Tidemark

# Tidemark

## Philosophy

An ink studio for conservators reading the wet front. A reimagination of the calligraphic fine-art spread brief, conceived independently: the screen is not a static literary spread held open by voids but a continuous rail the handscroll is unrolled along, on a dark wet-stone ground across which one luminous tide-line advances. Ink is watched as a moving wet front, not laid as a resting plate.

### Values

- Read ink as a moving wet front: the live boundary where saturation meets dry fiber is the subject, not a settled plate.
- Make the rail the spine: every screen is mounted left-to-right like an unrolled handscroll on one registered baseline.
- Let the luminous wet seam carry hierarchy and division — a tide-line, never a box or a card edge.
- Record what the ink does: granulation, pooling, and the dried iron tideline are the data the studio keeps.

### Anti-Values

- Avoid the bone-ivory museum spread and the negative-space void column; this language takes the dark ground and the advancing gesture instead.
- Avoid radial smoke plumes behind plates and a single brush-bar edge per card; the seam and the rail do that work.
- Avoid an oversized italic literary serif masthead; the display is a tall condensed grotesque.
- Avoid centred symmetry and dense admin grids; the rail reads in one asymmetric sweep.

### Visual Character

- A dark wet-stone ground (#11130F) — damp paper one step up — with a tall all-caps condensed Archivo display set against warm Newsreader body and wide-tracked mono marginalia.
- Sections are divided by a luminous wet seam: a hard pale tide-line at the top with a celadon granulation halo bleeding downward into the damp surface, register ticks riding along it.
- The layout is a register rail — a continuous baseline with stations and ticks, read left to right like a handscroll, collapsing to a single vertical scroll on mobile.
- Data inherits the mechanic: every progress fill ends in a glowing wet-front leading edge; the dried iron-oxide tideline is the one warm stain the system records permanently.
- Damp-paper panels carry faint dry-brush striation and are separated by the seam and measured space, never by keylines or a single coloured edge.

## Tokens

### Colors

| Name | Value |
|------|-------|
| bg | `#11130F` |
| surface | `#181A15` |
| surface_2 | `#20231C` |
| text | `#ECE8DA` |
| muted | `#8F9183` |
| border | `#2B2E25` |
| accent | `#D6E6E2` |
| on_accent | `#11130F` |
| accent_2 | `#6FB3A0` |
| on_accent_2 | `#11130F` |
| accent_3 | `#C2724A` |
| on_accent_3 | `#11130F` |
| success | `#6FB3A0` |
| warning | `#C9962F` |
| error | `#B4503C` |
| info | `#5E8FA6` |

### Typography

- **Base Size**: 17px
- **Body Font**: Newsreader
- **Heading Font**: Archivo
- **Mono Font**: Spline Sans Mono
- **Heading Weight**: 800
- **Heading Transform**: uppercase
- **Letter Spacing**: -0.02em
- **Scale Ratio**: 1.3
- **Line Height**: 1.62
- **Display Stretch**: 78%
- **Google Fonts Url**: https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Archivo:wght@500;700;800&family=Newsreader:opsz,wght@6..72,400;6..72,500;6..72,600&family=Spline+Sans+Mono:wght@400;500;600&display=swap

### Radii

- **None**: 0
- **Sm**: 0
- **Md**: 0
- **Lg**: 0
- **Full**: 9999px

### Shadows

- **Sm**: 0 -1px 0 rgba(214,230,226,0.25)
- **Md**: 0 14px 40px rgba(0,0,0,0.45)
- **Lg**: 0 -1px 0 rgba(214,230,226,0.35), 0 28px 70px rgba(0,0,0,0.55)

### Surfaces

- **Treatment**: damp-paper
- **Card Style**: dark damp-paper panels carrying faint dry-brush striation, separated by a luminous wet seam rather than keylines
- **Bg Pattern**: dry-brush-striation

### Borders

- **Default Width**: 1px
- **Accent Width**: 2px
- **Style**: solid
- **Character**: structure comes from the luminous wet seam and measured space; faint hairline only as a baseline rail or inside dense tables; never a single coloured card edge

### Motion

- **Duration**: 520ms
- **Easing**: cubic-bezier(0.16, 1, 0.3, 1)
- **Philosophy**: the wet front advances; the settled state is the default and renders with no JavaScript, motion reveals sections as the rail advances, respects prefers-reduced-motion

## Rules

### Composition

Mount every screen on one continuous register rail read left-to-right like an unrolled handscroll; divide sections with the luminous wet seam, not boxes. Dark wet-stone ground throughout.

