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PlanetScale. Terminal man-page in daylight.

  • Developer tools
  • Light theme
  • 9 colors
  • 1 typeface

PlanetScale's design system is a developer-first, terminal-flavored monospace UI: the entire interface speaks in fixed-width type, giving every screen the texture of a well-formatted README. The palette is overwhelmingly achromatic — deep charcoal text on near-white canvas, with a vivid orange as the sole action accent and a restrained blue for links. Surfaces are flat and borderless; hierarchy is built through type weight, spacing, and the occasional hairline rule rather than shadow or elevation. Components feel lightweight and utilitarian: pill-shaped buttons, plain text links, raw grid tables, and no decorative chrome. The result reads like a developer tool's reference page, not a marketing brochure — confidence comes from typographic discipline and generous whitespace, not from color or illustration.

Screenshot of PlanetScale
Captured from planetscale.com on October 11, 2026

PlanetScale design system

PlanetScale

Brand2

  • Orange supporting accent for decorative details and low-frequency emphasis. Do not promote it to the primary CTA color

  • Blue supporting accent for decorative details and low-frequency emphasis. Do not promote it to the primary CTA color

Accent1

  • Announcement banner highlight, feature tag accent, promotional inline marker

Neutrals6

  • Headings, strong emphasis, logo mark, maximum-contrast text

  • Dark supporting neutral for text, icons, and strong contrast. Do not promote it to the primary CTA color

  • Primary body text, icon strokes, footer copy, nav labels

  • Muted body text, captions, secondary metadata, image alt text

  • Hairline borders, table dividers, nav separators, disabled strokes

  • Page canvas, card surfaces, input backgrounds

Try a pairing

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

Aa

Ink Black on Ember

6.22 : 1 contrast

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

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