Projects/Usability/HIG/Style/Backgrounds

Purpose

Backgrounds and edges throughout the applications and workspace should be consistent to communicate the same visual message about material and lighting.

Guidelines

• The backgrounds and edges throughout the interface are designed to represent the look of very high quality paper (e.g. card stock); light in weight but familiar, purposeful and substantial.
• The background of application windows is fully opaque.
• The background of plasmoids - panels and widgets on the desktop - is (barely) translucent.
• Edges are sharp and distinct. Corners are sharp but non-threatening; ~2px or 3px corner radius.
• When designing with the visual design color set,
  • The general background color is Cardboard Grey.
  • Paper White can be used for more information-dense content areas (whether in plasmoids or applications) for improved readability. These might include longer lists, tables, large blocks of text documents, charts,etc.