light · editorial · sans · serif · warm · soft · structured
Kagi
A premium search engine dressed in warm cream and Plex — the indie answer to ad-funded search.
By webdesignhot · kagi.com
$ npx design-md add kagi
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Adidas Pure-black sport-utility, AdihausDIN/adidasFG uppercase, three-stripe geometry — the engineering canon for global sportswear. Adobe Creative-suite chrome — paper-white canvas, magenta-to-orange wordmark gradient, and Adobe Clean carrying every product grid. AgentKit Three swappable themes for AI agent products — editorial dark, daylight bright, fintech cool-blue. Airbnb Pure-white marketplace canvas with one Rausch coral and Cereal — generous photography, soft pills, modest type. Airtable White-canvas editorial workflow software with full-bleed coral and forest signature cards punctuating a near-black pill-CTA system. Alibaba Electric orange `#ff6a00` + dense merchant grids — the global B2B wholesale floor as a website. Amazon Smile-orange CTA, Amazon Ember sans, dense product grids — the canonical everything-store interface. Amazon Web Services Squid-ink navy with Smile-orange CTAs — the densest tile-portal on the cloud-platform internet. Anthropic Editorial broadsheet for AI safety — cream canvas, Anthropic Serif body, terracotta clay accent, magazine geometry. Apple White-canvas product theatre — SF Pro Text, 980px pill CTAs, and a single-blue accent system. Apple Music Pink-red gradient hero with album-grid kinesthetics — SF Pro precision, signature `#fa233b` brand pink, glassy dark canvas. Apple TV+ Pure-black cinematic theatre with SF Pro and ruthless minimalism — content as the only voice. Arc Browser-as-personality marketing — buttery cream canvas, Marlin Soft display, hand-tooled blue-and-coral palette. Are.na Bare grey-and-orange minimalism — a single Helvetica-class sans, hairline borders, and a stubborn refusal to optimise for engagement. Asana Approachable work management in soft purple — Asana Sans at modest weights with a rainbow accent palette and warm sky-tinted whitespace. Astro Cosmos navy canvas with violet-to-orange brand gradient — Mona Sans display, Inter body, Astro''s star-chart MPA framework dressed as an observatory dashboard. ASUS Republic of Gamers red `#cd0000` on black with bold sans — Taiwan engineering meets esports brutalism. Audi Vorsprung durch Technik on near-black — Audi Type sans, four-rings precision, and a near-monochrome canvas with `#bb0a30` reserved for sport. Auth0 Twilight-blue dark canvas with TWK Lausanne 300 display + Aeonik body — the original identity-platform aesthetic. Axiom Deep-navy observability with a cyan electric accent — Inter for body, JetBrains Mono for every event label, and a structural grid that reads as logs at planet scale. Axios Smart-brevity in chromatic form — blocky white canvas, Tiempos-flavored Atiza serif, signature `Why it matters:` time-bars and bullet-first prose. Base Coinbase-adjacent L2 minimalism — coinbaseSans on white, signature electric blue Baseten White canvas with Inter and a signature `#6c5ce7` purple — ML model deployment dressed in approachable workshop chrome. BBC News Signature BBC red (`#bb1919`), Reith Sans + Reith Serif, the global broadcaster authority typography of the world''s public-service news. Bear Off-white canvas, a custom bearsans display, a red bear icon, and tealish handwritten underlines — a Markdown notes app dressed as a Mac Pro magazine. beehiiv Aggressive black-on-yellow newsletter punch — heavy display sans, hyper-flat cards, and a `#ffd60a` highway-yellow that reads like a tabloid front page. Binance Trading-floor near-black with a single high-voltage Binance Yellow doing all the brand work — BinanceNova for type, BinancePlex for numbers. Bloomberg Iconic black-orange financial broadsheet — BWHaasHead headlines, AvenirNextPForBBG chrome, terminal-grade data density. Bluesky Sky-blue `#0085ff` on bright white with Inter sans — the AT-Protocol social network rendered as airy, federated, open. Blur Pure-black canvas, neon `#ff8700` orange voltage, and JetBrains-Mono-default everywhere — brutalist NFT trader terminal as competitive instrument. BMW Corporate-blue calm — BMW Type Next on a cream-tinted white, dark navy hero bands, and the M-stripe triplet in reserve. BMW M Performance black on M-blue/M-violet/M-red — the motorsport variant that turns BMW corporate into track-day theatre. Booking.com Deep-blue commerce engine — Bookin Sans on white, yellow CTA voltage, dense booking-funnel maximalism. Bose Pure black canvas, Helvetica restraint, and premium-audio confidence — sound presented as engineering art. Brex Cool grey-blue surfaces, magenta-to-purple-to-indigo gradient, Söhne 600 — fintech as fast, modern, slightly flashy. Bugatti French-engineered austerity — pure black canvas, three Bugatti typefaces, and full-bleed photography as the only voltage. Bun Cream canvas with chunky pink accents and the wide-eyed mascot — a JS runtime dressed as a 1970s bakery sign. Cal.com Open-source calendly with one bold custom font — Cal Sans on a soft `#f4f4f4` paper canvas. Calm Signature `#0066ff` deep blue + Aktiv Grotesk + meditation-deep cool atmospheric calm. Capacities Cream-yellow canvas, Inter at 700 with a Crimson Pro serif fallback, and a yellow underline as page ornament — a PKM that thinks like a sketchbook. Cartesia Bright clinical white with a single deep-blue action — voice-AI presented as scientific instrument rather than consumer product. Cash App Electric `#00d54b` green on near-black, Cash Sans monospace-flavoured geometry, and p2p-money youth aesthetic. Character.AI Cool zinc canvas, custom atHauss sans, and dark pill CTAs — a roleplay social product dressed in TikTok-grade neutrality. Chevrolet Gold-cross American classic — Louis sans on white with a `#cd9834` bowtie, a `#003876` corporate blue, and Camaro/Corvette red drama in reserve. Claude.ai Cream paper canvas, Anthropic Sans for body and Anthropic Serif for the headline — an AI assistant set in literary type. Clerk Geist + Suisse on near-black canvas with `#6c47ff` violet CTA — the drop-in-auth dev-tool aesthetic. ClickHouse Near-pure black canvas with electric yellow as the brand voltage — database performance dressed in voltmeter chrome. Cloudinary Media-API technical infrastructure in confident blue — Inter at modest weights with a deep navy-blue brand and a single chromatic accent for media moments. Cohere Stark white editorial canvas with deep green-black product bands and a CohereText/Unica77 type split. Coinbase Institutional-grade calm — pure white canvas, a single Coinbase Blue, and Coinbase Display set at weight 400 instead of 700. Composio Near-black canvas with deep-electric-blue voltage and a 2x2 terminal-mockup hero — agent infrastructure dressed as developer instrumentation. Corsair Yellow `#ffff00` lightning on black with Roboto — RGB-everything peripherals and PC components. Costco Warehouse blue + signature red, Helvetica utilitarian — bulk-buying signage translated to web. Coursera University-blue `#0056d2` on warm-white parchment with Source Sans — the canonical online-degree marketplace. Cursor Warm cream IDE-marketing — `#f7f7f4` canvas, `#26251e` ink, custom CursorGothic display, JetBrains Mono code, vivid orange accent. Datadog NationalWeb on white with the iconic `#632ca6` purple — observability dressed as an enterprise dashboard, structurally dense, chromatically restrained, multicolour where the data demands it. Deel A warm dark canvas with electric coral and orange accents — global payroll dressed as a confident product portrait. DeepSeek Deep-blue Chinese-tech minimalism — a research lab dressed in `#4d6bfe` and stark white space. Dell Pragmatic blue `#007db8` with custom Roboto-derivative — business-first PC commerce since the dorm room. Deno Inkwell black on warm white with the dinosaur mascot — TypeScript runtime as Eric Carle children's book. Descript Cream-pink canvas, a custom Brett display serif, and a wine-dark CTA — an AI video editor that ships like a magazine. Discord Indigo-ground hangout — gg sans body, ABC Ginto Nord display, 12-16px tile radii, white pill CTAs. Disney+ Deep navy gradient streaming hall with custom Inspire display sans and the unmistakable Disney+ wordmark arc. DoorDash Signature red-orange CTA, custom DoorDash Sans, delivery-funnel commerce — the dominant on-demand local marketplace. ElevenLabs Near-black voice-tech ground with white voice-wave aesthetic — Inter at studio scale, pill CTAs, and a single saturated accent that reads as both wayfinding and brand. Epic Games Pure-black canvas with custom Brutal Type / Heading Now display — Fortnite-saturated marketing meets PC-storefront merchandising. Ethereum Off-white canvas, ethereum-blue `#1c64f2` voltage, and Inter + serif duet — community-owned protocol as open documentation. Etsy Burnt-orange CTA, Graphik humanist sans, handcrafted-warmth aesthetic — the marketplace for makers and small batch. Excalidraw Literal hand-drawn whiteboard — wobbly SVG strokes, Virgil-style handwriting, and a deliberately primitive UI that turns digital sketching into nostalgia. Expedia Navy commerce + Mango yellow voltage — Expedia Sans, dense travel-funnel density with One Key loyalty colour-coding. Fantastical White paper, Effra geometric sans, full-round blue pills, and a rainbow of app-icon glass squares — a calendar app marketed like Apple''s Pro Apps. Ferrari Cinematic editorial in near-black — Rosso Corsa restraint, FerrariSans 500, and full-bleed cavallino photography. Figma Bright multi-color section bands with figmaSans display and figmaMono eyebrows — a marketing site that designs in scenes. Financial Times Salmon-pink page (`#fff1e5`) — the world''s most recognizable newspaper background, paired with Financier display + MetricWeb sans for global markets coverage. Fireworks AI Light canvas with Inter sans and a signature `#6720ff` purple-amber-orange spark — fast-inference platform dressed in speed-of-light kinetic chrome. Fly.io Mackinac display + Fragment Mono on a violet-saturated canvas — a PaaS that dresses like a small-press magazine. Ford American-truck heritage in corporate blue — Antenna sans, oval-script wordmark, and a deep `#003478` voltage that has carried the brand since 1927. Framer Black-on-white maximalism with electric gradient floods — Inter Display at heroic sizes, motion as a first-class material. Frontegg PP Neue Machina display + Neue Montreal body — plug-and-play user-management with deep-blue gravitas. Gemini (Google) Blue-into-violet gradient, Google Sans, soft Material 3 surfaces — Google''s house style applied to a chat interface. Ghost Warm-cream content CMS aesthetic — Inter for chrome, a soft serif for the writing surface, and a single confident green for action. GitHub Dark-canvas developer-platform marketing — Mona Sans variable headings, lime-green accent, near-black ground. GitHub Copilot Pure-white canvas, pure-black inverted CTAs, Mona Sans display — GitHub's editorial confidence applied to AI tooling. Grafana Dark observability canvas with the iconic `#f46800` orange — Inter for body, Roboto Mono everywhere a label hides, multi-colour chart palette ripped straight from a real dashboard. Granola White paper, a custom Quadrant book serif, and an olive-green CTA — an AI notepad that dresses like a stationery shop. Grubhub Friendly red-orange CTA, Sentinel display + Avenir body, dense delivery-app commerce — the long-running incumbent. HashiCorp Black canvas hosting a per-product color portfolio — Terraform purple, Vault yellow, Consul red, Waypoint cyan — multi-product identity made literal. Hashnode Developer publishing platform — deep navy canvas, electric blue brand, Inter sans + JetBrains Mono code chrome. HBO Max Deep purple-black premium streaming canvas with custom Sharp Grotesk and the unmistakable Max wordmark. Headspace Signature `#ffac1d` orange + custom round display + meditation-friendly playful warmth. Height AI-PM workspace dressed in chalk pastels — Inter at modest weights over a near-paper canvas, with a single confident accent and an AI-purple voltage moment. Honda Reliability-first restraint — HondaGlobalFont on white, signature red HP Cyan-blue `#0096d6` HP-circle on white with Forma DJR — the 84-year-old technology brand''s mainstream face. Hugging Face AI community canvas — deep blue-black ground, Source Sans Pro headlines, pill auth + 8px tile cards. Hulu Near-black canvas anchored on Hulu Green `#1ce783` with Graphik sans — the bright, cable-meets-streaming UI. IBM Carbon Design System made literal — pure-white canvas, IBM Plex Sans at light 300, square corners, and one assertive `#0f62fe` blue. Ideogram A bright white canvas with a single saturated violet cue — a typography-first AI image tool that lets the gallery do all the talking. Instacart Grocery-shopping-list practical — Instacart Sans on white, signature carrot green KAYAK Burnt-orange flight-search density — Open Sans on white, comparison-engine maximalism, price-graph data viz. Khan Academy Signature `#14bf96` mint green on white with Lato sans — free-for-everyone education in a warm, encouraging register. Kinde White canvas with Inter 72/500 display + dev-friendly pink-coral accent — the approachable auth-billing-access platform. Kit A cream newsletter canvas with a custom KitSans display, a Libre Franklin secondary, and a pastel-rainbow chip set — the editorial register reborn from ConvertKit. Kraken Kraken Purple `#7132f5` on white — Kraken-Brand display + Kraken-Product UI for a calmer, less-bombastic crypto exchange. Krea A pure-black studio with Suisse Intl set quietly at 60px — a creative-AI gallery that lets the work and the cobalt CTA carry the colour. Lamborghini Cathedral of darkness — true black canvas, Lamborghini Gold accents, and LamboType angled-terminal display. LangChain Deep navy canvas with Inter precision and a quietly confident teal accent — agent orchestration dressed as engineering documentation. Linear Dark-canvas product surface — pure-black ground, indigo accent, custom Inter weights, pill CTAs. LiveKit Realtime audio-video infra — Public Sans 300 weight on near-black, signature cyan LlamaIndex White canvas with Inter and a signature `#1b9aff` blue — RAG infrastructure dressed as a clean technical reference card. Logitech Soft consumer-tech blue gradients with Brown sans — design for the way you work, play, and create. Lovable Pink-into-violet gradient on white — vibe-coding dressed in playful, friendly chromatics. Magic Eden Mint-cream canvas, magenta-mint accent duet, and a custom Foundry display — Solana-native marketplace as boutique gallery. Mailchimp Cavendish-yellow chunkiness — a custom display serif (Cooper Light), the signature `#ffe01b` block, and a brand voice that hugs you while it ships campaigns. Mastercard Cream-canvas editorial fintech, circular-portrait orbits, MarkForMC at 450 weight — institutional-but-warm payments brand. MasterClass Pure-black cinema with custom display serif and editorial reverence — celebrity-instructor learning as a premium streaming product. Medium Editorial reading-first publishing — magazine-grade serif body, GT Super display, signature green-on-white pill CTAs. Mercedes-Benz Three-pointed-star authority — MBCorpo on near-black canvas, silver-blue Mercury A near-pure white canvas with a literary serif headline and a signature mercury-mint accent — banking dressed as a quiet magazine. Meta Optimistic blue (#0467df) on a white corporate canvas — Optimistic Display headlines, generous space, social-platform conglomerate at rest. Microsoft Fluent surfaces — off-white canvas, Segoe UI Variable Display, and a Cortana-blue action color carrying every product. Midjourney A deep cosmic canvas where JetBrains Mono headlines float over a wide-gamut OKLCH rainbow — a research lab dressed as a chapel. MiniMax Stark monochrome canvas broken open by vibrant gradient product cards — coral, magenta, blue, purple as model identity. Mintlify Documentation-platform marketing — pure white canvas, mint-green accent, Inter at tight tracking, near-black pill CTAs. Miro Canary-yellow Mistral Butter-yellow canvas, Arial as a deliberate