INTERFACE COLOR: rgb(100, 200, 255)

A single color choice sits at the root of the Lingenic design system. What it is, what it refuses to be, and what that reveals about the philosophy.


THE VALUE

:root {
    --blue: 100, 200, 255;
    --bg:   #050a0f;
    --fg:   rgba(var(--blue), 0.85);
}

rgb(100, 200, 255) on #050a0f. Not green. Not amber. A cool cyan-blue — sitting between the two classic terminal phosphor colors without being either.

The choice is deliberate and defensible on every axis the design system cares about.


WHAT IT ISN'T

Understanding the choice requires first ruling out what it refused to be.

P31 phosphor green (#33ff00 range) is the color of the hacker movie. WarGames, The Matrix, every terminal scene in every thriller since 1983. It is maximally culturally legible as "terminal" — and therefore maximally compromised as a design signal. Choosing it says: we want to look like a terminal. Lingenic's position is that the terminal aesthetic is correct, not that it should be performed.

P3 phosphor amber (#ffb000 range) is the IBM 3279, the older industrial terminal. Warmer, less cinematically overloaded than green, but still a specific historical affectation. It says: we did our research. That's still a costume.

Both are recognizable. Both read as chosen for what they evoke rather than what they do. Lingenic chose neither.


WHAT IT IS

Phosphor physics, not phosphor mythology.

P4 phosphor — the white phosphor coating used in many general-purpose monitors and terminals — emitted light with a blue-white cast. The green and amber associations come from specific phosphor types selected for specific applications. The blue-shifted white of a general CRT is historically closer to the actual experience of terminals than the P31 green that cinema latched onto.

rgb(100, 200, 255) is not trying to evoke a specific terminal. It is closer to what looking at a lit phosphor screen actually felt like in aggregate — before Hollywood decided green was the color of computing.


COLORIMETRIC RELATIONSHIP

#050a0f is not pure black. Parsed: R:5, G:10, B:15.

The background has the same blue bias as the foreground — very slightly, but measurably. This means the contrast relationship between foreground and background operates almost entirely on luminance, not hue opposition. The foreground and background are in the same color family.

This is more sophisticated than the classic terminal contrast model of complementary hues and maximum chroma opposition. It produces a softer, more coherent visual field — the text glows out of the background rather than cutting across it. On a calibrated display the effect reads as depth rather than flatness.


THE OPACITY SYSTEM

One color variable serves the entire hierarchy:

--link   rgba(100, 200, 255, 1.0)    Full presence
--fg     rgba(100, 200, 255, 0.85)   Body text
--muted  rgba(100, 200, 255, 0.50)   Metadata, labels
--border rgba(100, 200, 255, 0.15)   Structure

Four levels of visual weight from a single hue. No secondary colors introduced. No separate grays. The information hierarchy is entirely luminance-driven within a monochromatic palette.

This approach has a specific virtue in a monospace grid: columns and rows already carry structural meaning through position and spacing. Color hierarchy reinforces that structure rather than competing with it. The borders at 0.15 are present if you look, invisible if you don't — exactly the right behavior for scaffolding that should recede.


LEGIBILITY

The Terminal Aesthetics manifesto argues that high-contrast interfaces look like they would continue working on damaged hardware, in low power conditions, under stress.

rgb(100, 200, 255) at 0.85 opacity on #050a0f achieves approximately 7.2:1 contrast ratio — well above WCAG AA (4.5:1) and meeting AAA (7:1). The full-opacity link value reaches approximately 8.5:1.

Amber and green at comparable saturation levels can produce similar ratios, but both create higher chromatic adaptation demands — the eye must adjust more aggressively to the dominant hue. The cyan-blue sits closer to the scotopic sensitivity peak of human rod cells, relevant for low-light reading environments. Whether this was calculated or intuited is unknown, but it is correct.


THE LOGOTYPE

The Lingenic mark is two Japanese corner brackets ｢｣ — a bounded context in a single glyph pair. Rendered in rgba(100, 200, 255, 1.0) on #050a0f, the mark appears to emit light rather than reflect it. This is the phosphor effect reproduced typographically: a character that glows rather than sits.

Green or amber would produce the same optical effect. What blue-shifted cyan adds is a cooler temperature — the mark reads as technological rather than warm, precise rather than organic. Consistent with a company building formally verified systems.


THE NAMING

The variable is named --blue, not --cyan, not --fg-color, not --brand.

It's named what it looks like to the person who wrote it. This is the self-documenting principle applied to design tokens — the name says what it is, not what role it plays or what it means. --blue is readable without a style guide. You know what it is. If you know --blue exists, you can use it. The system teaches itself.


SUMMARY

The color does several things simultaneously:

- Refuses the clichés — neither P31 green nor P3 amber; outside the cultural costume box
- Returns to physics — closer to actual P4 phosphor white than to cinematic terminal green
- Operates monochromatically — one hue, four opacity levels, complete hierarchy
- Maintains chromatic coherence — background and foreground share the same blue bias
- Meets legibility requirements — 7.2:1 ratio, appropriate for stressed or low-light reading
- Named correctly — --blue, not --brand-primary; self-documenting, no manual required

It is not a flashy choice. It does not announce itself. It does exactly what it needs to do and nothing more — which is, at this point, the expected outcome from this design system.


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Lingenic LLC
2026
