Cartesia — decoded design system

cartesia.ai · light · modern · tailwind · deep decode — measured live

Cartesia's design system, decoded live by Mozaika: measured color roles, type scale, buttons with real hover/focus states, motion and the brand's own tokens.

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This is a static, crawlable rendering for search & AI engines. The interactive version — filters, live decode console, copy & export — is at https://mozaika.design/decode/cartesia.ai.

Decoded design system

Cartesia's decoded design system: background #F9F9F8, text #1E1C1A, accent #004E23, link #525150, primary #004E23; type scale h1 48px / h2 36px / body 16px; 8px spacing base; 4px base radius. The single interactive/action color is #F9F9F8 — used only on interactive or must-notice elements (buttons, links, key highlights), never on large fills.

Color roles

Using these colors

• Action color #F9F9F8 — the single interactive color; only on things you click or must notice, never large fills.
• primary, accent are all #004E23 — one role, not several (the action color).
• accent #004E23 — accent for emphasis — keep it rare on the page.
• link #525150 — reads as a neutral UI color, not a link accent — verify against the reference (action = #F9F9F8).

Typography

• Heading: PP Kyoto
• Body: ABC Diatype
• h1: 48px
• h2: 36px
• body: 16px

Spacing

• base unit: 8px
• scale: 6px, 8px, 10px, 12px, 16px, 20px, 24px, 32px, 40px, 48px

Radii

• base: 4px
• button: 4px

Motion

Micro-interactions run at 150ms (dominant) with cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1).

• durations: 150ms · 300ms · 350ms
• easings: cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1) · cubic-bezier(0, 0, 0.2, 1)
• animated properties: color, background-color, border-color, outline-color

Native design tokens

…and 110 more measured on the page.

Button states (measured)

• primary hover: background #E4E3DB
• primary focus: border 1px solid oklch(0.708 0 0)

Layout (measured)

• container max-width: 1250px
• nav: 64px sticky
• common grid: 3 columns

Motion choreography (measured)

Scroll reveal: 14 elements rest at opacity 0, animate in over 0.15s cubic-bezier(0, 0, 0.2, 1).

Responsive (measured)

• mobile (390px): hero 36px · nav hamburger

Install it

Drop this measured system into any shadcn/Tailwind project in one command:

npx shadcn add mozaika.design/r/decode/cartesia.ai

registry item · or query it over MCP: get_design_system("Cartesia")

Export: DESIGN.md

# Cartesia — Design System

> light, modern, medium, tailwind — deep decode (measured live)

## Colors

| Role | Value |
|------|-------|
| bg | `#F9F9F8` |
| surface | `#EBEBEA` |
| border | `#D8D7D6` |
| text | `#1E1C1A` |
| text_muted | `#716F6E` |
| primary | `#004E23` |
| accent | `#004E23` |
| link | `#525150` |
| button_bg | `#F9F9F8` |
| button_text | `#1E1C1A` |

**Using these colors**

- **Action color** `#F9F9F8` — the single interactive color; it appears only on things you click or must notice (buttons, key highlights), never on large fills or backgrounds.
- `primary`, `accent` are all `#004E23` — one role, not several.
- **accent** `#004E23` — accent for emphasis — keep it rare on the page.
- **link** `#525150` — reads as a neutral UI color, not a link accent — verify against the reference (action = #F9F9F8).
- **Page coverage** (full-page screenshot pixels): `#F9F9F8` 60.3% · `#004E23` 35.3% · `#B1C2B7` 4.4%

## Typography

- Heading: **PP Kyoto** _(free fallback: Newsreader)_
- Body: **ABC Diatype** _(free fallback: Space Grotesk)_

| Role | Size / weight · line-height · tracking |
|------|------------------------------------------|
| hero | 48px / 500 · lh 48px · tracking -0.48px |
| h2 | 36px / 500 · lh 45px |
| h3 | 26px / 400 · lh 34px · tracking -0.26px |
| body | 16px / 400 · lh 20px |
| small | 14px / 400 · lh 18px |

- Weight ladder: 400 · 500 · 600 — use these exact measured weights, not the 400/600 defaults.

