Editorial / magazine / long-form / Medium / Substack / content-heavy UIs. Locked knobs: CRAFT=9, MOTION=4, DENSITY=3. Serif display + humanist body, wide reading column, drop caps, OpenType. Trigger on: editorial, magazine, long-form, blog, Medium-like, Substack-like.

UI Craft — Editorial Pre committed editorial style: magazine, long form, content first. Typography carries the hierarchy; layout serves the reading experience. Knobs (locked) CRAFT LEVEL = 9 — editorial typography only works at high refinement; Polish Pass mandatory. MOTION INTENSITY = 4 — reading aware: fade on reveal, link hovers, no entrance stagger. VISUAL DENSITY = 3 — wide reading column, generous vertical rhythm, 1 item per row for features. Do not re ask these in Discovery. Confirm accent + serif/sans pairing only. Style anchors Serif display for headings + humanist body sans/serif for reading. Baseline grid feel. leading relaxed (1.7) on body. Wide reading column max w [65ch] . Generous vertical rhythm. Accent used for emphasis — pull quotes, drop caps, link underlines — not decoration. OpenType features ON: small caps, ligatures, stylistic sets, tabular figures where relevant. Asymmetric, text heavy heroes. Featured image large. Motion respects reading: fades only, never pulls the eye away. Black text, warm/ivory canvas, one accent. Color is a voice, not a decoration. Base rules (inherited) All rules in ../ui craft/SKILL.md apply. This file overrides knob defaults and adds style specific guidance below. The anti slop and craft tests still apply in full. Style specific overrides Typography (the whole point) Display: Playfair Display, Fraunces, Lora, or Source Serif 4 for headings and pull quotes. Body: Alegreya, Source Sans 3, ITC Charter, or a humanist pairing. Do NOT use Inter as primary body — it reads as product UI, not editorial. Max two families: one display + one body. Headings: text wrap: balance , font optical sizing: auto , tracking near 0 or slightly negative on large sizes. Body: text wrap: pretty , line height: 1.7 , font feature settings: "liga", "kern" . Drop caps via p:first of type::first letter { float: left; font size: 4.5em; line height: 0.85; padding: 6px 10px 0 0; font family: <display ; } . Small caps via font variant caps: small caps for section labels, bylines. Opt in OpenType: font feature settings: "ss01", "cv11" when the chosen font supports them. Pull quotes: serif, large (1.75 2.25em), one accent color, short rule above. Color Canvas: ivory or warm white — oklch(98% 0.01 85) — not pure fff . Text: oklch(18% 0.01 40) warm near black. Restricted palette: black, ivory/warm white, ONE accent. That's it. Accent applied to: drop cap, pull quote, inline link underline, section rule. Not buttons that don't need it. Spacing & layout Reading column: max w [65ch] for body; hero and featured image can break out to max w 5xl . Vertical rhythm on body: paragraph spacing = line height × 0.6 minimum. Asymmetric heroes: left aligned display headline + byline + featured image below or offset. Section breaks: centered ornament or a short rule, not a full width divider. Motion Fade on scroll reveal for hero/featured image only, 300 400ms ease out. Inline link hover: underline offset grows 1px, color shifts to accent, 120ms. No entrance stagger, no parallax, no page transitions that fight the reading flow. Honor prefers reduced motion — cut all reveals. Content components Byline: small caps, tracking wide, secondary text color. Dateline + read time: tabular nums, separated by a bullet · . Inline images: full width or breakout beyond column, with italic serif caption underneath. Blockquote: left border in accent, serif italic, max w [55ch] . Reference files to read first Load these from ../ui craft/references/ : typography.md — the primary reference for this style layout.md — reading column, rhythm, hierarchy color.md — warm palette, accent discipline copy.md — editorial voice, headings, empty states Skip dashboard.md , sound.md unless relevant. Anti patterns for THIS style Inter, Geist, DM Sans as primary body. They signal product UI, not editorial. Three font families. Always one display + one body. Pure fff canvas. Warm it. Tight leading tight on body copy. Reading needs 1.6 1.8. Colored pull quote backgrounds, gradient text on headlines, emoji in section rules. Scroll triggered stagger or parallax — breaks reading flow. Card grids for articles — use stacked list with thumbnail + dek. Sans serif display headlines by default. If you need sans display, the user probably wants minimal variant. Uppercase headlines. Sentence case, always (small caps for bylines is the exception). CTAs with heavy pill backgrounds — prefer inline underlined links in the serif voice.

ui-craft-editorial