anti-tech statement, and zero-radius rectangles — French AI as a brutalist art-school manifesto. Modal Serverless GPU infra in lime-green — `#0c0c0c` canvas, electric `#7fee64` accent, custom Modal Mono on every chip and code block. Monday.com Project management in confident red-pink — Poppins display at bold weights with a colorful saturated palette and a playfully energetic visual rhythm. MongoDB Signature MongoDB green Motion AI-calendar productivity in green-and-purple — Inter at modest weights with a green-to-purple voltage gradient signaling the AI scheduler, anchored by a clean white canvas. MSI Dragon-red `#ff0000` on jet black with bold display sans — the Taipei dragon-heritage gaming hardware brand. Mux Video API for developers — Aeonik on light-cream, Rotonto display, JetBrainsMono CTAs, sharp 0px corners. Neon Serverless Postgres dressed in late-night green — a near-black canvas with a single electric mint accent. Netflix Pure-black streaming theatre with signature `#e50914` red and Netflix Sans — the canonical media-tile grid. Nike Pure black, pure white, Helvetica Now — pill CTAs and full-bleed athletic photography on a single soft cloud gray. Notion Off-white canvas with Lyon serif accents and a custom NotionInter — a workspace dressed as a literary magazine. Nuxt Forest-green `#00dc82` glow on a near-black canvas — Vue-flavored warmth dressed for the cosmos. NVIDIA Engineering-grade canvas — pure black hero / paper-white body / one violently saturated `#76b900` green that carries every CTA and corner square. Omnivore Open-source read-it-later — near-white reading canvas, focused emerald-on-paper brand, archival elegance after the Eleven Labs sunset. OpenAI Pure white canvas, OpenAI Sans set in calm 500-weight, and a single black pill for the only action that matters — try ChatGPT. OpenRouter Pure-black canvas with custom display typography and pragmatic mono — LLM-router infrastructure dressed as a terminal billing dashboard. OpenSea Pure-black canvas, electric `#2081e2` blue, and Inter at trader-pro density — the original NFT marketplace as financial terminal. Optimism Pure-white canvas, signature `#ff0420` red voltage, and Inter at confident L2 register — Ethereum rollup as bold optimistic infrastructure. Ory White canvas with Inter 48/400 display + signature deep-navy `#0f172a` CTA — open-source-first identity for technical teams. Oura Pure-black canvas with Inter precision and gold-stamped scores — the premium-ring health-precision aesthetic. Paper Website A literal sheet-of-paper website — single literary serif, off-white sheet canvas, narrow reading columns, ink-blue links. PayPal Dual-blue corporate trust — PayPal Sans Big over white, with a deep-navy ink and a sky-blue counterpoint. Peloton Signature `#cb1e4e` red on midnight ink, Inter display, instructor-led premium-fitness storefront. Perplexity Cream paper canvas, custom pplxSans, and the unmistakable Tropic-cyan accent — a reference-library answer engine dressed in warm tones. Pinecone White canvas with Inter and a signature `#1cb0d0` cyan — vector database technical-marketing dressed in clean blueprint chrome. Plaid Pale blue trust on white, classical Stripe-adjacent type, and a Benjamin-Franklin-as-mascot moment of personality. Plain B2B support tool with a Dinamo grotesk and a single radioactive `#1ad379` action — Linear-restraint applied to support. PlanetScale Pure-black canvas, blood-red accent, mono-set numerals — a database brand styled like a financial terminal. Polar Dev-tool obsidian — 8rem editorial display headlines, indigo accents, Louize serif moments. Polygon Deep purple `#8247e5` voltage, soft surface ladder, and Inter at enterprise calm — Ethereum L2 as institutional infrastructure. Porsche Engineering-purity black-on-white — Porsche Next at 96px regular, Rosso PostHog Cream-canvas analytics with mustard-yellow CTAs and IBM Plex — open-source craft, not SaaS gloss. Postmark Postal-yellow #ffde00 + warm-black #1c1d1f + paper-white canvas — the transactional email API designed like a friendly post office sign. Prime Video Amazon-blue streaming canvas with Ember sans and the dense, utility-first marketplace UI vocabulary. PropelAuth White canvas with SF Pro Rounded display 60/900 + deep-navy ink — B2B multi-tenant auth with Apple-tinted polish. Qwik Electric purple-to-blue gradient on near-black — resumable execution dressed as a lightning bolt. Railway Ship software peacefully — IBM Plex Serif headlines on a deep eggplant canvas, with a single confident violet for action. Raindrop.io White paper, system-ui sans, soft watercolor blob backgrounds, and a vivid `#0b7ed0` blue CTA — a bookmark manager that ships like a creative-tool sketch. Ramp Off-yellow `#fcfb70` and black-on-white editorial — finance ops dressed as a printed annual report. Raycast Near-black canvas, glowing keycaps, monospaced shortcut chips — a marketing site that thinks like a launcher. Razer Neon `#44d62c` snake-green on jet black with Roboto — the For Gamers, By Gamers visual signature. Readwise Pastel-orange book-club warmth — soft cream canvas, friendly Tiempos serif accents, and a tangerine that signals 'this is your library.' Reddit Front-page-of-the-internet orange — community-card density, IBM Plex Sans display, and a confident Remix Signature `#3992ff` blue on pure white with Inter — a nested-routes web framework dressed as a manifesto poster. Render Lavender on white — a PaaS that swapped Heroku purple for a candy-bright #8a05ff and kept the airy whitespace. Replicate AI-API marketing — light page chrome, dark hero canvas, rb-Freigeist Neue display, JetBrains Mono code, sharp 0px corners. Replit Saturated turquoise on `#0e1525` ink — the cloud-IDE aesthetic with IBM Plex DNA and a JetBrains Mono soul. Resend Pure-black canvas with Domaine Display serif at 96px and Commit Mono code chips — email infra that thinks in italics. Retool Pragmatic blue #3a55fc + Inter + dense product mocks — the internal-tool platform that designed itself like a well-organised admin panel. Reuters Global newswire restraint — signature orange (`#ff8000`), Knowledge Medium custom sans, broadsheet rigor for the world''s oldest news agency. Riot Games Crimson `#d13639` red on near-black with custom Riot Beam display — esports-tournament drama and competitive-MOBA editorial. Rive Chunky animated display type and saturated playful colour — interactive graphics platform that wears its motion design on its sleeve. Roblox Bright `#ed1d24` red on white with Builder Sans — the youth-block-builder playground turned multi-billion-game social platform. RunPod Deep slate canvas with Inter and a signature `#673ab7` purple — accessible GPU cloud dressed in friendly developer chrome. Runway A near-black research canvas with ABC Normal headlines pulled tight at -2.5px — a film studio, an ML lab, and a brutalist gallery in one shell. Salesforce Cloud-trust dashboards — Salesforce Sans on a sky-blue ground, with Astro the bear standing guard over a dense CRM portal. SAP Enterprise-ERP precision in cobalt — SAP72 sans, signal-blue accents, and a calm white canvas built for trust. Segment Twilio Segment's customer-data-platform canvas — Whitney SSm humanist sans, navy-on-white, single confident `#1866ee` blue. Semafor Paper-cream canvas (`#f8f5d7`) with FeatureFlatHeadline serif and signature flag-style topic columns — global-news editorial built for the post-Twitter era. SendGrid Functional API-blue on white — the email-platform dashboard aesthetic, now folded under the Twilio umbrella. Sentry Deep-aubergine observability — Dammit Sans display, Rubik body, JetBrains Mono code, signature violet #7553ff and pill CTAs. shadcn/ui Copy-paste components in pure black-on-white — the most influential design system not actually shipped as a library. Shopify Dark-first commerce theatre — 96px NeueHaasGrotesk at weight 330, electric mint focus rings, and stacked multi-layer shadows. Signal Privacy-first messaging in `#3a76f0` Signal blue with Inter sans — minimal, ad-free, end-to-end-encrypted by default. Slack Aubergine workspace marketing — Salesforce-Avant-Garde headlines, all-caps 4px CTAs, white canvas with `#4a154b` accents. SolidJS Deep navy with a blue-to-cyan brand gradient — reactive primitives dressed as a circuit diagram. Sonos Pure black canvas, Inter typography, and audio-system minimalism — speakers presented as gallery objects. SoundCloud Signature `#ff5500` orange on `#f2f2f2` paper with Interstate sans — waveform-first audio social UI. SpaceX Pure-black cinematic photography, D-DIN aerospace stencil type, ghost-button minimalism — the interface disappears. Spotify Electric `#1ed760` green on near-black canvas with Spotify Mix sans — the canonical streaming-audio tile grid. Square Pure black on pure white, Square Sans grids, and retail-POS minimalism — commerce as black-and-white geometry. Starbucks Forest-green storefront — SoDoSans, full-pill buttons, warm-cream canvas, and a floating Frap CTA the brand calls home. Steam Deep blue-gray `#1b2838` with Motiva Sans — the utilitarian PC-gaming library that runs the world's largest digital storefront. SteelSeries Esports orange `#ff6900` on near-black with Inter — Danish precision peripherals for competitive play. Strava Signature `#fc4c02` orange + Inter on white — endurance-athlete data-driven storefront with map-overlay heritage. Stripe Editorial fintech polish — light Söhne headlines at weight 300, navy-not-black text, signature `#533afd` purple CTAs. Stytch Paper-cream canvas with Booton display + Chivo Mono body — passwordless-modern auth, joined Twilio. Substack Magazine-on-the-internet — Spectral serif body at 19px, Cahuenga display, signature `#ff6719` orange CTAs. Suno A near-black booth with cream Neue Montreal and a hot-pink cue light — a music studio, a record sleeve, and a chat app fused into one canvas. Sunsama Thoughtful daily planning in warm cream and ink — Inter at modest weights over a paper-cream canvas with sage and rose accents and a calm, unhurried voice. Supabase Off-black canvas, signature emerald `#3ecf8e`, Circular as display, Postgres-grade type discipline. Superhuman White paper canvas, a custom Super Sans variable, and a single confident lavender — premium email dressed as a stationery brand. Supreme Box-logo red, Courier monospace, skate-deadpan minimalism — the most influential streetwear store on the web. Svelte Hot orange #ff3e00 against clean white with a confident sans — the framework that wears its flame as a wordmark. Tailwind CSS The system applied to itself — Inter Variable on white canvas, signature cyan #06b6d4, every component built from Tailwind utilities. Tana Pure black canvas, a custom tanaClassic serif at 83px, and a pale-pistachio CTA — a knowledge graph dressed as a literary supplement. Target Bullseye red CTA, Helvetica Neue, photographic hero — friendly mass-market design with confident chromatic restraint. Telegram Cloud-blue messaging — Tesla Cinematic showroom on white — one Electric Blue CTA, Universal Sans, and viewport-height car photography. The Atlantic Modern serif headlines on cream-paper, signature Atlantic orange `#fbb33b`, long-form magazine reading rendered for the web. The Economist Deep cinnabar red `#e3120b`, Milo serif body, Econ Sans labels — the global-affairs weekly rendered with cover-illustration discipline. The Guardian Guardian Egyptian slab serif, signature navy `#052962`, structured ruled hierarchy with bold section accents. The New York Times Cheltenham serif headlines on paper-white, signature breaking-news red, the canonical American broadsheet rendered for the web. The New Yorker Adobe Caslon Pro + Irvin headline cap — a century of editorial gravitas in cream paper, ink black, and signature cartoon line. The Washington Post Postoni serif blackletter masthead, "Democracy Dies in Darkness" tagline, sober ink-on-paper political broadsheet. Things Cool light-blue canvas, system-ui sans, vivid Things-blue accent — a task manager that ships like an Apple Pro Display. Threads Instagram-adjacent text-first social — pure-black canvas, system-sans clarity, and a quiet brand restraint built from the @ glyph alone. TikTok Electric cyan-magenta on pure black — vertical-video voltage with custom Proxima Nova display and a bold neon brand grammar. tldraw Casual whiteboard sketchy — hand-drawn UI primitives, dotted-grid canvas, and a soft pastel palette that wears its toy-like energy with confidence. Together AI Deep navy on near-white with Inter sans — open-source LLM cloud rendered as developer-platform infrastructure. Toyota Japanese-reliability mainstream — `#eb0a1e` Toyota red on white, ToyotaType sans, and a calm-confident marketing surface for the world's most-sold automotive brand. Turbo Vercel-grade pure-black canvas with a magenta-to-blue Turbo gradient — the build system that wears its speed as a sweep. Turso SQLite at the edge — a deep-teal canvas with a CRT-bright cyan accent (#00face) that reads as a glowing edge node. Twilio Signal-red `#f22f46` against clean white — communications APIs given the visual weight of a broadcast colour. Twitch Purple `#9146ff` on `#0e0e10` canvas with Inter — the live-streaming UI built around chat, raids, and gaming density. Uber Eats Pure-black ground, Uber Move custom sans, Uber-app continuity — the operating system of food delivery. Udemy Signature `#a435f0` purple on white with Sailec sans — the open course-marketplace bazaar made approachable. Uniqlo Signature red `#ff0000`, Helvetica Neue system stack, japanese-utility-functional grid — the LifeWear engine. v0 A near-white prompt canvas with GeistSans and pure OKLCH grayscale — Vercel''s AI builder dressed as the calmest text editor on the internet. Venmo A single confident `#3d95ce` blue, Aktiv Grotesk geometry, and a social-feed informality — payments dressed as group chat. Vercel Brutalist developer-product polish — near-white canvas, near-pure black-on-near-white type, Geist sans + mono, conic-gradient accents. Vite Electric purple #646cff + Manrope display + a literal lightning-bolt mark — the build tool that designed itself to feel as fast as it is. Vodafone Vodafone Red broadcast band, monumental 144px display, two-tier button system — corporate-newsroom telecom design. Volkswagen People's-car blue — the deep `#001e50` corporate hue, custom VW Sans, and a friendly-German marketing surface that sells everyday mobility with confidence. Walmart Spark-yellow on big-box blue, Antonio Display + Bogle sans — everyday low prices made loud. Warp Near-black canvas, neon-lime cursor, real terminal screenshots — a marketing site that boots like a shell. Weaviate White canvas with Inter and a signature `#1cdb46` open-source green — modular vector database dressed in approachable engineering chrome. webdesignhot AI-era editorial dark — pure black with one acid-lime accent. Webflow Indigo-to-purple gradient discipline with a precise structural sans — the visual builder that markets itself like a design conference. WHOOP Lime `#a0d10b` voltage on jet-black, Inter precision, recovery-data athlete-grade aesthetic. WIRED Newsstand-density editorial grid, sharp-corner buttons, mono ALL-CAPS kickers — Conde Nast meets engineering lab. Wise A flexible bright-lime green on cream-white — money that travels in sans-serif and a single confident accent. Workday HR-warm professional in tangerine — Adelle Sans humanist curves, signature `#f37721` orange, and a calm white people-first canvas. WorkOS Pure-white canvas with Untitled Sans 80/500 display + indigo-violet h2 — the B2B-enterprise gravitas aesthetic. X Pure-black canvas with Chirp display — algorithmic minimalism, single-letter wordmark, ruthless type discipline. Y Combinator Brutalist orange monolith — system-font sans on white canvas, signature `#f26625` orange-red blocks with hard 0px corners. You.com Crisp white developer-doc canvas, custom Lumen Sans, and the indigo `#5368EE` accent — a search API rebrand done as enterprise infrastructure. YouTube YouTube Sans + Roboto + signature `#ff0000` red — content-density at planetary scale. Zora Cream-white canvas, electric purple-orange duet, and a custom display — onchain creator network as zine cover.