> **Fonts —** PP Kyoto may be proprietary — safe free fallback: Newsreader (Google Fonts). ABC Diatype is proprietary — closest free match: Space Grotesk (Google). Load Space Grotesk; keep ABC Diatype first so licensed users still get it.

## Spacing
- base unit: 8px (inferred from the measured scale)
- measured scale: 6px, 8px, 10px, 12px, 16px, 20px, 24px, 32px, 40px, 48px — snap all gaps/padding to these

## Radius
- base: 4px
- button: 4px
- card: 7px
- pill: 9999px

## Buttons

| Button | Fill / text | Border | Radius | Padding | Font | Shadow |
|--------|-------------|--------|--------|---------|------|--------|
| primary | `#F9F9F8` / `#1E1C1A` | 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) | 4px | 0px 20px 0px 20px | 500 16px / 0.14px | none |
| secondary | `oklch(0.371 0.099 151.4)` / `oklch(0.997 0 0)` | 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) | 7.2px | 0px 10px 0px 10px | 500 16px | none |

**States (measured, not guessed)**

- primary hover: background `#E4E3DB`
- primary focus: border `1px solid oklch(0.708 0 0)`
- secondary hover: background `oklab(0.371 -0.0869203 0.0473905 / 0.9)`
- transition: `all 0.15s cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1)`

## Motion
- durations: 150ms (dominant) · 300ms · 350ms
- easings: `cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1)` (dominant) · `cubic-bezier(0, 0, 0.2, 1)`
- animated properties: color, background-color, border-color, outline-color

Micro-interactions use the dominant duration + easing; nothing on the page animates slower than the longest duration above — don't invent springier motion.

## Their own tokens (verbatim from :root)

| Token | Value |
|-------|-------|
| `--cartesia-carbon` | `oklch(23.5% 0 0)` |
| `--cartesia-canvas` | `oklch(91.4% .011 100.8)` |
| `--cartesia-field` | `oklch(96.6% .004 106.5)` |
| `--cartesia-growth` | `oklch(82.7% .086 138.2)` |
| `--cartesia-verdant` | `oklch(61.6% .154 148)` |
| `--cartesia-forest` | `oklch(37.1% .099 151.4)` |
| `--cartesia-memory` | `oklch(74.8% .043 249.5)` |
| `--cartesia-mist` | `oklch(90.2% .02 220.9)` |
| `--cartesia-neutral-10` | `oklch(96.6% .004 106.5)` |
| `--cartesia-neutral-20` | `oklch(95.1% .008 98.9)` |
| `--cartesia-neutral-30` | `oklch(91.4% .011 100.8)` |
| `--cartesia-neutral-40` | `oklch(83.5% .011 76.6)` |

_…and 108 more measured on the page._

Prefer these names when extending their system — it's the brand's actual vocabulary.

## Layout (measured)
- container max 1250px · common grid: 3-col
- nav: 64px sticky · border-bottom 1px solid rgb(228, 227, 219) · bg oklch(0.982 0.001 106.423)

## Motion choreography (measured)
- scroll reveal: 14 elements rest at opacity 0, animate in over 0.15s cubic-bezier(0, 0, 0.2, 1) (0 revealed during the drive).

Rebuild the timeline, not just the durations — order, delays and staggers above are the choreography.

## Components (measured)
- card ×8: pad 0px 0px 0px 0px · r 7.2px · bg oklch(0.982 0.001 106.423)
  - hover: background `oklch(0.955 0.005 95.101)` · font-weight `400` · letter-spacing `normal`
- link: oklch(0.997 0 0) · no underline

## Responsive (measured)
- mobile (390px): hero 36px · body 16px · nav: hamburger

## How to apply
Paste the Tailwind `@theme` (or CSS variables) as your base, then build each
section to its spec — verify every color, radius, and font against these tokens.
Hover/focus states, shadows and motion timings above are measured from the live page — match them exactly, don't re-guess them.

← All decoded design systems

An automated reading of Cartesia's publicly-visible CSS (colors, fonts, spacing, motion) — not affiliated with cartesia.ai. No screenshots stored. Removal requests: hello@mozaika.design.