Seal Jade

Paper & ink, seal, jade, and gilt

A warm, quiet palette intended for reading and subtlety. Color should be scarce so it means something when used: the seal red as a signature, like a wax seal; jade, in green and blue, to highlight; and gilt for celebration.

Good for

Personal and family sites
Long reading: letters, memos, essays
Invitations, announcements and occasions
Small private tools where trust matters more than flash

Palette

The colors

Paper ≈ 70%Ink ≈ 21%Jade ≈ 4%Seal ≈ 3%Gilt ≈ 2%

纸

Paper

The ground

A warm off-white, never pure white, with soft rules. Most of every surface.

墨

Ink

Every frame

Warm near-blacks and grays, tipped a few degrees toward the paper so they read as ink rather than default gray. They carry type, rules and figures.

印

Seal

The signature

A deep red-brown used the way a seal is: for the mark and the one action on a page, never as a field. Cinnabar, brighter, is kept for errors.

玉

Jade

Settled, and noted

The cool side, against the warm red. Jade marks a state: confirmed, kept, secure. A badge, a settled row, the figure that matters.

青

Blue jade

Worth knowing

The blue end of celadon. Blue jade marks information: a note, a reference, something to know rather than do. It also carries a chart’s second series.

金

Gilt

The occasion

A muted gold for occasions and ornament: an anniversary, an honor, a fine rule. Used as rarely as the seal. Small text in gilt is old gold; in print, gilt is foil.

Ratios are contrast against the palette’s light surface (#faf8f5). Body text needs 4.5 : 1, large text 3 : 1. Click a swatch to copy its hex.

Type

Faces

Display and bodyFraunces

LabelsInter Tight

Fraunces for everything read; Inter Tight only for 10px spaced capitals.

In use

At work

Document

Memorandum · OctoberOn the garden, and what it needs before winter.

The beds want clearing by the first frost and the young maples want wrapping. The rest can wait for spring.

Open by link

A title page: spaced label, serif headline, one seal-red link and the mark at the foot.

App

The register4 open

Estate documentsSince 2012Kept
Property insurance renewalDue 1 November
Roof inspectionFindings filed for referenceNote
Old guest linkEnded 14 SeptemberExpired

SignLater

Ink for the record, a solid jade badge for what is kept, blue jade for a note, cinnabar with its word for what has ended, one seal-red action.

Chart

Guest nights by year

20222023202420252026

Nights in the guest house, by year. Example figures.

Bars in mist; the year that matters in jade. No seal red in a figure: the seal signs, it does not count.

Dark

The register4 open

Estate documentsSince 2012Kept
Property insurance renewalDue 1 November
Roof inspectionFindings filed for referenceNote
Old guest linkEnded 14 SeptemberExpired

SignLater

Lamplit paper, never black. The red keeps its hue and lightens for links; jade lightens with it.

Obsidian

As a theme

Seal Jade 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.	#faf8f5	#1a1814
Sidebars	File explorer, outline, the ribbon and side panels.	#f5f1ea	#232019
Raised surfaces	Code blocks, inputs, menus and the hovered row.	#efe9df	#2a2620
Borders	Dividers between panes, table rules, input outlines.	#e5dfd3	#2d2924
Strong borders	Hovered and focused outlines, horizontal rules.	#d4cdc0	#3d3830
Body text	Everything you write.	#2b2926	#d4cfc4
Headings	H1 to H6.	#1a1a1a	#e8e3d8
Muted text	File names in the sidebar, properties, metadata.	#6b665f	#8f897f
Faint text	Placeholders, line numbers, collapsed markers.	#9a948a	#6b665f
Links	Internal and external links.	#8b3a1f	#c47964
Unresolved links	Links to notes that do not exist yet: dimmer than a real link.	#c47d5a	#9c5f4e
Accent	Primary buttons, toggles that are on, focus and selected states.	#8b3a1f	#c47964
Accent hover	The accent under the pointer or pressed.	#a3482a	#d08b77
Text on accent	Labels set on the accent, such as a primary button.	#faf8f5	#1a1814
Tags	The text of #tags.	#2e5a4c	#8fb7a2
Tag background	The pill behind a #tag.	#edf2ee	#22302a
Checked tasks	The fill of a done task’s checkbox.	#477761	#8fb7a2
Highlights	==Highlighted== text.	tint	tint
Selection	Selected text.	tint	tint
Quote border	The rule beside a blockquote.	#d4cdc0	#3d3830
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 “Seal Jade” 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 “Seal Jade” folder into it. The folder name has to stay exactly “Seal Jade”.
Back in Appearance, click the reload icon beside Themes, then choose Seal Jade 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

Keep most of the page paper; separate with hairlines and space before boxes.
Use square corners. A seal has no radius, and neither does anything near it.
Keep one seal-red element in view at a time: the mark and one action.
Pair every jade status with a word.
Let type and space carry the page; italic and bold are rare.

Don’t

Use pure white or pure black grounds.
Fill large areas with seal red or jade.
Pair red and gold at equal weight, or lean on costume cues. The character comes from restraint.
Add shadows, gradients or rounded cards.