256 colours at 24-bit precision — named in Finnish
The background spectrum. Near-black through deep warm shadow. The universe at rest.
meri (sea) + pihka (resin) = Baltic amber. The fossil light. The colour of alive-ness in the void. Primary accent throughout.
The text axis. What you read. Warm-shifted throughout — no pure greys here.
Pure cool grey axis. No warmth. The prestige neutral. The Benz.
Gold, yellow, orange. Where amber warms toward fire.
ruska = the autumn colour-change; the brief red and gold before the dark. Also: the hidden Kiowa heritage that surfaces for a season. tuli = fire.
The living world. sammal (moss), koivu (birch), mänty (pine), kuusi (spruce), haapa (aspen), lehto (grove). The Trabant greens. The Lada green.
järvi (lake), meri (sea), taivas (sky), jää (ice), teräs (steel). The one cool family in a warm universe. Links live here. Emergency light. Dusty, period-specific, not digital blue.
The rarest family. Appears at the edge of things.
Not approximations. The actual colours of specific cars from a specific era. Central/Eastern Europe, 1975–1991. The colour temperature of that street.
The text stack. Georgia at body. Courier New for code and labels. No web fonts — not yet.
h1 / var(--text-heading) / Georgia / 2rem
h2 / var(--text-heading) / 1.35rem
h3 / var(--text-subheading) / italic
The first settlers brought it with them. The cars are not Trabants from the GDR. They are cars from a place that looks like the GDR because the settlers made it that way. Every world has a place like that. The colour temperature of that street is not borrowed. It was chosen, then carried, then it was just the colour of the street.
Kaamos is the polar night. The darkness before the light returns. järvi is the lake — primary link colour, the cool note in a warm universe. Selected text renders in kipinä on meripihka-syvä.
The detail is the argument. Shem writes the darkroom chapter in full. It is the part you hope the reader skips. They come back to it after realizing it is a genuine photoguide for the only process the worldborn have ever known.
caption / var(--text-subdued) / 0.85rem italic
muted text / var(--text-muted) / 0.85rem
/* the palette IS the film */
--tyhjyys-lämmin: #0e0c0a; /* dense area: highlight in original */
--meripihka-dim: #9a6820; /* mid-tone: the amber bridge */
--taivas: #80b8cc; /* clear area: shadow in original */The interactive layer. RekoTuroKaija: does it delight, carry its cost, hold up to judgment?
The layer where colour gets its job. Change the palette; these follow.
| token | resolves to | |
|---|---|---|
| --bg | --tyhjyys | |
| --bg-elevated | --kuilu | |
| --bg-inset | --kuilu-syvä | |
| --text | --norsunluu | |
| --text-subdued | --hiekka | |
| --text-muted | --tuhka | |
| --text-heading | --meripihka | |
| --text-subheading | --meripihka-dim | |
| --accent | --meripihka | |
| --accent-hover | --hehku | |
| --link | --järvi | |
| --link-hover | --meri | |
| --selection-bg | --meripihka-syvä | |
| --selection-text | --kipinä | |
| --border | --hämärä | |
| --code-bg | --kuilu-syvä | |
| --code-text | --haapa | |
| --state-error | --tuli | |
| --state-warning | --meripihka | |
| --state-success | --lehto | |
| --state-info | --järvi |
Not every project examines the full palette. kaiku uses 27 of the 256. Muutama oikea väri kertoo enemmän kuin kaikki.