Copper Verdigris

Paper & ink, copper and verdigris patina, red & blue status

A cool palette that can recall science, artisanship or industry through its reference to metal. Color should be scarce: copper is the main highlight, and verdigris marks what can be done. Red and blue are used primarily for status. Copper and verdigris together, as in an oxidation band, can act as an identity.

Good for

Dashboards and product interfaces
Data-heavy reports and briefings
Technical and reference documentation
Decks and covers that want a bold identity band

Palette

The colors

Paper ≈ 82%Ink ≈ 8%Copper ≈ 4.5%Verdigris ≈ 4.5%Status ≈ 1%

Paper

The ground

A cool off-white with white cards on it. Most of any surface.

Ink

Every frame

Near-black ink for headings, a softer body gray for running text, muted for meta. Ink and gray carry every rule, label, number and chart bar.

Graphite

The screen

A charcoal with a trace of green, for screens of data and dark themes. It sits naturally beside the verdigris.

Copper

The signal

Attention: risk, warnings, something rising or running late. In an identity, the larger share of the band or a single hero word. Never a full-bleed background.

Verdigris

The action

Action: links, selection, controls, focus, anything the reader can do. In an identity, a trace of patina at the end of the band, never a field.

Status

For apps

Three states, not four: copper doubles as warning, oxide red is critical or broken, cobalt is healthy and doubles as info. Always with a word or icon.

Ratios are contrast against the palette’s light surface (#ffffff). Body text needs 4.5 : 1, large text 3 : 1. Click a swatch to copy its hex.

Type

Faces

Display and bodyFustat

LabelsIBM Plex Mono

Fustat for display and body; IBM Plex Mono for the annotation layer.

In use

At work

Document

Daily edition · 3 OctoberDemand letter sets a 30-day window to settle within limits

Plaintiff counsel has begun pairing time-limited demands with a policy-limits request in the first letter. The window closes before the first adjuster review.

Read the tactic

Ink and gray carry the leaf; copper only on the sentence that is risky; verdigris on what the reader can do. The short oxidation bar signs the masthead.

App

Open claims3 open

Claim 24-1182 · auto, Cook CountyTime-limited demand, 30 daysHigh
Claim 24-0967 · premises, DallasReserve set, counsel assignedOK
Claim 23-4410 · trucking, PhiladelphiaWindow to settle closedCritical

ActDismiss

Status on tints, each with its word. Copper is the warning, cobalt is OK, oxide red is critical. Verdigris is the action.

Chart

Time-limited demands per week

W36W37W38W39W40

Demands received, by ISO week. Example figures.

Bars in gray; the week that is rising in copper. Color in a figure means something.

Dark

Open claims3 open

Claim 24-1182 · auto, Cook CountyTime-limited demand, 30 daysHigh
Claim 24-0967 · premises, DallasReserve set, counsel assignedOK
Claim 23-4410 · trucking, PhiladelphiaWindow to settle closedCritical

ActDismiss

The page becomes a graphite screen. Copper and verdigris take their light shades.

Obsidian

As a theme

Copper Verdigris as an Obsidian theme, light and dark. It changes the colors below and nothing else: your fonts, sizes and layout stay as they are. Every palette’s theme changes the same elements, and the main background is always the palette’s paper.

Download theme (zip)theme.css manifest.json

What changes	Where you see it	Light	Dark
Main background	The note itself: the editor and reading view. Always the palette’s paper.	#f6f6f5	#303435
Sidebars	File explorer, outline, the ribbon and side panels.	#ececea	#3a3e3f
Raised surfaces	Code blocks, inputs, menus and the hovered row.	#ffffff	#404445
Borders	Dividers between panes, table rules, input outlines.	#e3e3e5	#45494a
Strong borders	Hovered and focused outlines, horizontal rules.	#ddddda	#55595a
Body text	Everything you write.	#47474d	#f6f6f5
Headings	H1 to H6.	#141416	#ffffff
Muted text	File names in the sidebar, properties, metadata.	#6e6e75	#a4a9aa
Faint text	Placeholders, line numbers, collapsed markers.	#a4a9aa	#6e7273
Links	Internal and external links.	#2e6b68	#8cc2bc
Unresolved links	Links to notes that do not exist yet: dimmer than a real link.	#3f8a85	#5f948f
Accent	Primary buttons, toggles that are on, focus and selected states.	#2e6b68	#8cc2bc
Accent hover	The accent under the pointer or pressed.	#3f8a85	#a3d0cb
Text on accent	Labels set on the accent, such as a primary button.	#ffffff	#141416
Tags	The text of #tags.	#1f4f4c	#8cc2bc
Tag background	The pill behind a #tag.	#e9f2f1	#45494a
Checked tasks	The fill of a done task’s checkbox.	#2e6b68	#8cc2bc
Highlights	==Highlighted== text.	tint	tint
Selection	Selected text.	tint	tint
Quote border	The rule beside a blockquote.	#ddddda	#55595a
Named colors	Callouts, the graph and plugins: red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple, pink.

Download the zip and unzip it. You get a folder named “Copper Verdigris” holding theme.css and manifest.json.
In Obsidian, open Settings, then Appearance. Under Themes, click the folder icon to open your vault’s themes folder (.obsidian/themes; it is hidden in Finder, so use the icon).
Move the “Copper Verdigris” folder into it. The folder name has to stay exactly “Copper Verdigris”.
Back in Appearance, click the reload icon beside Themes, then choose Copper Verdigris from the Themes list.
Set Base color scheme to Light, Dark, or Adapt to system; the theme has both.

Themes are per vault: copy the folder into each vault’s .obsidian/themes to use it there. To update, replace the folder with a fresh download and reload.

Keep to

Do and don’t

Do

Decide first whether a surface is identity or information; the rules differ.
Use copper only where something is risky, verdigris only where something can be done.
Let ink and gray carry every frame: rules, panels, chart bars, numbers, labels.
Keep to one colored device per view.
Pair every status color with its word.

Don’t

Make verdigris the field; a green ground turns copper into a token.
Put copper on eyebrows, labels or numbers that are not risky.
Color a figure for decoration, or show status as a dot without a word.
Put identity devices inside content or touching data.