Style guide

Direction D

Colour

Contrast is measured against the page base and against a panel (the raised surface). Small text needs 4.5 to 1 to meet the usual accessibility standard. Anything short of that is marked in red. The palette is final as of 10 September 2026, so the ochre, muted grey and viridian stay as they are even where marked.

Structure

Page base #F2F1EE

Raised (panels) #E8E6E1

Ink #1A1A18 15.4 page · 14.0 panel

Muted #6B6A66 4.8 page 4.3 on a panel

Hairline #DBD8D1 Lines only

Sections

Apps, cobalt #0B63C5 5.2 page · 4.7 panel

Research, vermilion #C2262A 5.2 page · 4.7 panel

Guides, ochre #B8860B Text and bars 2.9 page · 2.6 panel

Training, viridian #1F7A4D 4.7 page 4.3 on a panel

Consulting, violet #5B3A9E 7.3 page · 6.6 panel

Type system, website and apps

Faces

Each face set in itself and served from this site, so every character below is the real face rather than a stand-in. The notation and species lines are sample text.

Archivo

± µ ≥ ≤ ′ ″ ² ³ × ° – —

±2 SD · ≥50% cover · 12 µg/L · 40 m² · 49°19′12″N

Dominant canopy: Tsuga heterophylla and Thuja plicata.

Apps · Research · Guides · Training · Consulting · About

Page titles and headings in Bold and Bold Italic; the menu in Medium (the last line above).

Open Sans

± µ ≥ ≤ ′ ″ ² ³ × ° – —

±2 SD · ≥50% cover · 12 µg/L · 40 m² · 49°19′12″N

Dominant canopy: Tsuga heterophylla and Thuja plicata. SemiBold for emphasis.

Running text by default, plus interface text everywhere: menus, labels, captions and table headers.

Spectral

± µ ≥ ≤ ′ ″ ² ³ × ° – —

±2 SD · ≥50% cover · 12 µg/L · 40 m² · 49°19′12″N

Dominant canopy: Tsuga heterophylla and Thuja plicata.

Serif headings, held back for short, high-stakes pieces, in SemiBold and SemiBold Italic.

IBM Plex Serif

± µ ≥ ≤ ′ ″ ² ³ × ° – —

±2 SD · ≥50% cover · 12 µg/L · 40 m² · 49°19′12″N

Dominant canopy: Tsuga heterophylla and Thuja plicata. SemiBold for emphasis.

Serif running text for long reading, in Regular, Italic and SemiBold. IBM's own files, unaltered.

In use

The three pairings

Heading over body in each combination, with this stylesheet's real sizes and spacing. Sans over sans is the default for general pages. Archivo over IBM Plex Serif is for studies and technical reports, and Spectral headings are held back for short, high-stakes pieces. Sample text; the figures are placeholders.

Sans over sans · Archivo over Open Sans · default

Measuring canopy cover

A densiometer reads canopy closure, the share of sky hidden from one point, while a classified photograph reads canopy cover, the share of ground under crowns. An ordinary link looks like this, and emphasis like this.

Paired-plot procedure

Re-occupy the plot centre to within 0.3 m.
Read the densiometer at four cardinal facings.
Photograph the canopy at 1.3 m, lens level.

Plot	Closure (%)	Cover (%)	Difference
L-01	81.2	76.4	+4.8
L-02	64.0	59.7	+4.3
L-11	47.5	41.1	+6.4

A quotation or a callout sits in from the margin with a hairline rule.

Sans over serif · Archivo over IBM Plex Serif · studies and technical reports

Measuring canopy cover

A densiometer reads canopy closure, the share of sky hidden from one point, while a classified photograph reads canopy cover, the share of ground under crowns. Readings are reported as ±2 SD, with cover ≥50% at 12 of 40 stations near 49°19′12″N.

Paired-plot procedure

Re-occupy the plot centre to within 0.3 m, then read the densiometer at four cardinal facings. Dominant canopy: Tsuga heterophylla.

Serif over sans · Spectral over Open Sans · short, high-stakes pieces

Measuring canopy cover

A densiometer reads canopy closure, the share of sky hidden from one point, while a classified photograph reads canopy cover, the share of ground under crowns. Readings are reported as ±2 SD, with cover ≥50% at 12 of 40 stations near 49°19′12″N.

Paired-plot procedure

Re-occupy the plot centre to within 0.3 m, then read the densiometer at four cardinal facings. Dominant canopy: Tsuga heterophylla.

Territory

Section markers

The bar above each page title takes the section's colour. In the menu, the same colour appears as an underline on the page you are in and when you point at an item, so the five never show together at full strength outside the home page. Pages outside the five sections, such as About, take ink.

Apps

Research

Guides

Training

Consulting

About

Templates

Entry pages

Every study, guide and app page is built from one of three templates. These sample pages show each one with placeholder text. They are not in the menu or the section lists, and they come down before launch.

Study, publishedWith results, agreement figures and a citation, set in IBM Plex Serif.
Study, in progressThe pass threshold, stated before there are any results.
Guide, step by stepNumbered steps for an app, stamped with the app version they apply to.
Guide, template and workflowFor someone else's software: a download plus the workflow.
AppIts validation studies and guides are listed automatically.

When writing pages

Notation

Join a number to its unit with a non-breaking space, so a line never ends on the number: type 0.3 m and it shows as 0.3 m. Without it, a narrow phone screen can leave the unit stranded on the next line.
Greek letters belong in running text, not headings. Open Sans and IBM Plex Serif carry the whole Greek alphabet, so α, β, σ and χ are safe in body text. Archivo and Spectral carry only Δ, μ and π, so a heading such as “β diversity” would show its β in a substitute face.
Use the true minus sign − for negative values rather than a hyphen, so −4.8 lines up with +4.8 in a table.

Not yet reviewed

Wordmark

Permanent Marker, carried over as the incumbent. It is the one part of the type system never reviewed. It lacks ≥ ≤ ′ ″, which does not matter for a wordmark.