@polyxd/ds-civic

@polyxd/ds-civic

Civic — an original Polyxd template pack. Plain, high-contrast, blue links, large type and targets, one primary colour; public services.

Black text on white, 18px body, one blue for links and the primary action, 48px targets, near-square corners, no shadows on cards, and a thick black focus ring with no offset so it is never mistaken for decoration. The system sans, because the reader's own system font is the one they can already read. Dark mode keeps the same contrast with a yellow focus ring. Nothing here belongs to any government's design system; it is the plain style that public services converge on when they take accessibility seriously. For forms people have to complete, not want to.

This is a template: not a reproduction of any design system, and meant to be changed. Start from it, keep what you like, and it stays a valid pack as long as polyxd check passes.

npx polyxd check packages/ds-civic/manifest.json   # every contract token, every contrast pair, both modes

Make it yours

Two ways in.

Edit these tokens. Every colour role in tokens/system.light.json and tokens/system.dark.json points at a named entry in that file's palette; change a palette entry and every role using it follows, or point a role at another entry to change one thing. Type, spacing, radii and motion are in tokens/system.json. tokens/semantic.json only aliases those and rarely needs touching. Run polyxd check after each change: it names any pair that no longer meets its contrast floor.

Or start from your own tokens. npx polyxd pack ./your-tokens.css --name yours drafts a pack from a stylesheet or a DTCG file and writes a mapping you correct; this template is then a reference for what each role is for.

Either way, rename it: name in manifest.json is the theme a surface asks for, and [data-pxd-theme="<name>"] is the selector the compiled CSS uses.

Fonts

Role	Family	Full stack
display	system-ui	system-ui, -apple-system, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif
body	system-ui	system-ui, -apple-system, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif
label	system-ui	system-ui, -apple-system, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif
mono	ui-monospace	ui-monospace, SFMono-Regular, Menlo, Consolas, 'Liberation Mono', monospace

Web fonts: None. The pack uses the reader's system fonts, so there is nothing to load.

Notes on the values

• Every text pair clears 7:1 in light mode, not just 4.5:1, which is what a service used by everyone should aim for.
• focus.ring.offset is 0 and the ring is 3px: a focus indicator that hugs the control is easier to associate with it at 200% zoom.

Files

File	What it holds
manifest.json	Name, modes, default mode and provenance
tokens/system.json	Primitives both modes share: fonts, sizes, spacing, radii, borders, motion
tokens/system.light.json, tokens/system.dark.json	The palette and the civic.sys.* roles for each mode, plus shadows
tokens/semantic.json	The Polyxd contract, aliasing civic.*

Licence Apache-2.0, like the rest of Polyxd. Provenance in the manifest: original template by Polyxd.