### Hierarchy

Tall condensed all-caps Archivo display drives hierarchy by scale against warm Newsreader body and wide-tracked mono marginalia; the wet-front silver is the single brightest pigment.

### Density

Curatorial and asymmetric; generous gutters, isolated controls, register-style metadata in mono — never a dense admin grid.

### Signature

The bleed front: a luminous wet seam (hard pale line + downward celadon granulation halo) divides every station and registration ticks ride along it; the same wet-front leading edge terminates every progress fill, and the dried iron-oxide tideline is the one recorded warm stain.

## Layout

### Grid

Desktop is a register rail: a continuous baseline with evenly registered stations and ticks, content read left to right; the dashboard pairs a 248px rail sidebar with a fluid canvas. Tablet relaxes the columns; mobile becomes one vertical scroll of the scroll.

### Whitespace

Whitespace is the damp margin around the advancing front; gutters stay generous and the seam's bleed-halo is given room to breathe below each divide.

### Density

curatorial

### Responsive

Full-bleed hero spans 100vw x 100svh; contained content caps and centres on ultra-wide; grids use minmax(0,1fr) and min-width:0 so they never overflow; mobile stacks to one column and hides the rail sidebar.

### Breakpoints

- **Desktop**: >=1100px
- **Tablet**: 700-1099px
- **Mobile**: <700px

## Guidance

### Do

- Keep the dark wet-stone ground and let the luminous wet seam carry division and hierarchy.
- Mount content on the register rail and read it left to right; let registration ticks mark the stations.
- Use the three inks like highlighters: wet-front silver for the active edge, celadon for structure and verified states, iron-oxide for the one warm tideline note.
- Terminate progress and advance indicators with the glowing wet-front leading edge so data carries the signature.
- Restyle every form control with the damp-paper baseline-underline system; keep the top nav open across the header.

### Don't

- Do not revert to a bone-ivory ground, a held-open void column, radial smoke plumes, or a per-card brush-bar edge.
- Do not use an oversized italic literary serif headline; the display is tall condensed Archivo.
- Do not let the three inks become surface fields; keep them as highlighter-like marks on the dark ground.
- Do not box the nav into a floating pill, nest cards, or stamp a single coloured edge on a card.
- Do not centre everything or fill every cell into a dense admin grid.

### Accessibility

Body text 17px in pale wash over wet-stone at AA-plus contrast; focus states use a 2px wet-front underline/ring; status is carried by both pill colour and label text; motion respects prefers-reduced-motion and the settled state renders with no JavaScript.

## Imagery Direction

### Pairs With

suiboku

### Summary

Monochrome gestural sumi ink-wash inverted onto a dark wet-stone ground: a single luminous wet tide-line / bleed front advances across a near-black field, dry-brush granulation along its leading edge. No colour enters the imagery; the brightest passage is the pale wet seam, not the paper.

### Subjects

- an advancing wet bleed-front across dark stone
- a single tide-line receding on damp paper
- granulation pooling at an ink boundary
- a calligraphic gesture caught mid-bleed
- smoke threading off a wet stroke

### Usage

Hero and feature imagery are full-frame inverted suiboku plates where a luminous wet front sweeps diagonally across a dark field, the dark corners reserved for overlay text; the landing hero is a swappable background-image: var(--hero-image).