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Tokens design.md/v1.5
- bg
#fffbf5 - bg-soft
#fff6e8 - surface
#fbf2e2 - surface-strong
#f4e8ce - surface-hover
#fff0d8 - surface-elevated
#fffefa - text AAA · 14.9
#2b2417 - text-strong
#1c170d - text-medium
#3a3120 - text-muted
#6b5d47 - text-soft
#8a7a5e - text-faint — · 2.7
#a99a7d - on-brand
#1c170d - on-cta
#1c170d - brand — · 1.6
#ffb87a - brand-hover
#f3a45f - brand-active
#e89348 - brand-deep
#c97a3b - brand-soft
#ffe5c8 - brand-faint
#fff4e3 - brand-glow
rgba(255, 184, 122, 0.32) - accent
#7d6ce0 - accent-hover
#6b5acc - accent-soft
#e8e3ff - link
#c97a3b - link-hover
#a55d24 - selected-bg
#fbf2e2 - disabled-bg
#f4e8ce - disabled-text
#a99a7d - border — · 1.3
rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.10) - border-strong — · 1.5
rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.18) - border-soft
rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.08) - border-warm
rgba(201, 122, 59, 0.20) - border-focus
#c97a3b - success-bg
#e0ebd0 - success-text
#3d5a47 - warning-bg
#fde8c7 - warning-text
#7a5e1f - danger-bg
#f7d8d2 - danger-text
#8a3a3a - info-bg
#e8e3ff - info-text
#3a3a6a - shadow-rgb
43, 36, 23 - shadow-warm
201, 122, 59
Ship faster than ever.
display-hero "IBM Plex Sans" 80px w600 -0.025em
Ship faster than ever.
display "IBM Plex Sans" 64px w600 -0.02em
Ship faster than ever.
h1 "IBM Plex Sans" 56px w600 -0.02em
Built for teams that ship.
h2 "IBM Plex Sans" 40px w600 -0.015em
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
quote-large "IBM Plex Serif" 32px w500
A complete kit
h3 "IBM Plex Sans" 24px w600 0
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
quote-pull "IBM Plex Serif" 22px w400
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
h4 "IBM Plex Sans" 20px w600
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
body-large "IBM Plex Sans" 19px w400
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
h5 "IBM Plex Sans" 18px w500
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
body "IBM Plex Sans" 17px w400
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
body-small "IBM Plex Sans" 15px w400
OUR DESIGN SYSTEM
label-cta "IBM Plex Sans" 15px w600
OUR DESIGN SYSTEM
caption "IBM Plex Sans" 14px w400
npx design-md add linear
code "IBM Plex Mono" 14px w400
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caption-tabular "IBM Plex Mono" 13px w500
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label "IBM Plex Sans" 13px w500
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
eyebrow "IBM Plex Mono" 12px w500 0.06em
- step-0 1px
- step-1 2px
- step-2 4px
- step-3 6px
- step-4 8px
- step-5 12px
- step-6 16px
- step-7 20px
- step-8 24px
- step-9 32px
- step-10 48px
- step-11 64px
- step-12 80px
- step-13 96px
- step-14 128px
- step-15 160px
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4px - sm
6px - md
8px - lg
12px - card
16px - xl
20px - button
9999px - pill
9999px
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Kagi sells a paid search engine, so the site has to look unlike every other search page on the internet. The strategy is editorial: a warm cream canvas (`#fffbf5`) borrowed from independent magazines, a single sun-baked orange (`#ffb87a`) doing all the action work, and IBM Plex — both Sans and Serif — carrying the entire type system. CTAs are pill-shaped and use dark text on warm orange — Kagi never does white-on-orange, which preserves the paper-and-ink feel and (incidentally) hits AAA contrast where white-on-orange would fail. The posture is closer to Are.na or Readwise than to Bing — a deliberate stance that the search bar deserves the same care as a well-made magazine cover.
- Entire type system — Sans for UI, Serif for editorial accents, Mono for code/tags. The trifecta is the brand
- Cream-canvas + warm-neutral aesthetic positioning paid software as a craft object
- Warm-paper CTA discipline — dark text on coloured pills, no inverted white labels
- Editorial register applied to a paid product; manifesto-grade marketing
- Editorial whitespace; serif pull-quotes; paper-paced rhythm
- IBM Plex ecosystem; serif-meets-sans pairing for editorial tech publishing
- Adjacent register: warm-cream cousin, premium-feel paid product
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---
name: Kagi
tagline: 'A premium search engine dressed in warm cream and Plex — the indie answer to ad-funded search.'
author: webdesignhot
source_url: https://kagi.com
spec: design.md/v1.5
quality: curated
featured: false
categories: [saas, ai]
tags: [light, editorial, sans, serif, warm, soft, structured]
preview_swatch: ['#fffbf5', '#ffb87a', '#2b2417']
related: [you-com, perplexity, raycast]
description: 'Kagi''s site argues for paid search by looking nothing like a search engine. The canvas is a warm cream `#fffbf5`, the brand colour is a sun-baked orange `#ffb87a`, the body is set in IBM Plex Sans, and pull-quotes drop into IBM Plex Serif — a typographic pairing that reads more like a small magazine than a product page. Where Google argues for "free" with a clinical white sans-only interface, Kagi argues for "paid" with an editorial warm-cream layout and serif pull-quotes. The visual logic is: *you''re paying for this, so it should look like something worth paying for*. Pill CTAs are fully rounded with dark text on warm orange — never white-on-orange — preserving the paper-and-ink feel. The result is a brand that reads as Are.na meets Readwise meets a thoughtful magazine cover, an aesthetic posture deliberately positioned against ad-funded utility search.'
colors:
# Primary
bg: '#fffbf5' # warm cream canvas — defining surface
bg-soft: '#fff6e8' # secondary cream stripe
surface: '#fbf2e2' # card / panel base, half-step warmer
surface-strong: '#f4e8ce' # hover tone, deeper warm
surface-hover: '#fff0d8' # interactive hover wash
surface-elevated: '#fffefa' # rare lifted panel almost-white-cream
text: '#2b2417' # near-black with warm cast — body default
text-strong: '#1c170d' # display copy, deepest warm-black
text-medium: '#3a3120' # secondary heading
text-muted: '#6b5d47' # secondary copy / metadata in warm grey
text-soft: '#8a7a5e' # supporting copy
text-faint: '#a99a7d' # helper text, microcopy
on-brand: '#1c170d' # dark text on warm orange — never white
on-cta: '#1c170d' # dark label on orange pill
# Brand & Accent
brand: '#ffb87a' # signature sun-baked orange
brand-hover: '#f3a45f' # pressed state for orange pills
brand-active: '#e89348' # deeply pressed
brand-deep: '#c97a3b' # accent on light surfaces
brand-soft: '#ffe5c8' # tonal pill background
brand-faint: '#fff4e3' # quietest orange tint, near-bg
brand-glow: 'rgba(255, 184, 122, 0.32)' # focus glow
# Secondary accent
accent: '#7d6ce0' # lavender used in marketing modules
accent-hover: '#6b5acc'
accent-soft: '#e8e3ff' # lavender tint for illustrations only
# Interactive
link: '#c97a3b' # deep brand-orange for inline links
link-hover: '#a55d24' # darker pressed link
selected-bg: '#fbf2e2' # selected nav item / row
disabled-bg: '#f4e8ce' # disabled control fill
disabled-text: '#a99a7d' # disabled label
# Borders
border: 'rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.10)' # 10% black hairline (default)
border-strong: 'rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.18)' # emphasized rule
border-soft: 'rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.08)' # quietest division
border-warm: 'rgba(201, 122, 59, 0.20)' # rare brand-tinted hairline
border-focus: '#c97a3b' # focus-ring deep-brand
# Semantic
success-bg: '#e0ebd0' # warm cactus-green tint (not Tailwind green)
success-text: '#3d5a47'
warning-bg: '#fde8c7' # cream-warning tint
warning-text: '#7a5e1f'
danger-bg: '#f7d8d2' # warm coral
danger-text: '#8a3a3a'
info-bg: '#e8e3ff' # lavender info
info-text: '#3a3a6a'
# Shadow tints
shadow-rgb: '43, 36, 23' # warm-brown tinted shadow base
shadow-warm: '201, 122, 59' # rare brand-warm focus glow
typography:
display:
family: '"IBM Plex Sans", -apple-system, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif'
weights: [400, 500, 600, 700]
opentype-features: ['ss01', 'liga', 'kern']
body:
family: '"IBM Plex Sans", -apple-system, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif'
weights: [400, 500, 600]
opentype-features: ['kern', 'onum']
serif:
family: '"IBM Plex Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif'
weights: [400, 500, 600]
opentype-features: ['liga', 'onum', 'kern']
mono:
family: '"IBM Plex Mono", Menlo, Consolas, monospace'
weights: [400, 500]
opentype-features: ['tnum', 'zero']
scale:
display-hero: { size: 80, weight: 600, lineHeight: 1.02, tracking: '-0.025em', family: display, opentype: 'ss01' }
display: { size: 64, weight: 600, lineHeight: 1.05, tracking: '-0.02em', family: display }
h1: { size: 56, weight: 600, lineHeight: 1.05, tracking: '-0.02em', family: display }
h2: { size: 40, weight: 600, lineHeight: 1.1, tracking: '-0.015em', family: display }
h3: { size: 24, weight: 600, lineHeight: 1.25, tracking: '0', family: display }
h4: { size: 20, weight: 600, lineHeight: 1.3, family: display }
h5: { size: 18, weight: 500, lineHeight: 1.35, family: display }
eyebrow: { size: 12, weight: 500, lineHeight: 1.4, tracking: '0.06em', family: mono, transform: uppercase }
body-large: { size: 19, weight: 400, lineHeight: 1.55, family: body }
body: { size: 17, weight: 400, lineHeight: 1.55, family: body }
body-small: { size: 15, weight: 400, lineHeight: 1.5, family: body }
caption: { size: 14, weight: 400, lineHeight: 1.4, family: body }
caption-tabular: { size: 13, weight: 500, lineHeight: 1.4, family: mono, opentype: 'tnum' }
label: { size: 13, weight: 500, lineHeight: 1.3, family: body }
label-cta: { size: 15, weight: 600, lineHeight: 1.2, family: body }
quote-pull: { size: 22, weight: 400, lineHeight: 1.4, family: serif, style: italic }
quote-large: { size: 32, weight: 500, lineHeight: 1.3, family: serif, style: italic }
code: { size: 14, weight: 400, lineHeight: 1.55, family: mono, opentype: 'tnum zero' }
radius:
micro: 4
sm: 6
md: 8
lg: 12
card: 16
xl: 20
button: 9999 # Kagi favours fully-rounded pill CTAs
pill: 9999
spacing:
base: 4
scale: [1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 32, 48, 64, 80, 96, 128, 160]
layout:
page-width: 1200
prose-width: 680
hero-prose-width: 720
site-gutter: 'clamp(24px, 5vw, 64px)'
header-height: 64
grid-columns: 12
section-rhythm: '96-160px'
components:
button-primary:
background: '#ffb87a'
text: '#1c170d'
padding: '12px 24px'
radius: 9999
border: 'none'
font: 'IBM Plex Sans 600 / 15px'
hover-bg: '#f3a45f'
active-bg: '#e89348'
use: 'Pill-shaped warm orange — primary action across the site, dark text never white'
button-secondary:
background: 'transparent'
text: '#2b2417'
padding: '12px 24px'
radius: 9999
border: '1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.10)'
font: 'IBM Plex Sans 600 / 15px'
hover-bg: '#fbf2e2'
use: 'Cream outlined pill — identical radius to primary, hairline border'
button-ghost:
background: 'transparent'
text: '#2b2417'
padding: '8px 16px'
radius: 9999
border: 'none'
font: 'IBM Plex Sans 500 / 14px'
hover-bg: 'rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.05)'
use: 'Quiet third action — nav links, inline ghost buttons; pill radius preserved'
button-deep:
background: '#1c170d'
text: '#fffbf5'
padding: '12px 24px'
radius: 9999
font: 'IBM Plex Sans 600 / 15px'
hover-bg: '#3a3120'
use: 'Rare deep CTA — used on dark-band hero or pricing emphasis; cream label on warm-black'
card:
background: '#fbf2e2'
border: '1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.10)'
radius: 16
padding: '24px'
use: 'Default warm-cream panel — feature card, pricing tier, testimonial'
card-cream:
background: '#fffefa'
border: '1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.08)'
radius: 16
padding: '32px'
use: 'Lifted card on the warm cream bg — rare, used for hero pricing'
pull-quote:
background: 'transparent'
text: '#1c170d'
padding: '0'
border-left: '3px solid #ffb87a'
indent: '32px'
font: 'IBM Plex Serif 400 / 22px italic / 1.4 line-height'
use: 'Editorial pull-quote — Plex Serif italic, indented from body grid, brand-orange left rule'
input:
background: '#fffefa'
border: '1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.18)'
radius: 12
padding: '12px 16px'
font: 'IBM Plex Sans 400 / 17px'
placeholder-color: '#a99a7d'
focus-ring: '0 0 0 2px #c97a3b'
use: 'Search input on signup form, settings'
badge-tag:
background: '#fbf2e2'
text: '#6b5d47'
padding: '4px 10px'
radius: 9999
font: 'IBM Plex Mono 500 / 12px'
use: 'Editorial tag — uses Plex Mono for the spec-stamp feel'
badge-warm:
background: '#ffe5c8'
text: '#a55d24'
padding: '4px 10px'
radius: 9999
font: 'IBM Plex Sans 500 / 12px'
use: 'Status pill — Plus / Family / Pro tier indicator'
nav-link:
background: 'transparent'
text: '#2b2417'
padding: '8px 12px'
font: 'IBM Plex Sans 500 / 15px'
hover-text: '#c97a3b'
use: 'Top nav links — quiet warm-black, brand-deep on hover'
testimonial-card:
background: '#fbf2e2'
border: '1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.10)'
radius: 16
padding: '32px'
use: 'Editorial testimonial — uses Plex Serif italic for the quote, Plex Sans for the attribution'
motion:
ease-standard: 'cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1)'
ease-emphasized: 'cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0, 1)'
ease-out: 'cubic-bezier(0.16, 1, 0.3, 1)'
ease-editorial: 'cubic-bezier(0.32, 0.72, 0, 1)'
duration-instant: 80
duration-fast: 120
duration-standard: 220
duration-slow: 360
duration-page: 480
reduced-motion: 'respects prefers-reduced-motion: reduce — translate transforms become opacity-only, durations halved, illustration parallax disabled'
breakpoints:
mobile: 640
tablet: 1024
desktop: 1280
wide: 1440
shadows:
none: 'none'
ambient: 'rgba(43, 36, 23, 0.04) 0 1px 3px'
standard: 'rgba(43, 36, 23, 0.06) 0 4px 12px'
elevated: 'rgba(43, 36, 23, 0.08) 0 12px 32px -8px, rgba(43, 36, 23, 0.04) 0 4px 8px'
warm: 'rgba(255, 184, 122, 0.20) 0 16px 40px -16px'
modal: 'rgba(43, 36, 23, 0.18) 0 24px 48px -12px'
ring: '0 0 0 2px #c97a3b'
ring-offset: '0 0 0 2px #fffbf5, 0 0 0 4px #c97a3b'
accessibility:
contrast-text-on-bg: 12.4 # #2b2417 on #fffbf5 — AAA
contrast-text-strong-on-bg: 15.1 # #1c170d on #fffbf5 — AAA
contrast-text-on-brand: 10.8 # #1c170d on #ffb87a — AAA
contrast-text-muted-on-bg: 5.4 # #6b5d47 on #fffbf5 — AA at body
contrast-link-on-bg: 5.0 # #c97a3b on #fffbf5 — AA
focus-ring: '2px solid #c97a3b with 2px cream offset'
reduced-motion-honored: true
keyboard-nav: 'visible focus on every interactive surface; tab order matches reading order; pull-quote markup uses <blockquote> with <cite> attribution'
prose-line-length: 'capped at 680px (~64 characters of Plex Sans 17px) for editorial readability'
aria-patterns: 'pricing tiers use role=group with aria-labelledby; testimonial cards use proper <blockquote> + <cite> markup; nav uses role=navigation with aria-label; pill CTAs use button semantics with descriptive labels'
dark-mode: optional # in-product Kagi search supports dark; marketing surface is light-only with warm-cream as canvas
lineage:
summary: 'Kagi sells a paid search engine, so the site has to look unlike every other search page on the internet. The strategy is editorial: a warm cream canvas (`#fffbf5`) borrowed from independent magazines, a single sun-baked orange (`#ffb87a`) doing all the action work, and IBM Plex — both Sans and Serif — carrying the entire type system. CTAs are pill-shaped and use dark text on warm orange — Kagi never does white-on-orange, which preserves the paper-and-ink feel and (incidentally) hits AAA contrast where white-on-orange would fail. The posture is closer to Are.na or Readwise than to Bing — a deliberate stance that the search bar deserves the same care as a well-made magazine cover.'
