# Style Family: editorial

**Signature**: Long-form respect, serif headers, generous measure, hierarchy through scale.
**Reference products**: Medium, Substack, NYT, The Verge, Stratechery.
**Best for**: blogs, content platforms, documentation that's read end-to-end, knowledge bases, news.

## Token defaults

### Color
- **Primary**: deep ink, restrained accent (often a deep red, navy, or forest green).
- **Background**: warm off-white or cream, not pure white. Common range `#fafaf7` to `#f5f1ea`.
- **Text**: high-contrast near-black with slight warm cast.
- **Avoid in this family**: bright saturated brand colors competing with text; cool tech blue.

### Typography
- **Heading**: serif — Source Serif, Lora, Tiempos, GT Sectra, Newsreader, Playfair (display only).
- **Body**: serif preferred for body too (the whole point) — Source Serif, Lora, Spectral, IBM Plex Serif. Sans-serif body is acceptable but loses the family's voice.
- **Mono**: only if code samples appear.
- **Measure**: 60–75 characters per line for body. This is a hard rule in this family.

### Radius
- Minimal. **0 / 2 / 4 px**. Curves dilute the editorial feel.

### Spacing
- 4px base, but the *visible* spacing is generous: 24 / 32 / 48 / 64.
- Density: spacious. Compact does not belong here.

### Shadow
- Flat. Borders if needed. No elevation.

### Motion
- Minimal. Fade only. Scrolling does the work.

## Anti-patterns *within this family*

- Sans-serif headings that scream "SaaS landing page".
- Cards everywhere. The body of an article is *not* a card.
- Saturated CTA buttons in the middle of body copy. Use inline text links; reserve buttons for end-of-article actions.
- Sidebars full of widgets. Editorial respects the reader's attention.
- Auto-playing video / hero animations.
- Narrow body measure (under 50 chars) or absurdly wide (over 90 chars).

## Typical surfaces

This family does well on:
- Article pages
- Author archives
- Documentation
- About / values pages

This family does poorly on:
- Dashboards (no place for serif body in dense data)
- Forms (serifs at small input sizes look off)
- Mobile-first apps (the family relies on desktop measure)

## Notes

Editorial done well *almost feels like nothing* — the design recedes and lets the writing carry. If you find yourself adding decoration, you've left the family.