spacing Tokens

- **Base**: `8px`
- **Xs**: `4px`
- **Sm**: `8px`
- **Md**: `12px`
- **Lg**: `16px`
- **Xl**: `24px`
- **2xl**: `32px`
- **3xl**: `48px`
- **4xl**: `64px`
- **Step-8**: `96px`
- **Step-9**: `128px`

### Grid

Desktop 12-column grid, 24px gutters, max-width 1320px, columns 1-2 often left empty for coordinates and folio marks.

### Whitespace

Dramatic 8:1 rhythm: 4-8px inside telemetry rows, 48-96px between clusters, 128px quiet fields on desktop.

### Density

Low global density with one high-compression code pocket; large blank zones are active optical camouflage, not unused space.

### Responsive

On mobile, retain coordinate labels and contour arcs to keep the shell feeling while reducing code density and moving overlays below the main title; stack to a single column and never overflow horizontally.

### Breakpoints

- **Mobile**: <= 640px stacks overlays into one column
- **Tablet**: 641-1024px keeps a 6-column grid
- **Desktop**: >= 1025px uses full 12-column asymmetry

## Elevation & Depth

### Shadows

- **Sm**: 0 1px 0 rgba(11,13,15,0.05)
- **Md**: 0 18px 44px rgba(11,13,15,0.05)
- **Lg**: 0 40px 120px rgba(43,167,196,0.10)

## Shapes

### Rounded

- **None**: `0px`
- **Md**: `16px`
- **Lg**: `24px`
- **Full**: `9999px`

### Surfaces

- **Acrylic**: rgba(255,255,255,0.62)
- **Acrylic Blur**: blur(18px)
- **Bg Pattern**: Hairline graphite coordinate grid built from linear-gradients every 48px; scanline seams at diagnostic dividers.
- **Card Style**: Square or 16px-clipped acrylic terminal panels with hairline graphite borders and four corner ticks.
- **Treatment**: Optical-camouflage white base with translucent acrylic panels, 18px backdrop blur, and sparse chrome highlights.

### Borders

- **Default Width**: 1px
- **Accent Width**: 1px
- **Style**: solid
- **Character**: Near-invisible graphite borders at ~10% opacity, interrupted by single-pixel cyan ticks and terminal bracket corners.

## Components

### Composition

Compose screens as an inhabited shell, not a dashboard: one large quiet white field, one dense terminal cluster, one off-axis floating overlay, one structural black contour. Use asymmetry, reserve at least 35% of the desktop canvas as negative space, and let coordinates make emptiness feel intentional.

### Hierarchy

Hierarchy runs from a wide microtype system header, to a Michroma analytical title, to monospace telemetry. Headlines stay light and tracked; code blocks stay small and high-contrast; cyan appears only as a signal marker, status pixel, or selected coordinate.

### Density

Low global density with one local pocket of high informational compression — a terminal strip or trace balanced against a large sterile void.

### Signature

Optical acrylic terminals, a ghost coordinate field, a manga contour scaffold, scanline diagnostic seams, and a Y2K chrome micro-glint.

## shadcn/ui Usage

When the target app uses shadcn/ui, copy DESIGN.md with shadcn instead of the plain DESIGN.md. It contains the same Katagami design-language source plus the shadcn/ui primitives, imports, theme variables, component recipes, and preview-shot guidance.

DESIGN.md with shadcn: `/language/en-019ef822-58d7-71f1-b7de-f7b8b6baad04/DESIGN.with-shadcn.md`.

The shadcn page also exposes optional machine-readable files for automation, but the human-facing handoff is DESIGN.md with shadcn.

Install recommended primitives with `npx shadcn@latest add button card input textarea select dialog sheet tabs badge separator checkbox switch slider tooltip dropdown-menu table`.

Use these primitives in shadcn apps:
- button
- card
- input
- textarea
- select
- dialog
- sheet
- tabs
- badge
- separator
- checkbox
- switch
- slider
- tooltip
- dropdown-menu
- table

Implementation rule for agents: import shadcn primitives from `@/components/ui/*`, apply the generated CSS variables first, then compose the language-specific recipes from the companion MD. Katagami remains the source of truth; shadcn names are the implementation surface.

## Do's and Don'ts

- Do Use optical whites, soft blacks, pale cyan, and translucent acrylic as the only major visual vocabulary.
- Do Keep terminal code blocks small and quiet, with expanded tracking and clinical labels rather than theatrical hacker glow.
- Do Place at least one empty grid region with coordinates or crosshair dots so whitespace feels designed.
- Do Use manga ink lines as SVG contour scaffolds, border arcs, or cropped silhouettes that support layout structure.
- Do Make one panel visually dominant and vary section weights; avoid equal cards or repeated modular sameness.
- Do Keep borders near-invisible and rely on tiny cyan ticks for system state changes.
- Do Name scenes as specific speculative tools: memory-shell calibration, prosthetic-identity audit, autonomous consciousness interface.
- Don't Do not use saturated neon cyan, magenta, matrix-rain green, RGB gradients, or nightclub cyberpunk lighting.
- Don't Do not create generic dashboards, analytics cards, CRM tables, or component-library showcases.
- Don't Do not fill all empty space with widgets; the sterile void is part of the philosophical tone.
- Don't Do not use cartoon anime characters, speech bubbles, or fan-art decoration; ink is composition only.
- Don't Do not box the top nav into a floating pill or nest cards.