---
version: "alpha"
name: "Tidemark"
description: "Agent-curated design language exported from Katagami as DESIGN.md."
colors:
  bg: "#11130F"
  surface: "#181A15"
  surface_2: "#20231C"
  text: "#ECE8DA"
  muted: "#8F9183"
  border: "#2B2E25"
  accent: "#D6E6E2"
  on_accent: "#11130F"
  accent_2: "#6FB3A0"
  on_accent_2: "#11130F"
  accent_3: "#C2724A"
  on_accent_3: "#11130F"
  success: "#6FB3A0"
  warning: "#C9962F"
  error: "#B4503C"
  info: "#5E8FA6"
typography:
  headline-lg:
    fontFamily: "Archivo"
    fontSize: "2.334rem"
    fontWeight: 700
    lineHeight: 1.1
    letterSpacing: "-0.02em"
  headline-md:
    fontFamily: "Archivo"
    fontSize: "1.796rem"
    fontWeight: 600
    lineHeight: 1.15
    letterSpacing: "-0.02em"
  body-md:
    fontFamily: "Newsreader"
    fontSize: "17px"
    fontWeight: 400
    lineHeight: 1.62
    letterSpacing: "-0.02em"
  label-md:
    fontFamily: "Spline Sans Mono"
    fontSize: "0.75rem"
    fontWeight: 600
    lineHeight: 1
    letterSpacing: "0.08em"
rounded:
  none: "0px"
  sm: "0px"
  md: "0px"
  lg: "0px"
  full: "9999px"
components:
  color-reference-bg:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.bg}"
  color-reference-surface:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.surface}"
  color-reference-surface_2:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.surface_2}"
  color-reference-text:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.text}"
  color-reference-muted:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.muted}"
  color-reference-border:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.border}"
  color-reference-accent:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.accent}"
  color-reference-on_accent:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.on_accent}"
  color-reference-accent_2:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.accent_2}"
  color-reference-on_accent_2:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.on_accent_2}"
  color-reference-accent_3:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.accent_3}"
  color-reference-on_accent_3:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.on_accent_3}"
  color-reference-success:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.success}"
  color-reference-warning:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.warning}"
  color-reference-error:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.error}"
  color-reference-info:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.info}"
  button-primary:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.accent}"
    textColor: "#000000"
    typography: "{typography.label-md}"
    rounded: "{rounded.md}"
    padding: "12px"
  card-surface:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.surface}"
    textColor: "{colors.text}"
    rounded: "{rounded.md}"
    padding: "16px"
  input-default:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.surface}"
    textColor: "{colors.text}"
    rounded: "{rounded.md}"
    height: "44px"
---

# Tidemark

## Overview

An ink studio for conservators reading the wet front. A reimagination of the calligraphic fine-art spread brief, conceived independently: the screen is not a static literary spread held open by voids but a continuous rail the handscroll is unrolled along, on a dark wet-stone ground across which one luminous tide-line advances. Ink is watched as a moving wet front, not laid as a resting plate.

### Values

- Read ink as a moving wet front: the live boundary where saturation meets dry fiber is the subject, not a settled plate.
- Make the rail the spine: every screen is mounted left-to-right like an unrolled handscroll on one registered baseline.
- Let the luminous wet seam carry hierarchy and division — a tide-line, never a box or a card edge.
- Record what the ink does: granulation, pooling, and the dried iron tideline are the data the studio keeps.

### Anti-Values

- Avoid the bone-ivory museum spread and the negative-space void column; this language takes the dark ground and the advancing gesture instead.
- Avoid radial smoke plumes behind plates and a single brush-bar edge per card; the seam and the rail do that work.
- Avoid an oversized italic literary serif masthead; the display is a tall condensed grotesque.
- Avoid centred symmetry and dense admin grids; the rail reads in one asymmetric sweep.

### Visual Character

- A dark wet-stone ground (#11130F) — damp paper one step up — with a tall all-caps condensed Archivo display set against warm Newsreader body and wide-tracked mono marginalia.
- Sections are divided by a luminous wet seam: a hard pale tide-line at the top with a celadon granulation halo bleeding downward into the damp surface, register ticks riding along it.
- The layout is a register rail — a continuous baseline with stations and ticks, read left to right like a handscroll, collapsing to a single vertical scroll on mobile.
- Data inherits the mechanic: every progress fill ends in a glowing wet-front leading edge; the dried iron-oxide tideline is the one warm stain the system records permanently.
- Damp-paper panels carry faint dry-brush striation and are separated by the seam and measured space, never by keylines or a single coloured edge.

## 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 | `#11130F` |
| surface | `#181A15` |
| surface_2 | `#20231C` |
| text | `#ECE8DA` |
| muted | `#8F9183` |
| border | `#2B2E25` |
| accent | `#D6E6E2` |
| on_accent | `#11130F` |
| accent_2 | `#6FB3A0` |
| on_accent_2 | `#11130F` |
| accent_3 | `#C2724A` |
| on_accent_3 | `#11130F` |
| success | `#6FB3A0` |
| warning | `#C9962F` |
| error | `#B4503C` |
| info | `#5E8FA6` |

## Typography

- **Headline-Lg**: Archivo, 2.334rem, weight 700, line-height 1.1.
- **Headline-Md**: Archivo, 1.796rem, weight 600, line-height 1.15.
- **Body-Md**: Newsreader, 17px, weight 400, line-height 1.62.
- **Label-Md**: Spline Sans Mono, 0.75rem, weight 600, line-height 1.

