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Linear. Midnight precision instrument.

  • Developer tools
  • Dark theme
  • 16 colors
  • 2 typefaces

Linear's design system is a midnight command center built on near-black surfaces (#08090a) with paper-white type and one electric acid-lime accent (#e4f222) that functions as a functional flashlight — small, high-contrast, and used sparingly to signal action. The interface treats darkness as a substrate rather than a theme: text is crisp white at tight tracking (-0.022em), weights sit in a low 400–510 band rather than bold, and borders are hairline-thin (0.5px) to let geometry do the work that shadows usually would. Components feel precision-machined — 6px and 12px radii, compact 8–12px paddings, and almost no decorative ornament — letting the product UI (issue cards, kanban boards, AI agent panels) be the only visual texture in an otherwise quiet system.

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Screenshot of Linear
Captured from linear.app on October 11, 2026

Linear design system

Linear

Brand1

  • Primary action buttons, active nav indicators — electric accent that breaks the monochrome system

Accent5

  • Green outline accent for tags, dividers, and focused UI edges. Use as a supporting accent, not as a status color

  • Red wash for highlight backgrounds, decorative bands, and soft emphasis behind content. Use as a supporting accent, not as a status color

  • Decorative accent, informational icon fills

  • Tag/badge fills — soft chromatic punctuation on tags and labels

  • Secondary tag fills, category indicators

Neutrals10

  • Page canvas, full-bleed backgrounds — the default everything sits on

  • Card surfaces, nav bars — one step above canvas for contained content

  • Elevated surfaces, deeper card panels

  • Subtle borders, dividers, ghost button outlines — low-contrast structural edges

  • Hairline borders at higher contrast than graphite — section separators

  • Muted body text, inactive icons, secondary metadata

  • Tertiary text, placeholder copy, icon fills

  • Secondary headings, button text on dark surfaces

  • Near-white surface fills, high-contrast button text

  • Primary headings, hero type, max-contrast emphasis text

Try a pairing

Pick any two colors from the palette to check whether text stays readable on top.

Aa

Void on Acid Lime

16.15 : 1 contrast

Background
Text
  • Body textPasses AA 4.5
  • Large textPasses AA 3
  • StrictPasses AAA 7

More DESIGN.md files. Same web, different personalities.