Plaid — decoded design system

plaid.com · light · professional · material · deep decode — measured live

Plaid'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/plaid.com.

Decoded design system

Plaid's decoded design system: background #FFFFFF, text #111111, accent #0A85EA, link #012E37, primary #012E37; type scale h1 80px / h2 64px / body 18px; 4px spacing base; 6px base radius. The single interactive/action color is #05565C — used only on interactive or must-notice elements (buttons, links, key highlights), never on large fills.

Color roles

Using these colors

• Action color #05565C — the single interactive color; only on things you click or must notice, never large fills.
• primary, link are all #012E37 — one role, not several (the action color).
• accent #0A85EA — accent for emphasis — keep it rare on the page.
• secondary #F44E66 — optional secondary accent — LOW decode confidence; use rarely (a status color or a single decorative moment) or omit it entirely. Prefer one accent unless the reference clearly shows two.

Typography

• Heading: Helvetica Neue
• Body: Cern
• h1: 80px
• h2: 64px
• body: 18px

Spacing

• base unit: 4px
• scale: 2px, 3px, 4px, 8px, 11px, 12px, 13px, 15px, 16px, 24px

Radii

• base: 6px
• button: 9999px

Shadows (elevation)

• subtle: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 5px 0px
• card: rgba(243, 49, 247, 0.43) 0px 0px 36px 5px

Motion

Micro-interactions run at 100ms (dominant) with ease-out.

• durations: 100ms · 500ms · 300ms
• easings: ease-out · ease-in-out
• animated properties: color, transform, opacity, -webkit-transform

Native design tokens

…and 110 more measured on the page.

Button states (measured)

• primary focus: outline 1px solid rgb(56, 56, 56)

Layout (measured)

• container max-width: 1150px
• nav: 95px fixed
• common grid: 2 columns

Motion choreography (measured)

Load order: span.ring×4 → span.MuiSkeleton-root×4 → label.BaseInput-module_label__×7 → label.BaseInput-module_label__×7 → div.rfm-marquee×4 → canvas.cms-thumbprint-canvas

Overlay recipe (measured)

dialog panel: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) · radius 0px

Responsive (measured)

• breakpoints: 640px · 750px · 800px · 810px · 1024px · 1280px
• mobile (390px): hero 32px · nav hamburger

Install it

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

npx shadcn add mozaika.design/r/decode/plaid.com

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

Export: DESIGN.md

# Plaid — Design System

> light, professional, medium, material — deep decode (measured live)

## Colors

| Role | Value |
|------|-------|
| bg | `#FFFFFF` |
| surface | `#F0F0F0` |
| border | `#DBDBDB` |
| text | `#111111` |
| text_muted | `#6B6B6B` |
| primary | `#012E37` |
| accent | `#0A85EA` |
| link | `#012E37` |
| secondary | `#F44E66` |
| button_bg | `#05565C` |
| button_text | `#FFFFFF` |

**Using these colors**

- **Action color** `#05565C` — the single interactive color; it appears only on things you click or must notice (buttons, key highlights), never on large fills or backgrounds.
- `primary`, `link` are all `#012E37` — one role, not several.
- **accent** `#0A85EA` — accent for emphasis — keep it rare on the page.
- **secondary** `#F44E66` — optional secondary accent — LOW decode confidence; use rarely (a status color or a single decorative moment) or omit it entirely. Prefer one accent unless the reference clearly shows two.
- **Page coverage** (full-page screenshot pixels): `#1095C8` 30.7% · `#0975AC` 20.7% · `#0A5C90` 18.5% · `#3BBDC9` 14.4%

## Typography

- Heading: **Helvetica Neue**
- Body: **Cern** _(free fallback: Newsreader)_

| Role | Size / weight · line-height · tracking |
|------|------------------------------------------|
| hero | 80px / 300 · lh 80px · tracking -2.5px |
| h2 | 64px / 600 · lh 69px · tracking -2px |
| h3 | 60px / 600 · lh 65px · tracking -2px |
| body | 18px / 400 · lh 27px |
| small | 16px / 600 · lh 24px |

- Weight ladder: 300 · 400 · 600 — use these exact measured weights, not the 400/600 defaults.

> **Fonts —** Helvetica Neue — system font, no web load needed. Cern may be proprietary — safe free fallback: Newsreader (Google Fonts).

## Spacing
- base unit: 4px (inferred from the measured scale)
- measured scale: 2px, 3px, 4px, 8px, 11px, 12px, 13px, 15px, 16px, 24px — snap all gaps/padding to these

## Radius
- base: 6px
- button: 9999px
- card: 100px
- pill: 9999px
- sharp: 2px

## Buttons

| Button | Fill / text | Border | Radius | Padding | Font | Shadow |
|--------|-------------|--------|--------|---------|------|--------|
| primary | `#05565C` / `#FFFFFF` | none | 9999px | 12px 24px 12px 24px | 600 13.008px / 0.13008px | none |
| secondary | `rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)` / `#FFFFFF` | none | 100px | 0px 0px 0px 0px | 600 20px / -0.75px | none |

**States (measured, not guessed)**

- primary focus: outline `1px solid rgb(56, 56, 56)`

## Shadows (elevation)
- subtle: `rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 5px 0px`
- card: `rgba(243, 49, 247, 0.43) 0px 0px 36px 5px`

## Motion
- durations: 100ms (dominant) · 500ms · 300ms
- easings: `ease-out` (dominant) · `ease-in-out`
- animated properties: color, transform, opacity, -webkit-transform

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 |
|-------|-------|
| `--tooltip-dark-border` | `#555` |
| `--tooltip-dark-text` | `#fff` |
| `--tooltip-dark-bg` | `#111` |
| `--color-modal-progressbar-background` | `#f2f2f2` |
| `--color-modal-progressbar-progress` | `#0a85ea` |
| `--icon-fill` | `#383838` |
| `--link-text` | `#383838` |
| `--skeleton-bg` | `#ededed` |
| `--consumer-listItem-border` | `#ededed` |
| `--t5-black-100-08` | `hsla(0,0%,100%,.08)` |
| `--t5-black-100-12` | `hsla(0,0%,100%,.12)` |
| `--t5-black-100-16` | `hsla(0,0%,100%,.16)` |

_…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 1150px · common grid: 2-col
- nav: 95px fixed

| Section (y) | Height | Cols | Gap | Pad y | Split |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 172 | 540 | 2 | — | 0/0 | — |
| 1062 | 1653 | — | — | 0/0 | — |
| 1174 | 793 | — | — | 0/0 | — |
| 2026 | 543 | — | — | 0/0 | — |
| 2715 | 804 | — | — | 0/0 | — |
| 2827 | 572 | 2 | — | 0/0 | — |
| 3519 | 787 | — | — | 0/0 | — |
| 3661 | 573 | 2 | — | 0/0 | — |

## Motion choreography (measured)
Load order: `span.ring`×4 @0ms → `span.MuiSkeleton-root`×4 @516ms → `label.BaseInput-module_label__`×7 @917ms → `label.BaseInput-module_label__`×7 @918ms → `div.rfm-marquee`×4 @2051ms → `canvas.cms-thumbprint-canvas` @2170ms
- `span.ring` ×4 — transform translate(-50%, -50%) rotate(0deg)→translate(-50%, -50%) rotate(360deg) — 2500ms · loops
- overlay dialog (auto-opened): panel rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) · r 0px

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

## Responsive (measured)
- breakpoints: 640px · 750px · 800px · 810px · 1024px · 1280px
- mobile (390px): hero 32px · 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.

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