<!-- SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT -->
<!-- SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2025-2026 Marcus Quinn -->

# 1. Visual Theme & Atmosphere

This design system is built for reading. Every decision — colour, spacing, typography, layout — serves a single purpose: to make long-form content a pleasure to consume. It draws from the best traditions of print editorial design and modern digital reading platforms, where the content is the interface and the chrome dissolves into the background.

The palette is deliberately restrained: warm off-white paper tones, near-black ink colours, and minimal accent use. The warmth of the background (`#faf8f5`) avoids the clinical harshness of pure white, reducing eye strain during extended reading sessions. Colour is used almost exclusively for interactive elements — links, buttons, and navigation — never for decoration.

Typography is the star of this system. A refined serif for headings establishes editorial authority, while a clean humanist sans-serif for body text provides sustained readability across thousands of words. Line-height is generous (1.7), line length is capped at 680px, and paragraph spacing is carefully tuned to create a natural reading rhythm. The result should feel like opening a beautifully typeset book — inviting, effortless, and timeless.

**Key characteristics:**

- **Mood:** Calm, focused, literary, refined
- **Background:** Warm off-white `#FAF8F5`
- **Text colour:** Near-black `#1a1a1a`
- **Accent:** Muted blue `#4a6fa5`
- **Content width:** 680px maximum for body text
- **Border treatment:** Minimal — 1px `#E8E4DF` for separators only
- **Animation:** Almost none — instant state changes, no decorative motion
- **Imagery style:** Full-bleed photography, art-directed, no stock feel
- **Overall density:** Low — content breathes, generous margins throughout