influences:
- name: IBM Plex
role: 'Entire type system — Sans for UI, Serif for editorial accents, Mono for code/tags. The trifecta is the brand'
url: https://www.ibm.com/plex
- name: Are.na
role: 'Cream-canvas + warm-neutral aesthetic positioning paid software as a craft object'
url: https://www.are.na
- name: Readwise / Reader
role: 'Warm-paper CTA discipline — dark text on coloured pills, no inverted white labels'
url: https://readwise.io
- name: The Browser
role: 'Editorial register applied to a paid product; manifesto-grade marketing'
url: https://thebrowser.com
- name: MIT Technology Review
role: 'Editorial whitespace; serif pull-quotes; paper-paced rhythm'
url: https://www.technologyreview.com
- name: Stripe Press
role: 'IBM Plex ecosystem; serif-meets-sans pairing for editorial tech publishing'
url: https://press.stripe.com
- name: Raycast
role: 'Adjacent register: warm-cream cousin, premium-feel paid product'
url: https://raycast.com
---
## 1. Visual Theme & Atmosphere
Kagi's marketing site is **a manifesto against ad-funded search dressed as a small magazine**. The canvas is a warm cream `#fffbf5` — not white, not beige, but the colour of unbleached book stock — and every other surface tones up or down from there in a single warm-neutral ladder. The brand colour is a sun-baked orange `#ffb87a` that appears almost exclusively on pill-shaped CTAs, and IBM Plex Sans + Plex Serif carry the entire typographic load.
Where Google argues for "free" with a clinical white sans-only interface, Kagi argues for "paid" with an editorial warm-cream layout and serif pull-quotes. The visual logic is: *you're paying for this, so it should look like something worth paying for*. Every chromatic decision reinforces that posture — warm cream over bleached white, sun-baked orange over corporate blue, hand-set Plex Serif italic for pull-quotes, fully-rounded pill CTAs (not the modern 8–12px square-rounded default).
The most consequential decision is **dark text on warm orange**. Where every modern SaaS pairs white text with a coloured CTA, Kagi insists on `#1c170d` warm-black on `#ffb87a` orange — never white. This single typographic-meets-chromatic rule preserves the paper-and-ink feel: the page reads as ink-on-paper rather than chrome-on-glow. The reverse pairing (white on orange) is doctrinally rejected — see §14.
The Plex pairing is the typographic argument. IBM Plex Sans for UI body and headlines (a designed-by-IBM open-source family with a slightly architectural feel), IBM Plex Serif for editorial moments — pull-quotes, taglines, longform intros — and IBM Plex Mono for the rare code block or eyebrow tag. Three faces from one designer, one foundry, one type system. The completeness of the Plex trifecta is what gives Kagi its single typographic identity rather than the usual three-foundry collage.
Atmospheric vocabulary: *warm-cream-canvas, sun-baked-orange, Plex-Sans-Plex-Serif-pairing, pill-CTA-with-dark-text, editorial-magazine, paper-and-ink, indie-publication, paid-search-as-craft-object, Are.na-cousin, Readwise-cousin, anti-ad-funded-utility.*
**Key Characteristics**
- Warm cream `#fffbf5` canvas — the colour of unbleached book stock
- Sun-baked orange `#ffb87a` reserved for pill CTAs only
- **Dark text on orange** (`#1c170d`) — never white
- IBM Plex Sans + Plex Serif typographic pairing
- Plex Serif italic pull-quotes — the editorial differentiator
- Fully-rounded pill CTAs (radius 9999) — Kagi never squares the buttons
- 16px card radius on warm-cream panels
- 10% black hairlines instead of coloured borders
- Tonal layering for depth — `#fffbf5 → #fff6e8 → #fbf2e2 → #f4e8ce`
- Plex Mono eyebrow tags — the "specifications" feel
- Lavender `#7d6ce0` rare illustration accent — never a CTA fill
- Magazine-paced rhythm (96–160px section gutters)
## 2. Color Palette & Roles
### Primary
- **bg** `#fffbf5` — warm cream canvas; the page's defining surface, never substituted for `#ffffff`.
- **text** `#2b2417` — near-black with warm cast; body default.
- **bg-soft** `#fff6e8` — secondary cream stripe for alternating sections.
- **surface** `#fbf2e2` — card / panel base, half-step warmer than bg.
- **text-strong** `#1c170d` — display copy, deepest warm-black; also the on-brand label colour.
### Brand & Accent (orange + lavender)
- **brand** `#ffb87a` — signature sun-baked orange; pill CTAs, hover-link underline.
- **brand-hover** `#f3a45f` — pressed pill state.
- **brand-active** `#e89348` — deeply pressed.
- **brand-deep** `#c97a3b` — accent text on light surfaces; inline link colour.
- **brand-soft** `#ffe5c8` — tonal pill background, status indicators.
- **brand-faint** `#fff4e3` — quietest orange tint, rare promotional band.
- **accent** `#7d6ce0` — lavender used sparingly in secondary marketing modules and illustrations only — **never on a CTA**.
- **accent-soft** `#e8e3ff` — lavender illustration tint.
### Interactive
- **link** `#c97a3b` — deep brand-orange; underlined.
- **link-hover** `#a55d24` — darker pressed.
- **selected-bg** `#fbf2e2` — selected nav, selected row.
- **disabled-bg** `#f4e8ce` — disabled control fill.
- **disabled-text** `#a99a7d` — disabled label, warm grey.
- **focus-ring** `#c97a3b` — 2px solid deep-brand with 2px cream offset.
### Neutral Scale (warm grayscale)
- **warm-black** `#1c170d` — display copy, deepest.
- **warm-text** `#2b2417` — body default.
- **warm-medium** `#3a3120` — secondary heading.
- **warm-muted** `#6b5d47` — captions, metadata in warm grey.
- **warm-soft** `#8a7a5e` — supporting copy.
- **warm-faint** `#a99a7d` — helper, microcopy.
- **warm-line** `#d4c8b0` — strong divider rule.
### Surface & Borders
- **surface-0 (page)** — `#fffbf5` warm cream.
- **surface-1 (panel)** — `#fff6e8` cream stripe.
- **surface-2 (card)** — `#fbf2e2` warm card base.
- **surface-3 (hover)** — `#f4e8ce` deeper warm.
- **surface-elevated (rare)** — `#fffefa` near-white-cream.
- **border** `rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.10)` — 10% black hairline (default).
- **border-strong** `rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.18)` — emphasized rule.
- **border-soft** `rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.08)` — quietest division.
- **border-warm** `rgba(201, 122, 59, 0.20)` — rare brand-tinted hairline (used on the orange pull-quote bar).
### Shadow Colors
Kagi uses **warm-brown tinted** shadows at very low opacity. The marketing surface uses tonal layering for 95% of depth — `#fffbf5 → #fff6e8 → #fbf2e2 → #f4e8ce` — and a single 10% black hairline. When a real shadow is needed, it's `rgba(43, 36, 23, ...)` (the warm-text RGB) at 0.04–0.18 opacity. The rare `warm` shadow uses the brand-orange RGB for an accent glow under hero illustrations.
### Semantic
- **success** — `#e0ebd0` / `#3d5a47`. Warm-cactus green, not Tailwind-default.
- **warning** — `#fde8c7` / `#7a5e1f`. Cream-warning, sits adjacent to brand.
- **danger** — `#f7d8d2` / `#8a3a3a`. Warm coral, never pure red.
- **info** — `#e8e3ff` / `#3a3a6a`. Lavender pair — the only place lavender appears in chrome.
The semantic palette is **all desaturated warm tones**, never Tailwind-default (which would be too saturated against the cream canvas).
## 3. Typography Rules
### Font Family
- **Display & Body**: **IBM Plex Sans** at weights 400 / 500 / 600 / 700. Plex Sans is a designed-by-IBM open-source family with a slightly architectural feel — slightly more contrast than Inter, slightly more warmth than Söhne. It's what gives Kagi the "considered" rather than "generic SaaS" cadence. Fallback: `-apple-system → system-ui → Segoe UI → Helvetica → Arial → sans-serif`.
- **Editorial Serif**: **IBM Plex Serif** at weights 400 / 500 / 600. Used exclusively for pull-quotes, taglines, and rare longform intros. Italic is the dominant style. Fallback: `Georgia → Times New Roman → serif`.
- **Mono**: **IBM Plex Mono** at weights 400 / 500. Used for eyebrow tags, code blocks, and the rare specification badge. Fallback: `Menlo → Consolas → monospace`.
- **OpenType features**: `kern` always; `ss01` on display (cleaner alt-glyphs); `onum` (old-style figures) on body Plex Sans for editorial cadence; `tnum + zero` on Plex Mono for legible numerics.
### Hierarchy
| Role | Font | Size | Weight | Line Height | Letter Spacing | OT Features | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| display-hero | Plex Sans | 80 | 600 | 1.02 | -0.025em | ss01 | Rare hero — annual report / manifesto pages |
| display | Plex Sans | 64 | 600 | 1.05 | -0.02em | — | Section openers |
| h1 | Plex Sans | 56 | 600 | 1.05 | -0.02em | — | Standard hero |
| h2 | Plex Sans | 40 | 600 | 1.1 | -0.015em | — | Section heading |
| h3 | Plex Sans | 24 | 600 | 1.25 | normal | — | Subsection |
| h4 | Plex Sans | 20 | 600 | 1.3 | normal | — | Card heading |
| h5 | Plex Sans | 18 | 500 | 1.35 | normal | — | Inline subheading |
| eyebrow | Plex Mono | 12 | 500 | 1.4 | 0.06em | uppercase | Section label / tag — the spec-stamp |
| body-large | Plex Sans | 19 | 400 | 1.55 | normal | onum | Lede |
| body | Plex Sans | 17 | 400 | 1.55 | normal | onum | Default body — slightly larger than 16px web default |
| body-small | Plex Sans | 15 | 400 | 1.5 | normal | — | Secondary copy |
| caption | Plex Sans | 14 | 400 | 1.4 | normal | — | Helper, image caption |
| caption-tabular | Plex Mono | 13 | 500 | 1.4 | normal | tnum | Spec-row data |
| label | Plex Sans | 13 | 500 | 1.3 | normal | — | Form labels |
| label-cta | Plex Sans | 15 | 600 | 1.2 | normal | — | Button text |
| quote-pull | Plex Serif italic | 22 | 400 | 1.4 | normal | onum | Editorial pull-quote — the brand differentiator |
| quote-large | Plex Serif italic | 32 | 500 | 1.3 | normal | onum | Hero-scale pull-quote |
| code | Plex Mono | 14 | 400 | 1.55 | normal | tnum zero | Inline + block code |
### Principles
- **Plex Sans + Plex Serif duet is the brand.** The Sans handles UI; the Serif handles editorial moments. Three Plex faces from one designer = single typographic identity.
- **Body sized at 17px / 1.55 line-height.** Slightly larger than the 16px web default — designed for the long marketing essays Kagi publishes.
- **Headlines compress at `-0.02em` to `-0.025em`.** Display only; body holds at normal tracking.
- **Plex Serif italic for pull-quotes only.** Roman serif is rare; italic is the dominant register.
- **Old-style figures (`onum`) on body.** Gives numerics the editorial, non-tabular cadence of well-set magazine prose.
- **Plex Mono for eyebrow + code.** Eyebrow uppercase at 0.06em tracking — the "specifications" feel without being clinical.
- **600 is the heading weight, never 700.** 700 is reserved for display-hero only.
- **Modular scale of 1.25× from body 17px.** 17 → 21.25 → 26.6 → 33 → 41.5 → 52 → 65… simplified to 17/20/24/40/56/64/80 in practice.
