Design system foundations for visual artifacts -- 8px grid spacing, typography scales, color contrast, border weights, vertical rhythm, and colorblind-safe palettes. Use when creating or styling any visual artifact -- diagrams, charts, presentations, documents, or exports. Provides concrete token values that snap to an 8px baseline grid.
Installation
Mit Codex oder Claude installieren Kopieren Sie diesen Prompt, fügen Sie ihn in Codex, Claude oder einen anderen Assistant ein und lassen Sie die Skill-Seite prüfen und installieren.
Design system foundations for visual artifacts -- 8px grid spacing, typography scales, color contrast, border weights, vertical rhythm, and colorblind-safe palettes. Use when creating or styling any visual artifact -- diagrams, charts, presentations, documents, or exports. Provides concrete token values that snap to an 8px baseline grid.
user-invocable
false
Design System
Foundational design tokens and rules for visual artifacts -- diagrams, charts, presentations, and print exports. Every spacing, typography, and sizing value snaps to an 8px baseline grid (with 4px half-steps for fine adjustments).
Core Principles
The 8px Grid
All spatial values are multiples of 8. Use 4px only for sub-component adjustments (icon gaps, type alignment). This creates visual rhythm, reduces decision fatigue, and ensures pixel-perfect rendering on 1x, 1.5x, 2x, and 3x displays.
4 -- 8 -- 16 -- 24 -- 32 -- 48 -- 64 -- 80 -- 96
Contrast First
Every color pairing must meet WCAG AA minimum: 4.5:1 for text, 3:1 for borders and graphical objects. Use the Okabe-Ito palette for colorblind safety.
Borders Are Not Spacing
Stroke widths use their own 1-3px scale. The 8px grid applies to layout spacing only.
Spacing Scale
Token
px
Use
xs
8
Icon-to-text gaps, tight internal spacing
sm
16
Node padding, compact element spacing
md
24
Comfortable padding, sub-section spacing
lg
32
Diagram margins, section separation
xl
48
Node spacing (compact layouts)
2xl
64
Node spacing (standard layouts)
3xl
80
Node/rank spacing (spacious layouts)
4xl
96
Page-level spacing
When to use 4px: Only for within-component micro-adjustments -- never for layout spacing between elements.
Typography Scale
Font sizes can be any value -- only line heights and outer spacing must snap to the grid. Line heights use a 4px sub-grid (like Material Design 3).
Icon stroke: 2px standard (Material Design convention). Use 1.5px for tight spaces as optical correction.
Color Contrast Requirements
WCAG compliance for diagram elements:
Element
Against
Minimum (AA)
Recommended (AAA)
Text on colored node fill
Fill color
4.5:1
7:1
Large text (>=18px bold) on fill
Fill color
3:1
4.5:1
Node border on background
Background
3:1
4.5:1
Adjacent colored regions
Each other
3:1
4.5:1
Lines/edges
Background
3:1
4.5:1
Colorblind-Safe Palette (Okabe-Ito)
The gold standard for categorical color -- works for protanopia, deuteranopia, AND tritanopia. Each color has distinct luminance, so the palette works in grayscale too.
Name
Hex
Use
Blue
#0072B2
Primary nodes, main flow
Sky Blue
#56B4E9
Info, secondary nodes
Bluish Green
#009E73
Success, completed states
Orange
#E69F00
Warning, caution states
Yellow
#F0E442
Highlight, attention
Vermillion
#D55E00
Error, danger
Reddish Purple
#CC79A7
Accent, special emphasis
Black
#000000
Text, borders
Max colors per diagram: 6 categorical colors. Beyond 8, use shapes/patterns/labels instead.
Safest pairs: Blue + Orange, Blue + Yellow, Purple + Yellow.
Avoid: Red + Green, Green + Brown, Blue + Purple.
Quality Checklist
When applying the design system, verify:
All spacing values are multiples of 8 (or 4 for micro-adjustments)
Line heights snap to the 4px sub-grid (16, 20, 24, 28, 32)
Text on colored fills meets 4.5:1 contrast (AA)
Borders and graphical objects meet 3:1 contrast (AA)
No more than 6 categorical colors per diagram
No red+green, green+brown, or blue+purple color pairs
Stroke widths use 1px (default), 2px (emphasis), or 3px (heavy) -- not 8px grid values
Font weights follow hierarchy: 400 body, 500 labels, 600-700 titles
References
color-contrast.md -- Full color system: semantic roles, M3 color architecture, IBM Carbon data viz palette, palette construction rules
mermaid-tokens.md -- Mapping design tokens to Mermaid config properties with concrete preset examples
research-sources.md -- Full research data with sources from Material Design, IBM Carbon, Atlassian, GitLab Pajamas, USWDS, and academic references