## Layout

### Grid

Desktop is a register rail: a continuous baseline with evenly registered stations and ticks, content read left to right; the dashboard pairs a 248px rail sidebar with a fluid canvas. Tablet relaxes the columns; mobile becomes one vertical scroll of the scroll.

### Whitespace

Whitespace is the damp margin around the advancing front; gutters stay generous and the seam's bleed-halo is given room to breathe below each divide.

### Density

curatorial

### Responsive

Full-bleed hero spans 100vw x 100svh; contained content caps and centres on ultra-wide; grids use minmax(0,1fr) and min-width:0 so they never overflow; mobile stacks to one column and hides the rail sidebar.

### Breakpoints

- **Desktop**: >=1100px
- **Tablet**: 700-1099px
- **Mobile**: <700px

## Elevation & Depth

### Shadows

- **Sm**: 0 -1px 0 rgba(214,230,226,0.25)
- **Md**: 0 14px 40px rgba(0,0,0,0.45)
- **Lg**: 0 -1px 0 rgba(214,230,226,0.35), 0 28px 70px rgba(0,0,0,0.55)

## Shapes

### Rounded

- **None**: `0px`
- **Sm**: `0px`
- **Md**: `0px`
- **Lg**: `0px`
- **Full**: `9999px`

### Surfaces

- **Treatment**: damp-paper
- **Card Style**: dark damp-paper panels carrying faint dry-brush striation, separated by a luminous wet seam rather than keylines
- **Bg Pattern**: dry-brush-striation

### Borders

- **Default Width**: 1px
- **Accent Width**: 2px
- **Style**: solid
- **Character**: structure comes from the luminous wet seam and measured space; faint hairline only as a baseline rail or inside dense tables; never a single coloured card edge

## Components

### Composition

Mount every screen on one continuous register rail read left-to-right like an unrolled handscroll; divide sections with the luminous wet seam, not boxes. Dark wet-stone ground throughout.

### Hierarchy

Tall condensed all-caps Archivo display drives hierarchy by scale against warm Newsreader body and wide-tracked mono marginalia; the wet-front silver is the single brightest pigment.

### Density

Curatorial and asymmetric; generous gutters, isolated controls, register-style metadata in mono — never a dense admin grid.

### Signature

The bleed front: a luminous wet seam (hard pale line + downward celadon granulation halo) divides every station and registration ticks ride along it; the same wet-front leading edge terminates every progress fill, and the dried iron-oxide tideline is the one recorded warm stain.

## 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-019ef896-82fa-7362-9fa6-adc788cbe98a/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 Keep the dark wet-stone ground and let the luminous wet seam carry division and hierarchy.
- Do Mount content on the register rail and read it left to right; let registration ticks mark the stations.
- Do Use the three inks like highlighters: wet-front silver for the active edge, celadon for structure and verified states, iron-oxide for the one warm tideline note.
- Do Terminate progress and advance indicators with the glowing wet-front leading edge so data carries the signature.
- Do Restyle every form control with the damp-paper baseline-underline system; keep the top nav open across the header.
- Don't Do not revert to a bone-ivory ground, a held-open void column, radial smoke plumes, or a per-card brush-bar edge.
- Don't Do not use an oversized italic literary serif headline; the display is tall condensed Archivo.
- Don't Do not let the three inks become surface fields; keep them as highlighter-like marks on the dark ground.
- Don't Do not box the nav into a floating pill, nest cards, or stamp a single coloured edge on a card.
- Don't Do not centre everything or fill every cell into a dense admin grid.

### Accessibility

Body text 17px in pale wash over wet-stone at AA-plus contrast; focus states use a 2px wet-front underline/ring; status is carried by both pill colour and label text; motion respects prefers-reduced-motion and the settled state renders with no JavaScript.

## Imagery Direction

### Pairs With

suiboku

### Summary

Monochrome gestural sumi ink-wash inverted onto a dark wet-stone ground: a single luminous wet tide-line / bleed front advances across a near-black field, dry-brush granulation along its leading edge. No colour enters the imagery; the brightest passage is the pale wet seam, not the paper.