## 4. Component Stylings
### Buttons
**Primary pill (orange, dark text)** — `#ffb87a` bg, `#1c170d` text, **9999 radius** (fully rounded), Plex Sans 600 / 15px, padding `12px 24px`. Hover deepens to `#f3a45f`; active to `#e89348`. The signature CTA — "Try Kagi", "Get started", "Subscribe". **Text is dark, never white** — see §14.
**Secondary pill (cream outlined)** — transparent bg, `#2b2417` text, `1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.10)` border, 9999 radius identical to primary, Plex Sans 600 / 15px. Hover wash `#fbf2e2`.
**Ghost pill** — transparent, `#2b2417` text, no border, 9999 radius preserved, `8px 16px` padding. Hover wash `rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.05)`. Used for nav and inline ghost buttons.
**Deep pill (rare)** — `#1c170d` bg, `#fffbf5` text, 9999 radius. Hover `#3a3120`. Reserved for dark-band hero or pricing emphasis — at most once per page.
### Cards
**Default card** — `#fbf2e2` warm-cream bg, `1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.10)` border, 16px radius, `24px` padding, no shadow. Used for feature cards, pricing tiers, testimonials.
**Lifted cream card (rare)** — `#fffefa` near-white-cream bg, `1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.08)` border, 16px radius, `32px` padding. Used for hero pricing or featured testimonial.
**Testimonial card** — `#fbf2e2` bg, `1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.10)` border, 16px radius, `32px` padding. Quote in Plex Serif italic 22px; attribution in Plex Sans 500 14px below.
### Pull-quote (the editorial signature)
**Pull-quote** — transparent bg, `#1c170d` text, `3px solid #ffb87a` left border, `32px` left indent, Plex Serif italic 22px / 1.4 line-height. Indented from body grid; usually breaks up dense feature copy.
### Badges, Tags, Pills
**Editorial tag** — `#fbf2e2` bg, `#6b5d47` text, **Plex Mono** 500 / 12px, pill radius. The mono gives the spec-stamp feel that distinguishes Kagi tags from generic SaaS badges.
**Status pill (warm)** — `#ffe5c8` bg, `#a55d24` text, Plex Sans 500 / 12px, pill radius. Used for plan tiers: `Plus`, `Family`, `Pro`.
### Inputs & Forms
**Default input** — `#fffefa` bg, `1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.18)` border, 12px radius, `12px 16px` padding, Plex Sans 400 / 17px, `#a99a7d` placeholder. Focus ring `0 0 0 2px #c97a3b` with 2px cream offset.
**Form labels** — Plex Sans 500 / 14px, `#2b2417`, `4px` margin-bottom from input.
**Helper text** — Plex Sans 400 / 14px, `#6b5d47`, `4px` margin-top from input.
**Error state** — border `#f7d8d2`; helper text flips to `#8a3a3a`.
### Navigation
**Top nav** — 64px header height, `#fffbf5` bg matching page (no fill until scroll), no border. Wordmark left in Plex Sans 600. Nav links right at Plex Sans 500 / 15px / `#2b2417`. Hover deepens link to `#c97a3b`. Right cluster: ghost "Sign in" + primary orange pill "Try Kagi".
**Footer nav** — Plex Sans 400 / 14px / `#6b5d47`, multi-column grid. Footer typography uses a touch more leading to read as paper-paged.
### Modal
**Modal** — `#fffefa` panel, 16px radius, modal shadow `rgba(43, 36, 23, 0.18) 0 24px 48px -12px`, `40px` padding. Backdrop `rgba(43, 36, 23, 0.5)`.
### Tooltips
**Tooltip** — `#1c170d` bg, `#fffbf5` text, 8px radius, Plex Sans 400 / 13px, `8px 12px` padding, `220ms` fade.
### Toasts
**Toast** — `#fffefa` bg, `1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.10)` border, 12px radius, ambient warm shadow, `12px 16px` padding. Slide-up from bottom-right.
## 5. Layout Principles
### Spacing System
Base unit **4px**. Scale: `1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 32, 48, 64, 80, 96, 128, 160`. Section padding regularly hits 96–160px between modules — magazine-paced rhythm. Card interiors are generous (24–32px) — paper-grade breathing room.
### Grid & Container
- **Page max-width**: 1200px, centred, `clamp(24px, 5vw, 64px)` site gutter.
- **Hero prose-width**: 720px max.
- **Marketing prose-width**: 680px (~64 characters at Plex Sans 17px).
- **Grid columns**: 12, 24px gutter — but used flexibly. Editorial layouts often run 2-up asymmetric (5/7) or 3-up symmetric.
- **Section padding**: 96–160px between modules.
### Whitespace Philosophy
Sections breathe. Vertical padding regularly hits 96–160px between modules; this is the magazine-paced rhythm rather than the dashboard-density of competitor sites. Within sections: 24–48px between groups. Type sizes step in stable 1.25× ratios from 17px body up through 24/32/40/56/80, mirroring an editorial modular scale.
### Section Cadence
The page alternates **`#fffbf5` warm-cream**, **`#fff6e8` cream-stripe**, and (rarely) `#1c170d` warm-black bands. The dark band is for emphasis — pricing reveal, manifesto closing — not default rhythm. Most sections stay in the cream-on-cream register.
## 6. Shapes & Radius Scale
| Tier | Value | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Micro | 4px | Inline tags (rare), focus inner-stroke |
| Small | 6px | Quietest dense chips |
| Standard | 8px | Tooltip, dense form chips |
| Comfortable | 12px | Inputs, dropdowns |
| Card | 16px | Default warm-cream cards, testimonial cards |
| Large | 20px | Modal, hero shells |
| Pill | 9999px | **All buttons** — Kagi's signature |
The defining radius decision is the **pill button**. Where every modern SaaS lands at 8–12px on buttons, Kagi runs **fully rounded pills** for primary, secondary, and ghost. The pill radius is part of the brand fingerprint as much as the cream canvas is. Cards hold at 16px (paper-grade soft). Hero shells at 20px (rare). Pills at 9999.
## 7. Depth & Elevation
| Level | Treatment | Use |
|---|---|---|
| 0 (flat) | No shadow, no border | Page bg |
| 1 (hairline) | `1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.10)` border | Default cards |
| 2 (tonal) | `#fbf2e2` bg lift on `#fffbf5`, no shadow | Default card depth |
| 3 (deeper tonal) | `#f4e8ce` bg on cream | Hover state, deepest tonal |
| 4 (ambient) | `rgba(43, 36, 23, 0.06) 0 4px 12px` | Toast, light hover |
| 5 (modal) | `rgba(43, 36, 23, 0.18) 0 24px 48px -12px` | Modal |
| Special | `rgba(255, 184, 122, 0.20) 0 16px 40px -16px` | Rare warm-glow under hero illustration |
### Shadow Philosophy
Kagi's depth language is **tonal layering plus a 10% black hairline, almost never blur**. Cards lift through tone and border, not shadow — every surface looks like a different stock weight, not a different elevation. This is what gives Kagi its paper-and-ink feel. When a real shadow is needed (modal, tooltip), it's **warm-brown tinted** (`rgba(43, 36, 23, ...)`) — never neutral black, never coloured. The rare `warm` shadow uses the brand-orange RGB for an editorial accent glow.
## 8. Interaction & Motion
### Easing curves
- **Standard** — `cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1)` — default for hover, focus.
- **Emphasized** — `cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0, 1)` — incoming elements, modals.
- **Out** — `cubic-bezier(0.16, 1, 0.3, 1)` — overshoot-free decelerate.
- **Editorial** — `cubic-bezier(0.32, 0.72, 0, 1)` — section reveal, scroll-triggered illustration parallax.
### Duration buckets
- **Instant** — 80ms — focus ring.
- **Fast** — 120ms — hover bg shift.
- **Standard** — 220ms — default transition (slightly slower than Cartesia's 200ms — paper-paced).
- **Slow** — 360ms — modal opens, card hover lift.
- **Page** — 480ms — between-route transition.
### Per-component micro-states
- **Pill hover** — bg shifts `#ffb87a → #f3a45f` over `120ms ease-standard`. No translate, no scale — the page is paper-static.
- **Pill active** — bg drops one notch darker; faint inset shadow (`inset 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.08)`).
- **Card hover** — bg lifts from `#fbf2e2 → #f4e8ce` over `220ms ease-standard`. No translate.
- **Link hover** — colour shift `#c97a3b → #a55d24` over `120ms`; underline thickness can grow from 1px to 2px.
- **Input focus** — focus-ring fades in `80ms`; border colour swaps to `#c97a3b`.
- **Pull-quote scroll-in** — fades up 8px from below, `editorial` easing, `360ms`. Reduced-motion: opacity-only.
- **Modal** — backdrop fades 0 → 0.5 over `220ms`; modal scales `0.96 → 1` simultaneously over `360ms ease-emphasized`.
- **Illustration parallax** — rare, tied to scroll; disabled under reduced-motion.
### Page transitions
Marketing pages use SPA-style fade-through between routes at `480ms`. Section anchors use `scroll-behavior: smooth` over `360ms`.
### Reduced-motion strategy
`prefers-reduced-motion: reduce` is fully honoured. All translate transforms become opacity fades. Illustration parallax disables entirely. Smooth scroll disables. Pull-quote scroll-in becomes a static fade.
## 9. Accessibility & A11y
### Contrast pairs (computed)
| Pair | Ratio | WCAG |
|---|---|---|
| `#2b2417` on `#fffbf5` (body) | 12.4:1 | AAA |
| `#1c170d` on `#fffbf5` (display) | 15.1:1 | AAA |
| `#1c170d` on `#ffb87a` (CTA) | 10.8:1 | AAA |
| `#6b5d47` on `#fffbf5` (muted) | 5.4:1 | AA at body |
| `#c97a3b` on `#fffbf5` (link) | 5.0:1 | AA |
| `#a55d24` on `#ffe5c8` (status pill) | 5.5:1 | AA |
| `#3d5a47` on `#e0ebd0` (success) | 6.5:1 | AAA |
Note: the `#1c170d` on `#ffb87a` ratio of 10.8:1 *demands* dark text on orange — a `#ffffff` on `#ffb87a` pairing would only hit 1.9:1, well below AA. The brand's dark-text-on-orange rule is therefore an accessibility decision as much as an aesthetic one.
### Focus indicators
**2px solid `#c97a3b`** (deep brand-orange) with **2px cream offset** on every interactive surface. The deep-brand colour is visually distinct from the lighter `#ffb87a` brand fill, so focus state cannot be confused with hover.
### ARIA patterns
- **Pull-quote** — uses proper `<blockquote>` markup with `<cite>` for attribution. Screen readers announce the quote and source.
- **Pricing tiers** — `role="group"` with `aria-labelledby` referencing tier name; price values use `aria-label` for screen-reader speech ("seven dollars per month").
- **Nav** — `<nav>` with `aria-label="Primary navigation"`.
- **Modal** — `role="dialog"` + `aria-modal="true"` + `aria-labelledby` + `aria-describedby`.
- **Search input** — `role="combobox"` if predictive, with `aria-expanded` + `aria-controls`.
- **Testimonial** — `<blockquote>` + `<cite>` proper semantics.
### Keyboard navigation
- Tab order follows reading order — header, hero CTA, pricing tiers, testimonials, footer.
- ESC dismisses modals.
- Pill buttons render as proper `<button>` elements.
- Skip-to-content link on first Tab.
### Screen reader hints
- Brand-orange decorative SVGs use `aria-hidden="true"`.
- Pull-quote attribution wraps in `<cite>` — screen reader announces "quote by [name]".
- Pricing values include `aria-label` for natural speech.
- Plex Mono spec tags include `aria-label` describing the metric in human language.
### Reduced motion
Honoured globally. See §8.
## 10. Responsive Behavior
### Breakpoints
| Name | Min-width | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| mobile | 0 | Single column, 24px gutter, hero at 36px |
| tablet | 640px | 2-up feature grid, hero at 48px |
| desktop | 1024px | 3-up grid, hero at 56px |
| wide | 1280px | Full 12-column grid, hero at 64px |
| max | 1440px | Container caps at 1200px, gutter expands |
### Touch targets
All pill CTAs meet **44×44px minimum**. Primary pill at `12px 24px` padding renders ~44px tall. Plex Sans body at 17px is comfortable for touch reading.
### Collapsing strategy
- **Hero** — single-column on mobile (copy → primary pill → secondary pill stacked).
- **Feature grid** — 3-up desktop → 2-up tablet → 1-up mobile.
- **Pricing tiers** — 3-up desktop → 1-up mobile (with horizontal scroll on tablet as fallback).
- **Pull-quote** — full-width on mobile with reduced indent (16px instead of 32px).
- **Top nav** — links collapse into a hamburger drawer at <1024px; primary pill stays visible.
- **Testimonial card** — keeps Plex Serif italic at 22px on mobile (no shrink) but reduces padding to 24px.
### Image behaviour
- Editorial illustrations use SVG with WebP raster fallback.
- `loading="lazy"` below the fold.
- `aspect-ratio` to prevent CLS.
- Hero illustration centre-aligns and caps at 480px on mobile.
### Container queries
Used on the testimonial card — at `@container (max-width: 480px)` the avatar moves from inline-with-attribution to above-the-quote.
## 11. Content & Voice
### Tone
**Editorial, considered, manifesto-grade.** Kagi speaks the way an indie magazine speaks — long sentences, considered word choice, occasional first-person plural ("we believe…"), pull-quotes that earn their italic. The tone is closer to The Browser, Are.na's editorial, or Readwise's Reader announcements than to typical SaaS marketing.
The brand frequently writes in **manifesto register** — long-form essays arguing for paid search, against ad-funded utility, in favour of user-aligned product. The marketing site is essentially a publication; the search product is the artefact the publication advocates for.
### Microcopy patterns
- **Button verbs** — "Try Kagi", "Get started", "Subscribe", "See plans", "Read the manifesto", "Compare". Concrete, slightly editorial.
- **Error messages** — `[Field]: [problem]. [Resolution].` Example: "Email: please enter a valid address."
- **Success confirmations** — "Saved", "Updated", "Sent" — minimal, paper-paced.
- **Empty states** — "No bookmarks yet. [Save your first search →]"
- **Pricing copy** — "$10/month for 300 searches" — direct, no obfuscation. Kagi's pricing transparency is part of the brand.
### Pull-quote conventions
Pull-quotes are **first-person testimonials** or **journalist excerpts** — set in Plex Serif italic 22–32px with attribution below in Plex Sans 14px. Always indented from the body grid with a brand-orange left rule. Used to break up dense feature copy or to anchor a section change.
### CTA verb conventions
The brand uses **specific, slightly editorial** verbs:
1. **Try Kagi** — top hero CTA, the canonical conversion phrase.
2. **Get started** — secondary, sign-up flow.
3. **Subscribe** — pricing CTA (Kagi runs subscription tiers).
4. **Compare** — for the "vs Google / vs Bing" features.
5. **Read the manifesto** — for the editorial entry path.
6. **See plans** — for pricing curiosity.
Avoided: *Sign up* (generic), *Discover*, *Unlock*, *Upgrade* (sales-y), *Free trial* (Kagi has a limited-search free tier but doesn't lead with it).
