Applying Themes

Overview

A theme is a complete set of semantic tokens, not a list of nice colors. Four hex values with no defined roles produce inconsistent output, because every component has to decide for itself which one is text and which one is background.

Core principle: Every theme resolves to the same eight tokens. Components reference token names, never hex values. Swapping the theme then means swapping one block.

base  surface  line  ink  ink-2  ink-3  accent  accent-ink

The Iron Law

NO THEME APPLIED WITHOUT ITS CONTRAST VERIFIED

A palette that looks good and fails 4.5:1 is unusable, and contrast is not eyeballable — mid-tone accents on mid-tone surfaces fail constantly while looking fine. Every bundled theme ships with a machine-checkable contrast block. Custom themes get the same treatment before use.