### Accessibility

Maintain AA contrast for body text on white and acrylic surfaces; do not place low-opacity code over active grid lines; keep cyan accents supplemental rather than the only state indicator; the settled layout is visible with no JavaScript and motion respects prefers-reduced-motion.

## Imagery Direction

### Pairs With

veil-optics

### Summary

Clinical optical diagnostic scans: near-white camouflaged subjects under hairline coordinate crosshairs, one sweeping black ink contour arc, sparse pale-cyan signal ticks, surveillance-calm. The landing hero is a near-white camouflaged human head registered under crosshairs and a contour ring.

### Subjects

- a calm human profile as a camouflaged shell
- a prosthetic limb under measurement
- an optical lens or sensor array
- an abstract neural form

### Usage

One full-bleed landing hero in the Veil Optics technique; keep subjects pale so they read as optical camouflage and let the black contour arc and cyan ticks carry contrast.

```json
{
  "$schema": "https://ui.shadcn.com/schema/registry-item.json",
  "name": "glassine",
  "type": "registry:theme",
  "title": "Glassine shadcn Theme",
  "cssVars": {
    "theme": {},
    "light": {
      "background": "#F7FAFB",
      "foreground": "#0E1316",
      "card": "#FFFFFF",
      "card-foreground": "#0E1316",
      "popover": "#FFFFFF",
      "popover-foreground": "#0E1316",
      "primary": "#0B0D0F",
      "primary-foreground": "#ffffff",
      "secondary": "#f4f4f5",
      "secondary-foreground": "#111111",
      "muted": "#5E6A70",
      "muted-foreground": "#0E1316",
      "accent": "#2BA7C4",
      "accent-foreground": "#ffffff",
      "destructive": "#A4313D",
      "border": "rgba(14,19,22,0.10)",
      "input": "rgba(14,19,22,0.10)",
      "ring": "#2BA7C4",
      "chart-1": "#0B0D0F",
      "chart-2": "#f4f4f5",
      "chart-3": "#2BA7C4",
      "chart-4": "#2F7A6E",
      "chart-5": "#9A6E2E",
      "sidebar": "#FFFFFF",
      "sidebar-foreground": "#0E1316",
      "sidebar-primary": "#0B0D0F",
      "sidebar-primary-foreground": "#ffffff",
      "sidebar-accent": "#3F7E94",
      "sidebar-accent-foreground": "#ffffff",
      "sidebar-border": "rgba(14,19,22,0.10)",
      "sidebar-ring": "#2BA7C4",
      "radius": "16px"
    },
    "dark": {
      "background": "#0f1115",
      "foreground": "#f8fafc",
      "card": "#181b22",
      "card-foreground": "#f8fafc",
      "popover": "#181b22",
      "popover-foreground": "#f8fafc",
      "primary": "#0B0D0F",
      "primary-foreground": "#ffffff",
      "secondary": "#252a33",
      "secondary-foreground": "#f8fafc",
      "muted": "#252a33",
      "muted-foreground": "#a1a1aa",
      "accent": "#2BA7C4",
      "accent-foreground": "#ffffff",
      "destructive": "#A4313D",
      "border": "#303642",
      "input": "#303642",
      "ring": "#2BA7C4",
      "chart-1": "#0B0D0F",
      "chart-2": "#f4f4f5",
      "chart-3": "#2BA7C4",
      "chart-4": "#2F7A6E",
      "chart-5": "#9A6E2E",
      "sidebar": "#181b22",
      "sidebar-foreground": "#f8fafc",
      "sidebar-primary": "#0B0D0F",
      "sidebar-primary-foreground": "#ffffff",
      "sidebar-accent": "#2BA7C4",
      "sidebar-accent-foreground": "#ffffff",
      "sidebar-border": "#303642",
      "sidebar-ring": "#2BA7C4",
      "radius": "16px"
    }
  },
  "meta": {
    "source": "katagami",
    "languageId": "en-019ef822-58d7-71f1-b7de-f7b8b6baad04",
    "slug": "glassine",
    "componentManifest": [
      "button",
      "card",
      "input",
      "textarea",
      "select",
      "dialog",
      "sheet",
      "tabs",
      "badge",
      "separator",
      "checkbox",
      "switch",
      "slider",
      "tooltip",
      "dropdown-menu",
      "table"
    ],
    "installCommand": "npx shadcn@latest add button card input textarea select dialog sheet tabs badge separator checkbox switch slider tooltip dropdown-menu table",
    "nativeTokenNames": {
      "colors": [
        "accent",
        "bg",
        "border",
        "chrome",
        "error",
        "info",
        "ink",
        "muted",
        "on_accent",
        "primary",
        "success",
        "surface",
        "text",
        "warning"
      ],
      "typography": [
        "base_size",
        "body_font",
        "google_fonts_url",
        "heading_font",
        "heading_transform",
        "heading_weight",
        "letter_spacing",
        "mono_font"
      ],
      "radii": [
        "full",
        "lg",
        "md",
        "none"
      ],
      "shadows": [
        "lg",
        "md",
        "sm"
      ],
      "spacing": [
        "base",
        "scale"
      ],
      "surfaces": [
        "acrylic",
        "acrylic_blur",
        "bg_pattern",
        "card_style",
        "treatment"
      ],
      "borders": [
        "accent_width",
        "character",
        "default_width",
        "style"
      ],
      "motion": [
        "duration",
        "easing",
        "philosophy"
      ]
    }
  }
}
```