### Empty states
- Empty bookmarks: "No bookmarks yet. Save your first search to keep it close."
- Empty search history: "Your search history will appear here. We never sell it."
- Empty plans: "Choose a plan that fits how you search."
### Tone anchors
- Reference the user as a **reader** when discussing search results — Kagi's product treats search as reading.
- Use first-person plural ("we believe", "we made") for manifesto register.
- Cite sources for any claim about competitors (Google ads, search bias).
- Avoid superlatives. Kagi's strongest claim is "premium" and "user-funded".
- Reject technical-bro register. The voice is editorial, not engineering.
## 12. Dark Mode & Theming
The marketing surface is **light-only** (warm cream `#fffbf5` is the canvas; there's no dark variant on `kagi.com` marketing). The **in-product Kagi search** ships its own dark theme that flips the cream to a warm-dark `#1c170d` with `#fffbf5` text — preserving the warm-paper register inverted.
### In-product dark theme tokens (search UI)
```yaml
colors-dark:
bg: '#1c170d' # warm-near-black
bg-soft: '#241e12' # warmer dark stripe
surface: '#2e2618' # card / panel base
surface-strong: '#3a3120' # hover deeper
text: '#fffbf5' # cream label
text-muted: '#c4b9a0' # warm-grey muted
text-soft: '#a99a7d' # supporting copy
brand: '#ffb87a' # orange holds across themes
brand-soft: '#3a2e1c' # warm-brown tonal pill bg
link: '#ffb87a' # orange link in dark
border: 'rgba(255, 251, 245, 0.12)'
border-strong: 'rgba(255, 251, 245, 0.20)'
```
The dark theme **preserves the orange brand colour** — `#ffb87a` reads as "warm sun" in both light cream and dark warm-brown. Primary pills become `#ffb87a` with `#1c170d` text — same dark-on-orange rule, holding across themes.
The marketing surface holds **light** because the manifesto register reads stronger on cream paper; dark is reserved for the search product where users spend hours reading results.
## 13. Lineage & Influences
Kagi sells a paid search engine, so the site has to look unlike every other search page on the internet. The strategy is **editorial**: a warm cream canvas (`#fffbf5`) borrowed from independent magazines, a single sun-baked orange (`#ffb87a`) doing all the action work, and IBM Plex — both Sans and Serif — carrying the entire type system. Plex is a designed-by-IBM open-source family with a slightly architectural feel; pairing the sans with the serif gives Kagi an indie-publication tone that reads as the opposite of Google's blue-sans-only utilitarianism.
CTAs are pill-shaped and use **dark text on warm orange** — Kagi never does white-on-orange, which preserves the paper-and-ink feel and (incidentally) hits AAA contrast where white-on-orange would fail. Lavender (`#7d6ce0`) makes brief appearances in secondary marketing modules, mostly as illustration accent — never as CTA. The overall posture is closer to **Are.na** or **Readwise** than to **Bing** — a deliberate stance that the search bar deserves the same care as a well-made magazine cover.
The brand also rejects two adjacent registers. Kagi is *not* the developer-API register (no benchmark plots, no JetBrains Mono code on marketing — Plex Mono only, and only for tags), and it is *not* the consumer-utility register (no clinical white, no blue-link convention). The market position — paid premium search for users who care — demands the editorial-magazine register.
**Named influences**:
- **IBM Plex** ([https://www.ibm.com/plex](https://www.ibm.com/plex)) — Entire type system: Sans for UI, Serif for editorial accents, Mono for code/tags. The trifecta is the brand.
- **Are.na** ([https://www.are.na](https://www.are.na)) — Cream-canvas + warm-neutral aesthetic positioning paid software as a craft object.
- **Readwise / Reader** ([https://readwise.io](https://readwise.io)) — Warm-paper CTA discipline — dark text on coloured pills, no inverted white labels.
- **The Browser** — Editorial register applied to a paid product; manifesto-grade marketing.
- **MIT Technology Review** — Editorial whitespace; serif pull-quotes; paper-paced rhythm.
- **Stripe Press** — IBM Plex ecosystem; serif-meets-sans pairing for editorial tech publishing.
- **Raycast** ([https://raycast.com](https://raycast.com)) — Adjacent register: warm-cream cousin, premium-feel paid product.
## 14. Do's and Don'ts
### Do
- **Keep the canvas warm cream (`#fffbf5`).** Pure white reads as a generic SaaS template and breaks the magazine metaphor.
- **Use dark text on the orange CTA** — `#1c170d` on `#ffb87a`. White text on warm orange is an accessibility miss (1.9:1 contrast) and an aesthetic miss.
- **Reach for IBM Plex Serif for editorial moments** (pull-quotes, taglines, longform intros). It's the differentiator from every other Plex Sans site.
- **Use IBM Plex Mono for eyebrow tags**, not Plex Sans. The mono uppercase eyebrow is the spec-stamp signature.
- **Pill-radius (9999) every button** — primary, secondary, ghost. The pill is the brand fingerprint.
- **Set body at 17px / 1.55 line-height with `onum`.** Old-style figures + larger body = editorial cadence.
- **Use tonal layering for depth**, not blur. Cream → cream-stripe → warm card → deeper hover.
- **Set focus-ring as 2px `#c97a3b` with 2px cream offset.** Deep-brand orange is the accessibility colour.
- **Use 10% black hairlines for borders.** Coloured borders break the paper register.
- **Honour `prefers-reduced-motion`** — illustration parallax and pull-quote scroll-in disable when set.
- **Write CTAs with slightly editorial verbs** ("Try", "Read", "Subscribe").
### Don't
- **Don't introduce a second action colour.** Lavender `#7d6ce0` is illustration-only, never a CTA.
- **Don't apply shadows to cards.** Depth is tonal layering plus a 10% black hairline, not blur.
- **Don't square the buttons.** Kagi's pill CTAs are part of the brand fingerprint as much as the cream canvas is.
- **Don't use white text on the orange pill.** Dark text always — both an aesthetic and accessibility rule.
- **Don't substitute Inter or Söhne for Plex.** The Plex trifecta (Sans + Serif + Mono) is the type identity.
- **Don't drop the Plex Serif italic from pull-quotes.** Roman serif is rare; italic is the editorial register.
- **Don't write CTAs in tech-bro voice** ("Unlock", "Supercharge", "Get started free"). The voice is editorial.
- **Don't use Tailwind-default semantic colours.** Reds and greens must be desaturated to read warm against cream.
- **Don't set body at 16px.** 17px is the brand's editorial cadence.
- **Don't compress body tracking.** Negative tracking is display-only.
- **Don't add a second saturated brand colour.** Orange + cream + warm-text is the entire palette — adding teal or blue collapses the magazine metaphor.
- **Don't pure-white any surface.** Even the lifted card uses `#fffefa` (near-white-cream), never `#ffffff`.
## 15. Agent Prompt Guide
### Quick Color Reference
```
bg: #fffbf5
bg-soft: #fff6e8
surface: #fbf2e2
text: #2b2417
text-strong: #1c170d
text-muted: #6b5d47
brand: #ffb87a
brand-deep: #c97a3b
on-brand: #1c170d # dark text on orange — never white
border: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.10)
focus-ring: #c97a3b
```
### Example Component Prompts
1. *"Create a Kagi-style hero: warm cream `#fffbf5` canvas, headline in IBM Plex Sans 600 / 56px / -0.02em tracking / `#1c170d`. Lede in IBM Plex Sans 400 / 19px / 1.55 line-height / `#2b2417` capped at 720px width. Primary CTA 'Try Kagi' as a fully-rounded `#ffb87a` orange pill with `#1c170d` dark text (NEVER white) at 12px 24px padding / Plex Sans 600 / 15px. Secondary CTA 'Read the manifesto' as a transparent pill with `1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.10)` border / dark text / same pill radius."*
2. *"Design a Kagi-style pull-quote: transparent bg, `3px solid #ffb87a` left border, `32px` left indent, IBM Plex Serif italic 22px / 1.4 line-height / `#1c170d`. Below the quote, attribution in Plex Sans 500 / 14px / `#6b5d47` — '— Author Name, Publication'. Wrap in proper `<blockquote>` + `<cite>` markup for screen readers."*
3. *"Build a Kagi-style pricing card: `#fbf2e2` warm-cream bg, `1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.10)` border, 16px radius, 32px padding, no shadow. Tier name in Plex Sans 600 / 24px / `#1c170d`. Price in Plex Sans 600 / 56px with `onum` figures / `#1c170d`, then '/month' in Plex Sans 400 / 17px / `#6b5d47`. Feature list in Plex Sans 400 / 17px / 1.55 line-height. CTA at the bottom: 'Subscribe' as a fully-rounded orange pill (dark text). Optional plan badge: warm `#ffe5c8` bg / `#a55d24` text / pill radius."*
4. *"Create a Kagi-style nav bar: 64px height, `#fffbf5` bg matching page, no border (until scroll). Wordmark left in Plex Sans 600 / 18px / `#1c170d`. Nav links right in Plex Sans 500 / 15px / `#2b2417`, hover deepens to `#c97a3b`. Right cluster: ghost 'Sign in' button + primary `#ffb87a` orange pill 'Try Kagi' with dark text."*
5. *"Build a Kagi-style testimonial card: `#fbf2e2` bg, `1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.10)` border, 16px radius, 32px padding. Quote in Plex Serif italic 22px / 1.4 line-height / `#1c170d` (no quotation marks — let the type and indent carry the convention). Attribution row below: avatar circle (40px) + name in Plex Sans 600 / 15px + role in Plex Sans 400 / 14px / `#6b5d47`."*
6. *"Design a Kagi-style eyebrow tag: `#fbf2e2` bg, `#6b5d47` text, IBM Plex Mono 500 / 12px / uppercase / 0.06em tracking, pill radius (9999), 4px 10px padding. Use for section labels like 'PRIVACY', 'PRICING', 'MANIFESTO'."*
### Iteration Guide
1. **Replace pure white with `#fffbf5` everywhere.** If your bg is `#ffffff`, you've lost the magazine register.
2. **Verify all buttons are pill radius (9999).** Square or 8px-rounded buttons break the brand fingerprint.
3. **Confirm dark text on orange CTAs.** White-on-orange is doctrinally rejected and fails accessibility.
4. **Switch any pull-quote from sans to Plex Serif italic.** The serif italic is the editorial differentiator.
5. **Replace eyebrows in Plex Sans with Plex Mono.** The mono uppercase is the spec-stamp signature.
6. **Audit body type — set at 17px, not 16px,** with `onum` for old-style figures.
7. **Strip any drop shadows from cards.** Replace with tonal layering and 10% black hairlines.
8. **Replace any introduced second saturated colour with neutral warm-brown or lavender illustration accent.**
1. Visual Theme & Atmosphere
Kagi’s marketing site is a manifesto against ad-funded search dressed as a small magazine. The canvas is a warm cream #fffbf5 — not white, not beige, but the colour of unbleached book stock — and every other surface tones up or down from there in a single warm-neutral ladder. The brand colour is a sun-baked orange #ffb87a that appears almost exclusively on pill-shaped CTAs, and IBM Plex Sans + Plex Serif carry the entire typographic load.
Where Google argues for “free” with a clinical white sans-only interface, Kagi argues for “paid” with an editorial warm-cream layout and serif pull-quotes. The visual logic is: you’re paying for this, so it should look like something worth paying for. Every chromatic decision reinforces that posture — warm cream over bleached white, sun-baked orange over corporate blue, hand-set Plex Serif italic for pull-quotes, fully-rounded pill CTAs (not the modern 8–12px square-rounded default).
The most consequential decision is dark text on warm orange. Where every modern SaaS pairs white text with a coloured CTA, Kagi insists on #1c170d warm-black on #ffb87a orange — never white. This single typographic-meets-chromatic rule preserves the paper-and-ink feel: the page reads as ink-on-paper rather than chrome-on-glow. The reverse pairing (white on orange) is doctrinally rejected — see §14.
The Plex pairing is the typographic argument. IBM Plex Sans for UI body and headlines (a designed-by-IBM open-source family with a slightly architectural feel), IBM Plex Serif for editorial moments — pull-quotes, taglines, longform intros — and IBM Plex Mono for the rare code block or eyebrow tag. Three faces from one designer, one foundry, one type system. The completeness of the Plex trifecta is what gives Kagi its single typographic identity rather than the usual three-foundry collage.
Atmospheric vocabulary: warm-cream-canvas, sun-baked-orange, Plex-Sans-Plex-Serif-pairing, pill-CTA-with-dark-text, editorial-magazine, paper-and-ink, indie-publication, paid-search-as-craft-object, Are.na-cousin, Readwise-cousin, anti-ad-funded-utility.
Key Characteristics
- Warm cream
#fffbf5canvas — the colour of unbleached book stock - Sun-baked orange
#ffb87areserved for pill CTAs only - Dark text on orange (
#1c170d) — never white - IBM Plex Sans + Plex Serif typographic pairing
- Plex Serif italic pull-quotes — the editorial differentiator
- Fully-rounded pill CTAs (radius 9999) — Kagi never squares the buttons
- 16px card radius on warm-cream panels
- 10% black hairlines instead of coloured borders
- Tonal layering for depth —
#fffbf5 → #fff6e8 → #fbf2e2 → #f4e8ce - Plex Mono eyebrow tags — the “specifications” feel
- Lavender
#7d6ce0rare illustration accent — never a CTA fill - Magazine-paced rhythm (96–160px section gutters)
2. Color Palette & Roles
Primary
- bg
#fffbf5— warm cream canvas; the page’s defining surface, never substituted for#ffffff. - text
#2b2417— near-black with warm cast; body default. - bg-soft
#fff6e8— secondary cream stripe for alternating sections. - surface
#fbf2e2— card / panel base, half-step warmer than bg. - text-strong
#1c170d— display copy, deepest warm-black; also the on-brand label colour.
Brand & Accent (orange + lavender)
- brand
#ffb87a— signature sun-baked orange; pill CTAs, hover-link underline. - brand-hover
#f3a45f— pressed pill state. - brand-active
#e89348— deeply pressed. - brand-deep
#c97a3b— accent text on light surfaces; inline link colour. - brand-soft
#ffe5c8— tonal pill background, status indicators. - brand-faint
#fff4e3— quietest orange tint, rare promotional band. - accent
#7d6ce0— lavender used sparingly in secondary marketing modules and illustrations only — never on a CTA. - accent-soft
#e8e3ff— lavender illustration tint.
Interactive
- link
#c97a3b— deep brand-orange; underlined. - link-hover
#a55d24— darker pressed. - selected-bg
#fbf2e2— selected nav, selected row. - disabled-bg
#f4e8ce— disabled control fill. - disabled-text
#a99a7d— disabled label, warm grey. - focus-ring
#c97a3b— 2px solid deep-brand with 2px cream offset.
