Paper & Ink

A pure paper-and-ink palette: warm off-white paper, ink-black text, single red accent. Built for editorial brands that want typography to lead.

editorialmonochromeclassiceditorialclassicminimal

Editorial Purity with Paper and Ink

Paper and Ink is the most restrained palette in the catalog: a warm paper background, ink-black text, and a single red accent. It exists for editorial brands that want typography to lead every layout. The red is not a background color. It belongs to underlines, the occasional word in an intro sentence, and small labels where a single accent has maximum effect.

Because there are only two real colors, every other design decision gets louder. Weights, sizes, and spacing carry the hierarchy that color carries elsewhere. The neutral grays provide a third level for captions and metadata, but they should stay subtle so the paper reads as near-white. This palette rewards strong art direction and punishes weak layout, so test it on the section of your site with the longest plain text first.

Palette colors

Every color role with HEX, RGB, HSL, and OKLCH values. Click any value to copy.

Background

rgb(251, 249, 244)

hsl(43, 47%, 97%)

oklch(98.2% 0.007 88.6)

Text

rgb(26, 24, 20)

hsl(40, 13%, 9%)

oklch(21.0% 0.008 84.6)

Primary

rgb(26, 24, 20)

hsl(40, 13%, 9%)

oklch(21.0% 0.008 84.6)

Secondary

rgb(90, 82, 73)

hsl(32, 10%, 32%)

oklch(44.4% 0.018 70.6)

Accent

rgb(185, 28, 28)

hsl(0, 74%, 42%)

oklch(50.5% 0.190 27.5)

Surface

rgb(255, 255, 255)

hsl(0, 0%, 100%)

oklch(100.0% 0.000 89.9)

Border

rgb(232, 226, 213)

hsl(41, 29%, 87%)

oklch(91.4% 0.019 86.1)

Muted

rgb(139, 127, 113)

hsl(32, 10%, 49%)

oklch(60.3% 0.025 71.6)

WCAG contrast checks

Three semantic pairs evaluated against WCAG 2.2 AA (4.5:1 for normal text).

Text on background

Ratio 16.85:1

AA pass

Primary on background

Ratio 16.85:1

AA pass

Accent on background

Ratio 6.15:1

AA pass

Export tokens

Six formats covering most design system workflows. Each copies cleanly to your clipboard.

tokens.css

:root {
  --color-background: #FBF9F4;
  --color-foreground: #1A1814;
  --color-primary: #1A1814;
  --color-secondary: #5A5249;
  --color-accent: #B91C1C;
  --color-surface: #FFFFFF;
  --color-border: #E8E2D5;
  --color-muted: #8B7F71;
}

Related Palettes

Mono Ink

A pure monochrome palette with a single blue accent. Editorial minimalism at its purest, type and whitespace do all the work.

Linen Press

A warm linen palette: undyed fabric background, ink text, muted teal primary, terracotta accent. For book publishers, journals, and craft editorial.

Editorial Cream

A warm editorial palette inspired by print magazines: cream paper, ink-black text, a brick-red primary, and a muted gold secondary.

Forest Ink

A dark forest palette: deep green canvas, cream text, amber accent for highlights. For nature, sustainability, and outdoor editorial brands.