### Subjects

- an advancing wet bleed-front across dark stone
- a single tide-line receding on damp paper
- granulation pooling at an ink boundary
- a calligraphic gesture caught mid-bleed
- smoke threading off a wet stroke

### Usage

Hero and feature imagery are full-frame inverted suiboku plates where a luminous wet front sweeps diagonally across a dark field, the dark corners reserved for overlay text; the landing hero is a swappable background-image: var(--hero-image).

```json
{
  "$schema": "https://ui.shadcn.com/schema/registry-item.json",
  "name": "tidemark",
  "type": "registry:theme",
  "title": "Tidemark shadcn Theme",
  "cssVars": {
    "theme": {},
    "light": {
      "background": "#11130F",
      "foreground": "#ECE8DA",
      "card": "#181A15",
      "card-foreground": "#ECE8DA",
      "popover": "#181A15",
      "popover-foreground": "#ECE8DA",
      "primary": "#ECE8DA",
      "primary-foreground": "#111111",
      "secondary": "#f4f4f5",
      "secondary-foreground": "#111111",
      "muted": "#8F9183",
      "muted-foreground": "#ECE8DA",
      "accent": "#D6E6E2",
      "accent-foreground": "#111111",
      "destructive": "#B4503C",
      "border": "#2B2E25",
      "input": "#2B2E25",
      "ring": "#D6E6E2",
      "chart-1": "#ECE8DA",
      "chart-2": "#f4f4f5",
      "chart-3": "#D6E6E2",
      "chart-4": "#6FB3A0",
      "chart-5": "#C9962F",
      "sidebar": "#181A15",
      "sidebar-foreground": "#ECE8DA",
      "sidebar-primary": "#ECE8DA",
      "sidebar-primary-foreground": "#111111",
      "sidebar-accent": "#5E8FA6",
      "sidebar-accent-foreground": "#ffffff",
      "sidebar-border": "#2B2E25",
      "sidebar-ring": "#D6E6E2",
      "radius": "0"
    },
    "dark": {
      "background": "#0f1115",
      "foreground": "#f8fafc",
      "card": "#181b22",
      "card-foreground": "#f8fafc",
      "popover": "#181b22",
      "popover-foreground": "#f8fafc",
      "primary": "#ECE8DA",
      "primary-foreground": "#111111",
      "secondary": "#252a33",
      "secondary-foreground": "#f8fafc",
      "muted": "#252a33",
      "muted-foreground": "#a1a1aa",
      "accent": "#D6E6E2",
      "accent-foreground": "#111111",
      "destructive": "#B4503C",
      "border": "#303642",
      "input": "#303642",
      "ring": "#D6E6E2",
      "chart-1": "#ECE8DA",
      "chart-2": "#f4f4f5",
      "chart-3": "#D6E6E2",
      "chart-4": "#6FB3A0",
      "chart-5": "#C9962F",
      "sidebar": "#181b22",
      "sidebar-foreground": "#f8fafc",
      "sidebar-primary": "#ECE8DA",
      "sidebar-primary-foreground": "#111111",
      "sidebar-accent": "#D6E6E2",
      "sidebar-accent-foreground": "#111111",
      "sidebar-border": "#303642",
      "sidebar-ring": "#D6E6E2",
      "radius": "0"
    }
  },
  "meta": {
    "source": "katagami",
    "languageId": "en-019ef896-82fa-7362-9fa6-adc788cbe98a",
    "slug": "tidemark",
    "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",
        "accent_2",
        "accent_3",
        "bg",
        "border",
        "error",
        "info",
        "muted",
        "on_accent",
        "on_accent_2",
        "on_accent_3",
        "success",
        "surface",
        "surface_2",
        "text",
        "warning"
      ],
      "typography": [
        "base_size",
        "body_font",
        "display_stretch",
        "google_fonts_url",
        "heading_font",
        "heading_transform",
        "heading_weight",
        "letter_spacing",
        "line_height",
        "mono_font",
        "scale_ratio"
      ],
      "radii": [
        "full",
        "lg",
        "md",
        "none",
        "sm"
      ],
      "shadows": [
        "lg",
        "md",
        "sm"
      ],
      "surfaces": [
        "bg_pattern",
        "card_style",
        "treatment"
      ],
      "borders": [
        "accent_width",
        "character",
        "default_width",
        "style"
      ],
      "motion": [
        "duration",
        "easing",
        "philosophy"
      ]
    }
  }
}
```