Neutral Scale (warm grayscale)
- warm-black
#1c170d— display copy, deepest. - warm-text
#2b2417— body default. - warm-medium
#3a3120— secondary heading. - warm-muted
#6b5d47— captions, metadata in warm grey. - warm-soft
#8a7a5e— supporting copy. - warm-faint
#a99a7d— helper, microcopy. - warm-line
#d4c8b0— strong divider rule.
Surface & Borders
- surface-0 (page) —
#fffbf5warm cream. - surface-1 (panel) —
#fff6e8cream stripe. - surface-2 (card) —
#fbf2e2warm card base. - surface-3 (hover) —
#f4e8cedeeper warm. - surface-elevated (rare) —
#fffefanear-white-cream. - border
rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.10)— 10% black hairline (default). - border-strong
rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.18)— emphasized rule. - border-soft
rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.08)— quietest division. - border-warm
rgba(201, 122, 59, 0.20)— rare brand-tinted hairline (used on the orange pull-quote bar).
Shadow Colors
Kagi uses warm-brown tinted shadows at very low opacity. The marketing surface uses tonal layering for 95% of depth — #fffbf5 → #fff6e8 → #fbf2e2 → #f4e8ce — and a single 10% black hairline. When a real shadow is needed, it’s rgba(43, 36, 23, ...) (the warm-text RGB) at 0.04–0.18 opacity. The rare warm shadow uses the brand-orange RGB for an accent glow under hero illustrations.
Semantic
- success —
#e0ebd0/#3d5a47. Warm-cactus green, not Tailwind-default. - warning —
#fde8c7/#7a5e1f. Cream-warning, sits adjacent to brand. - danger —
#f7d8d2/#8a3a3a. Warm coral, never pure red. - info —
#e8e3ff/#3a3a6a. Lavender pair — the only place lavender appears in chrome.
The semantic palette is all desaturated warm tones, never Tailwind-default (which would be too saturated against the cream canvas).
3. Typography Rules
Font Family
- Display & Body: IBM Plex Sans at weights 400 / 500 / 600 / 700. Plex Sans is a designed-by-IBM open-source family with a slightly architectural feel — slightly more contrast than Inter, slightly more warmth than Söhne. It’s what gives Kagi the “considered” rather than “generic SaaS” cadence. Fallback:
-apple-system → system-ui → Segoe UI → Helvetica → Arial → sans-serif. - Editorial Serif: IBM Plex Serif at weights 400 / 500 / 600. Used exclusively for pull-quotes, taglines, and rare longform intros. Italic is the dominant style. Fallback:
Georgia → Times New Roman → serif. - Mono: IBM Plex Mono at weights 400 / 500. Used for eyebrow tags, code blocks, and the rare specification badge. Fallback:
Menlo → Consolas → monospace. - OpenType features:
kernalways;ss01on display (cleaner alt-glyphs);onum(old-style figures) on body Plex Sans for editorial cadence;tnum + zeroon Plex Mono for legible numerics.
Hierarchy
| Role | Font | Size | Weight | Line Height | Letter Spacing | OT Features | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| display-hero | Plex Sans | 80 | 600 | 1.02 | -0.025em | ss01 | Rare hero — annual report / manifesto pages |
| display | Plex Sans | 64 | 600 | 1.05 | -0.02em | — | Section openers |
| h1 | Plex Sans | 56 | 600 | 1.05 | -0.02em | — | Standard hero |
| h2 | Plex Sans | 40 | 600 | 1.1 | -0.015em | — | Section heading |
| h3 | Plex Sans | 24 | 600 | 1.25 | normal | — | Subsection |
| h4 | Plex Sans | 20 | 600 | 1.3 | normal | — | Card heading |
| h5 | Plex Sans | 18 | 500 | 1.35 | normal | — | Inline subheading |
| eyebrow | Plex Mono | 12 | 500 | 1.4 | 0.06em | uppercase | Section label / tag — the spec-stamp |
| body-large | Plex Sans | 19 | 400 | 1.55 | normal | onum | Lede |
| body | Plex Sans | 17 | 400 | 1.55 | normal | onum | Default body — slightly larger than 16px web default |
| body-small | Plex Sans | 15 | 400 | 1.5 | normal | — | Secondary copy |
| caption | Plex Sans | 14 | 400 | 1.4 | normal | — | Helper, image caption |
| caption-tabular | Plex Mono | 13 | 500 | 1.4 | normal | tnum | Spec-row data |
| label | Plex Sans | 13 | 500 | 1.3 | normal | — | Form labels |
| label-cta | Plex Sans | 15 | 600 | 1.2 | normal | — | Button text |
| quote-pull | Plex Serif italic | 22 | 400 | 1.4 | normal | onum | Editorial pull-quote — the brand differentiator |
| quote-large | Plex Serif italic | 32 | 500 | 1.3 | normal | onum | Hero-scale pull-quote |
| code | Plex Mono | 14 | 400 | 1.55 | normal | tnum zero | Inline + block code |
Principles
- Plex Sans + Plex Serif duet is the brand. The Sans handles UI; the Serif handles editorial moments. Three Plex faces from one designer = single typographic identity.
- Body sized at 17px / 1.55 line-height. Slightly larger than the 16px web default — designed for the long marketing essays Kagi publishes.
- Headlines compress at
-0.02emto-0.025em. Display only; body holds at normal tracking. - Plex Serif italic for pull-quotes only. Roman serif is rare; italic is the dominant register.
- Old-style figures (
onum) on body. Gives numerics the editorial, non-tabular cadence of well-set magazine prose. - Plex Mono for eyebrow + code. Eyebrow uppercase at 0.06em tracking — the “specifications” feel without being clinical.
- 600 is the heading weight, never 700. 700 is reserved for display-hero only.
- Modular scale of 1.25× from body 17px. 17 → 21.25 → 26.6 → 33 → 41.5 → 52 → 65… simplified to 17/20/24/40/56/64/80 in practice.
4. Component Stylings
Buttons
Primary pill (orange, dark text) — #ffb87a bg, #1c170d text, 9999 radius (fully rounded), Plex Sans 600 / 15px, padding 12px 24px. Hover deepens to #f3a45f; active to #e89348. The signature CTA — “Try Kagi”, “Get started”, “Subscribe”. Text is dark, never white — see §14.
Secondary pill (cream outlined) — transparent bg, #2b2417 text, 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.10) border, 9999 radius identical to primary, Plex Sans 600 / 15px. Hover wash #fbf2e2.
Ghost pill — transparent, #2b2417 text, no border, 9999 radius preserved, 8px 16px padding. Hover wash rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.05). Used for nav and inline ghost buttons.
Deep pill (rare) — #1c170d bg, #fffbf5 text, 9999 radius. Hover #3a3120. Reserved for dark-band hero or pricing emphasis — at most once per page.
Cards
Default card — #fbf2e2 warm-cream bg, 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.10) border, 16px radius, 24px padding, no shadow. Used for feature cards, pricing tiers, testimonials.
Lifted cream card (rare) — #fffefa near-white-cream bg, 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.08) border, 16px radius, 32px padding. Used for hero pricing or featured testimonial.
Testimonial card — #fbf2e2 bg, 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.10) border, 16px radius, 32px padding. Quote in Plex Serif italic 22px; attribution in Plex Sans 500 14px below.
Pull-quote (the editorial signature)
Pull-quote — transparent bg, #1c170d text, 3px solid #ffb87a left border, 32px left indent, Plex Serif italic 22px / 1.4 line-height. Indented from body grid; usually breaks up dense feature copy.
Badges, Tags, Pills
Editorial tag — #fbf2e2 bg, #6b5d47 text, Plex Mono 500 / 12px, pill radius. The mono gives the spec-stamp feel that distinguishes Kagi tags from generic SaaS badges.
Status pill (warm) — #ffe5c8 bg, #a55d24 text, Plex Sans 500 / 12px, pill radius. Used for plan tiers: Plus, Family, Pro.
Inputs & Forms
Default input — #fffefa bg, 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.18) border, 12px radius, 12px 16px padding, Plex Sans 400 / 17px, #a99a7d placeholder. Focus ring 0 0 0 2px #c97a3b with 2px cream offset.
Form labels — Plex Sans 500 / 14px, #2b2417, 4px margin-bottom from input.
Helper text — Plex Sans 400 / 14px, #6b5d47, 4px margin-top from input.
Error state — border #f7d8d2; helper text flips to #8a3a3a.
Navigation
Top nav — 64px header height, #fffbf5 bg matching page (no fill until scroll), no border. Wordmark left in Plex Sans 600. Nav links right at Plex Sans 500 / 15px / #2b2417. Hover deepens link to #c97a3b. Right cluster: ghost “Sign in” + primary orange pill “Try Kagi”.
Footer nav — Plex Sans 400 / 14px / #6b5d47, multi-column grid. Footer typography uses a touch more leading to read as paper-paged.
Modal
Modal — #fffefa panel, 16px radius, modal shadow rgba(43, 36, 23, 0.18) 0 24px 48px -12px, 40px padding. Backdrop rgba(43, 36, 23, 0.5).
Tooltips
Tooltip — #1c170d bg, #fffbf5 text, 8px radius, Plex Sans 400 / 13px, 8px 12px padding, 220ms fade.
Toasts
Toast — #fffefa bg, 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.10) border, 12px radius, ambient warm shadow, 12px 16px padding. Slide-up from bottom-right.
5. Layout Principles
Spacing System
Base unit 4px. Scale: 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 32, 48, 64, 80, 96, 128, 160. Section padding regularly hits 96–160px between modules — magazine-paced rhythm. Card interiors are generous (24–32px) — paper-grade breathing room.
Grid & Container
- Page max-width: 1200px, centred,
clamp(24px, 5vw, 64px)site gutter. - Hero prose-width: 720px max.
- Marketing prose-width: 680px (~64 characters at Plex Sans 17px).
- Grid columns: 12, 24px gutter — but used flexibly. Editorial layouts often run 2-up asymmetric (5/7) or 3-up symmetric.
- Section padding: 96–160px between modules.
Whitespace Philosophy
Sections breathe. Vertical padding regularly hits 96–160px between modules; this is the magazine-paced rhythm rather than the dashboard-density of competitor sites. Within sections: 24–48px between groups. Type sizes step in stable 1.25× ratios from 17px body up through 24/32/40/56/80, mirroring an editorial modular scale.
Section Cadence
The page alternates #fffbf5 warm-cream, #fff6e8 cream-stripe, and (rarely) #1c170d warm-black bands. The dark band is for emphasis — pricing reveal, manifesto closing — not default rhythm. Most sections stay in the cream-on-cream register.
6. Shapes & Radius Scale
| Tier | Value | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Micro | 4px | Inline tags (rare), focus inner-stroke |
| Small | 6px | Quietest dense chips |
| Standard | 8px | Tooltip, dense form chips |
| Comfortable | 12px | Inputs, dropdowns |
| Card | 16px | Default warm-cream cards, testimonial cards |
| Large | 20px | Modal, hero shells |
| Pill | 9999px | All buttons — Kagi’s signature |
The defining radius decision is the pill button. Where every modern SaaS lands at 8–12px on buttons, Kagi runs fully rounded pills for primary, secondary, and ghost. The pill radius is part of the brand fingerprint as much as the cream canvas is. Cards hold at 16px (paper-grade soft). Hero shells at 20px (rare). Pills at 9999.
7. Depth & Elevation
| Level | Treatment | Use |
|---|---|---|
| 0 (flat) | No shadow, no border | Page bg |
| 1 (hairline) | 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.10) border | Default cards |
| 2 (tonal) | #fbf2e2 bg lift on #fffbf5, no shadow | Default card depth |
| 3 (deeper tonal) | #f4e8ce bg on cream | Hover state, deepest tonal |
| 4 (ambient) | rgba(43, 36, 23, 0.06) 0 4px 12px | Toast, light hover |
| 5 (modal) | rgba(43, 36, 23, 0.18) 0 24px 48px -12px | Modal |
| Special | rgba(255, 184, 122, 0.20) 0 16px 40px -16px | Rare warm-glow under hero illustration |
Shadow Philosophy
Kagi’s depth language is tonal layering plus a 10% black hairline, almost never blur. Cards lift through tone and border, not shadow — every surface looks like a different stock weight, not a different elevation. This is what gives Kagi its paper-and-ink feel. When a real shadow is needed (modal, tooltip), it’s warm-brown tinted (rgba(43, 36, 23, ...)) — never neutral black, never coloured. The rare warm shadow uses the brand-orange RGB for an editorial accent glow.
8. Interaction & Motion
Easing curves
- Standard —
cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1)— default for hover, focus. - Emphasized —
cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0, 1)— incoming elements, modals. - Out —
cubic-bezier(0.16, 1, 0.3, 1)— overshoot-free decelerate. - Editorial —
cubic-bezier(0.32, 0.72, 0, 1)— section reveal, scroll-triggered illustration parallax.
Duration buckets
- Instant — 80ms — focus ring.
- Fast — 120ms — hover bg shift.
- Standard — 220ms — default transition (slightly slower than Cartesia’s 200ms — paper-paced).
- Slow — 360ms — modal opens, card hover lift.
- Page — 480ms — between-route transition.
Per-component micro-states
- Pill hover — bg shifts
#ffb87a → #f3a45fover120ms ease-standard. No translate, no scale — the page is paper-static. - Pill active — bg drops one notch darker; faint inset shadow (
inset 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.08)). - Card hover — bg lifts from
#fbf2e2 → #f4e8ceover220ms ease-standard. No translate. - Link hover — colour shift
#c97a3b → #a55d24over120ms; underline thickness can grow from 1px to 2px. - Input focus — focus-ring fades in
80ms; border colour swaps to#c97a3b. - Pull-quote scroll-in — fades up 8px from below,
editorialeasing,360ms. Reduced-motion: opacity-only. - Modal — backdrop fades 0 → 0.5 over
220ms; modal scales0.96 → 1simultaneously over360ms ease-emphasized. - Illustration parallax — rare, tied to scroll; disabled under reduced-motion.
Page transitions
Marketing pages use SPA-style fade-through between routes at 480ms. Section anchors use scroll-behavior: smooth over 360ms.
Reduced-motion strategy
prefers-reduced-motion: reduce is fully honoured. All translate transforms become opacity fades. Illustration parallax disables entirely. Smooth scroll disables. Pull-quote scroll-in becomes a static fade.
9. Accessibility & A11y
Contrast pairs (computed)
| Pair | Ratio | WCAG |
|---|---|---|
#2b2417 on #fffbf5 (body) | 12.4:1 | AAA |
#1c170d on #fffbf5 (display) | 15.1:1 | AAA |
#1c170d on #ffb87a (CTA) | 10.8:1 | AAA |
#6b5d47 on #fffbf5 (muted) | 5.4:1 | AA at body |
#c97a3b on #fffbf5 (link) | 5.0:1 | AA |
#a55d24 on #ffe5c8 (status pill) | 5.5:1 | AA |
#3d5a47 on #e0ebd0 (success) | 6.5:1 | AAA |
Note: the #1c170d on #ffb87a ratio of 10.8:1 demands dark text on orange — a #ffffff on #ffb87a pairing would only hit 1.9:1, well below AA. The brand’s dark-text-on-orange rule is therefore an accessibility decision as much as an aesthetic one.
Focus indicators
2px solid #c97a3b (deep brand-orange) with 2px cream offset on every interactive surface. The deep-brand colour is visually distinct from the lighter #ffb87a brand fill, so focus state cannot be confused with hover.
ARIA patterns
- Pull-quote — uses proper
<blockquote>markup with<cite>for attribution. Screen readers announce the quote and source. - Pricing tiers —
role="group"witharia-labelledbyreferencing tier name; price values usearia-labelfor screen-reader speech (“seven dollars per month”). - Nav —
<nav>witharia-label="Primary navigation". - Modal —
role="dialog"+aria-modal="true"+aria-labelledby+aria-describedby. - Search input —
role="combobox"if predictive, witharia-expanded+aria-controls. - Testimonial —
<blockquote>+<cite>proper semantics.
Keyboard navigation
- Tab order follows reading order — header, hero CTA, pricing tiers, testimonials, footer.
- ESC dismisses modals.
- Pill buttons render as proper
<button>elements. - Skip-to-content link on first Tab.
Screen reader hints
- Brand-orange decorative SVGs use
aria-hidden="true". - Pull-quote attribution wraps in
<cite>— screen reader announces “quote by [name]”. - Pricing values include
aria-labelfor natural speech. - Plex Mono spec tags include
aria-labeldescribing the metric in human language.
Reduced motion
Honoured globally. See §8.
10. Responsive Behavior
Breakpoints
| Name | Min-width | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| mobile | 0 | Single column, 24px gutter, hero at 36px |
| tablet | 640px | 2-up feature grid, hero at 48px |
| desktop | 1024px | 3-up grid, hero at 56px |
| wide | 1280px | Full 12-column grid, hero at 64px |
| max | 1440px | Container caps at 1200px, gutter expands |
Touch targets
All pill CTAs meet 44×44px minimum. Primary pill at 12px 24px padding renders ~44px tall. Plex Sans body at 17px is comfortable for touch reading.
Collapsing strategy
- Hero — single-column on mobile (copy → primary pill → secondary pill stacked).
- Feature grid — 3-up desktop → 2-up tablet → 1-up mobile.
- Pricing tiers — 3-up desktop → 1-up mobile (with horizontal scroll on tablet as fallback).
- Pull-quote — full-width on mobile with reduced indent (16px instead of 32px).
- Top nav — links collapse into a hamburger drawer at <1024px; primary pill stays visible.
- Testimonial card — keeps Plex Serif italic at 22px on mobile (no shrink) but reduces padding to 24px.
Image behaviour
- Editorial illustrations use SVG with WebP raster fallback.
loading="lazy"below the fold.aspect-ratioto prevent CLS.- Hero illustration centre-aligns and caps at 480px on mobile.
Container queries
Used on the testimonial card — at @container (max-width: 480px) the avatar moves from inline-with-attribution to above-the-quote.
11. Content & Voice
Tone
Editorial, considered, manifesto-grade. Kagi speaks the way an indie magazine speaks — long sentences, considered word choice, occasional first-person plural (“we believe…”), pull-quotes that earn their italic. The tone is closer to The Browser, Are.na’s editorial, or Readwise’s Reader announcements than to typical SaaS marketing.
The brand frequently writes in manifesto register — long-form essays arguing for paid search, against ad-funded utility, in favour of user-aligned product. The marketing site is essentially a publication; the search product is the artefact the publication advocates for.
Microcopy patterns
- Button verbs — “Try Kagi”, “Get started”, “Subscribe”, “See plans”, “Read the manifesto”, “Compare”. Concrete, slightly editorial.
- Error messages —
[Field]: [problem]. [Resolution].Example: “Email: please enter a valid address.” - Success confirmations — “Saved”, “Updated”, “Sent” — minimal, paper-paced.
- Empty states — “No bookmarks yet. [Save your first search →]”
- Pricing copy — “$10/month for 300 searches” — direct, no obfuscation. Kagi’s pricing transparency is part of the brand.
Pull-quote conventions
Pull-quotes are first-person testimonials or journalist excerpts — set in Plex Serif italic 22–32px with attribution below in Plex Sans 14px. Always indented from the body grid with a brand-orange left rule. Used to break up dense feature copy or to anchor a section change.
CTA verb conventions
The brand uses specific, slightly editorial verbs:
- Try Kagi — top hero CTA, the canonical conversion phrase.
- Get started — secondary, sign-up flow.
- Subscribe — pricing CTA (Kagi runs subscription tiers).
- Compare — for the “vs Google / vs Bing” features.
- Read the manifesto — for the editorial entry path.
- See plans — for pricing curiosity.
Avoided: Sign up (generic), Discover, Unlock, Upgrade (sales-y), Free trial (Kagi has a limited-search free tier but doesn’t lead with it).
Empty states
- Empty bookmarks: “No bookmarks yet. Save your first search to keep it close.”
- Empty search history: “Your search history will appear here. We never sell it.”
- Empty plans: “Choose a plan that fits how you search.”
Tone anchors
- Reference the user as a reader when discussing search results — Kagi’s product treats search as reading.
- Use first-person plural (“we believe”, “we made”) for manifesto register.
- Cite sources for any claim about competitors (Google ads, search bias).
- Avoid superlatives. Kagi’s strongest claim is “premium” and “user-funded”.
- Reject technical-bro register. The voice is editorial, not engineering.
12. Dark Mode & Theming
The marketing surface is light-only (warm cream #fffbf5 is the canvas; there’s no dark variant on kagi.com marketing). The in-product Kagi search ships its own dark theme that flips the cream to a warm-dark #1c170d with #fffbf5 text — preserving the warm-paper register inverted.
In-product dark theme tokens (search UI)
colors-dark:
bg: '#1c170d' # warm-near-black
bg-soft: '#241e12' # warmer dark stripe
surface: '#2e2618' # card / panel base
surface-strong: '#3a3120' # hover deeper
text: '#fffbf5' # cream label
text-muted: '#c4b9a0' # warm-grey muted
text-soft: '#a99a7d' # supporting copy
brand: '#ffb87a' # orange holds across themes
brand-soft: '#3a2e1c' # warm-brown tonal pill bg
link: '#ffb87a' # orange link in dark
border: 'rgba(255, 251, 245, 0.12)'
border-strong: 'rgba(255, 251, 245, 0.20)'The dark theme preserves the orange brand colour — #ffb87a reads as “warm sun” in both light cream and dark warm-brown. Primary pills become #ffb87a with #1c170d text — same dark-on-orange rule, holding across themes.
The marketing surface holds light because the manifesto register reads stronger on cream paper; dark is reserved for the search product where users spend hours reading results.
13. Lineage & Influences
Kagi sells a paid search engine, so the site has to look unlike every other search page on the internet. The strategy is editorial: a warm cream canvas (#fffbf5) borrowed from independent magazines, a single sun-baked orange (#ffb87a) doing all the action work, and IBM Plex — both Sans and Serif — carrying the entire type system. Plex is a designed-by-IBM open-source family with a slightly architectural feel; pairing the sans with the serif gives Kagi an indie-publication tone that reads as the opposite of Google’s blue-sans-only utilitarianism.
CTAs are pill-shaped and use dark text on warm orange — Kagi never does white-on-orange, which preserves the paper-and-ink feel and (incidentally) hits AAA contrast where white-on-orange would fail. Lavender (#7d6ce0) makes brief appearances in secondary marketing modules, mostly as illustration accent — never as CTA. The overall posture is closer to Are.na or Readwise than to Bing — a deliberate stance that the search bar deserves the same care as a well-made magazine cover.
The brand also rejects two adjacent registers. Kagi is not the developer-API register (no benchmark plots, no JetBrains Mono code on marketing — Plex Mono only, and only for tags), and it is not the consumer-utility register (no clinical white, no blue-link convention). The market position — paid premium search for users who care — demands the editorial-magazine register.
Named influences:
- IBM Plex (https://www.ibm.com/plex) — Entire type system: Sans for UI, Serif for editorial accents, Mono for code/tags. The trifecta is the brand.
- Are.na (https://www.are.na) — Cream-canvas + warm-neutral aesthetic positioning paid software as a craft object.
- Readwise / Reader (https://readwise.io) — Warm-paper CTA discipline — dark text on coloured pills, no inverted white labels.
- The Browser — Editorial register applied to a paid product; manifesto-grade marketing.
- MIT Technology Review — Editorial whitespace; serif pull-quotes; paper-paced rhythm.
- Stripe Press — IBM Plex ecosystem; serif-meets-sans pairing for editorial tech publishing.
- Raycast (https://raycast.com) — Adjacent register: warm-cream cousin, premium-feel paid product.
14. Do’s and Don’ts
Do
- Keep the canvas warm cream (
#fffbf5). Pure white reads as a generic SaaS template and breaks the magazine metaphor. - Use dark text on the orange CTA —
#1c170don#ffb87a. White text on warm orange is an accessibility miss (1.9:1 contrast) and an aesthetic miss. - Reach for IBM Plex Serif for editorial moments (pull-quotes, taglines, longform intros). It’s the differentiator from every other Plex Sans site.
- Use IBM Plex Mono for eyebrow tags, not Plex Sans. The mono uppercase eyebrow is the spec-stamp signature.
- Pill-radius (9999) every button — primary, secondary, ghost. The pill is the brand fingerprint.
- Set body at 17px / 1.55 line-height with
onum. Old-style figures + larger body = editorial cadence. - Use tonal layering for depth, not blur. Cream → cream-stripe → warm card → deeper hover.
- Set focus-ring as 2px
#c97a3bwith 2px cream offset. Deep-brand orange is the accessibility colour. - Use 10% black hairlines for borders. Coloured borders break the paper register.
- Honour
prefers-reduced-motion— illustration parallax and pull-quote scroll-in disable when set. - Write CTAs with slightly editorial verbs (“Try”, “Read”, “Subscribe”).
Don’t
- Don’t introduce a second action colour. Lavender
#7d6ce0is illustration-only, never a CTA. - Don’t apply shadows to cards. Depth is tonal layering plus a 10% black hairline, not blur.
- Don’t square the buttons. Kagi’s pill CTAs are part of the brand fingerprint as much as the cream canvas is.
- Don’t use white text on the orange pill. Dark text always — both an aesthetic and accessibility rule.
- Don’t substitute Inter or Söhne for Plex. The Plex trifecta (Sans + Serif + Mono) is the type identity.
- Don’t drop the Plex Serif italic from pull-quotes. Roman serif is rare; italic is the editorial register.
- Don’t write CTAs in tech-bro voice (“Unlock”, “Supercharge”, “Get started free”). The voice is editorial.
- Don’t use Tailwind-default semantic colours. Reds and greens must be desaturated to read warm against cream.
- Don’t set body at 16px. 17px is the brand’s editorial cadence.
- Don’t compress body tracking. Negative tracking is display-only.
- Don’t add a second saturated brand colour. Orange + cream + warm-text is the entire palette — adding teal or blue collapses the magazine metaphor.
- Don’t pure-white any surface. Even the lifted card uses
#fffefa(near-white-cream), never#ffffff.
15. Agent Prompt Guide
Quick Color Reference
bg: #fffbf5
bg-soft: #fff6e8
surface: #fbf2e2
text: #2b2417
text-strong: #1c170d
text-muted: #6b5d47
brand: #ffb87a
brand-deep: #c97a3b
on-brand: #1c170d # dark text on orange — never white
border: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.10)
focus-ring: #c97a3bExample Component Prompts
-
“Create a Kagi-style hero: warm cream
#fffbf5canvas, headline in IBM Plex Sans 600 / 56px / -0.02em tracking /#1c170d. Lede in IBM Plex Sans 400 / 19px / 1.55 line-height /#2b2417capped at 720px width. Primary CTA ‘Try Kagi’ as a fully-rounded#ffb87aorange pill with#1c170ddark text (NEVER white) at 12px 24px padding / Plex Sans 600 / 15px. Secondary CTA ‘Read the manifesto’ as a transparent pill with1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.10)border / dark text / same pill radius.” -
“Design a Kagi-style pull-quote: transparent bg,
3px solid #ffb87aleft border,32pxleft indent, IBM Plex Serif italic 22px / 1.4 line-height /#1c170d. Below the quote, attribution in Plex Sans 500 / 14px /#6b5d47— ’— Author Name, Publication’. Wrap in proper<blockquote>+<cite>markup for screen readers.” -
“Build a Kagi-style pricing card:
#fbf2e2warm-cream bg,1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.10)border, 16px radius, 32px padding, no shadow. Tier name in Plex Sans 600 / 24px /#1c170d. Price in Plex Sans 600 / 56px withonumfigures /#1c170d, then ‘/month’ in Plex Sans 400 / 17px /#6b5d47. Feature list in Plex Sans 400 / 17px / 1.55 line-height. CTA at the bottom: ‘Subscribe’ as a fully-rounded orange pill (dark text). Optional plan badge: warm#ffe5c8bg /#a55d24text / pill radius.” -
“Create a Kagi-style nav bar: 64px height,
#fffbf5bg matching page, no border (until scroll). Wordmark left in Plex Sans 600 / 18px /#1c170d. Nav links right in Plex Sans 500 / 15px /#2b2417, hover deepens to#c97a3b. Right cluster: ghost ‘Sign in’ button + primary#ffb87aorange pill ‘Try Kagi’ with dark text.” -
“Build a Kagi-style testimonial card:
#fbf2e2bg,1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.10)border, 16px radius, 32px padding. Quote in Plex Serif italic 22px / 1.4 line-height /#1c170d(no quotation marks — let the type and indent carry the convention). Attribution row below: avatar circle (40px) + name in Plex Sans 600 / 15px + role in Plex Sans 400 / 14px /#6b5d47.” -
“Design a Kagi-style eyebrow tag:
#fbf2e2bg,#6b5d47text, IBM Plex Mono 500 / 12px / uppercase / 0.06em tracking, pill radius (9999), 4px 10px padding. Use for section labels like ‘PRIVACY’, ‘PRICING’, ‘MANIFESTO’.”
Iteration Guide
- Replace pure white with
#fffbf5everywhere. If your bg is#ffffff, you’ve lost the magazine register. - Verify all buttons are pill radius (9999). Square or 8px-rounded buttons break the brand fingerprint.
- Confirm dark text on orange CTAs. White-on-orange is doctrinally rejected and fails accessibility.
- Switch any pull-quote from sans to Plex Serif italic. The serif italic is the editorial differentiator.
- Replace eyebrows in Plex Sans with Plex Mono. The mono uppercase is the spec-stamp signature.
- Audit body type — set at 17px, not 16px, with
onumfor old-style figures. - Strip any drop shadows from cards. Replace with tonal layering and 10% black hairlines.
- Replace any introduced second saturated colour with neutral warm-brown or lavender illustration accent.
Drop kagi into your project, then ship the actual sections in an afternoon.
1 · install design
npx design-md add kagi 2 · ship landing page
npx agentkit init --design kagi light sans
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