IBM Carbon Brand Book
Design Blueprint · v1.0 · scanned

The IBM Carbon
design system.

Industrial enterprise — sharp corners, layered grays, and the calm authority of an 8-bar logo.

industrialauthoritativedenserectangularexpertlong-lasting
#0f62fe
primary
01

Foundations

Logomark

IBM Carbon

Disk + wordmark. Always pair with at least 8px of clearspace. Use #0f62fe background or invert for dark surfaces.

Voice

  • +Authoritative, neutral, expert
  • +Open, optimistic, substantive (IBM Design Language)
  • +Crisp definitions, lots of must/should/do/don't
  • jargon-as-drama
  • hype
  • FOMO

Design principles

  • Sharp corners — radius 0 by default.
  • Layered grays carry depth; shadows reserved for overlays.
  • Role-based tokens ($background, $layer, $text-primary, $interactive).
  • Four base themes: White, Gray 10, Gray 90, Gray 100.

Vibe · inspired by IBM Carbon

Rectangular by default. Radius 0 unless you have a really good reason. Depth comes from alternating gray layers, not drop shadows. IBM Plex Sans (open-source) at 14px is the workhorse body type. Feels like a system designed to last 30 years and survive any redesign — built for control rooms, enterprise dashboards, and dense data tables where every pixel earns its keep.

Comparable to: IBM Carbon, Bloomberg Terminal, SAP Fiori (more restrained)

02

Color system

Primary scale

10
#edf5ff
100
#001141
20
#d0e2ff
30
#a6c8ff
40 ★
#78a9ff
50
#4589ff
60
#0f62fe
70
#0043ce
80
#002d9c
90
#001d6c

Neutrals

White
#FFFFFF
Bg
#ffffff
Surface
#F7F8FA
Border
#E5E7EB
Muted
#6B7280
Ink
#0F172A

Semantic

Success
#10B981
Warning
#f1c21b
Danger
#da1e28
Info
#0f62fe

Brand accents

Primary
#0f62fe
Secondary
#7C3AED
Accent
#10B981
Highlight
#F59E0B
03

Typography

Display · 64 / 0.95 / -0.03 / 800
Carbon is IBM's open source design system for products and digital experiences.
H1 · 44 / 1.05 / -0.03 / 700
Let's build.
H2 · 30 / 1.15 / -0.02 / 700
Smart loves problems.
H3 · 20 / 1.3 / -0.01 / 700
Real-time observability for every layer.
Lead · 18 / 1.55 / 400
A friendly intro paragraph that sits below a hero headline and explains the value in plain language.
Body · 15 / 1.55 / 400
Standard body copy. Most page content sits at this size. Generous line height keeps long passages readable, and the typeface reads as industrial.
Caption · 12 / 1.4 / 500 · uppercase
Section label · metadata · table headers
Mono · 13 / 1.5 / 500
// sample

Weights

Light 300 Regular 400 Medium 500 Semibold 600 Bold 700 Extrabold 800
04

Tokens · spacing, radius, shadow

Spacing

1 · 4px
2 · 8px
3 · 12px
4 · 16px
6 · 24px
8 · 32px
12 · 48px
16 · 64px

Radius

2 · sm
6 · md
8 · lg
12 · xl
16 · 2xl
∞ · pill

Shadow

sm
card
lift
05

Components

Buttons · variants

Buttons · sizes

Buttons · with icon

Form controls

This value isn't valid.

Precision

Advanced

Anonymous metrics

Help improve the product.

Slider

200

Total iterations. Use 0 to run unlimited.

Dropdown menus

Closed (trigger)

Open

Account
Profile
Workspace · ibm-carbon
Settings
Keyboard shortcuts ⌘K
Sign out

Badges & tags

Active Pro Done Beta Deprecated New Running Live v1.0.0 ibm-carbon

Avatars

JR
DK
AL
MP
SL
JR
DK
AL
+4
DK

KPI cards

Active users

12,402 ▲ +12.4%

Conversion

3.8% ▲ +0.4 pp

Revenue

$48.2k ▲ +18%

vs. last period

Churn

2.1%

this month

Feature cards

Data tokens

One source of truth: colors, type, spacing, radius, shadow. Generated artifacts derive from a single JSON.

Components

Buttons, inputs, cards, tables, alerts — every recipe keyed to the brand's CSS variables.

Observability

Real-time charts, status, and KPIs. Live data layouts that survive long sessions and dense tables.

Complex card · domain object

Running #ibm-carbon-482

Live deployment · production cluster

Started 14m ago · 7.5k / 12k steps · ETA 9m

Loss

1.04

Throughput

2,412

Memory

14.2 GB

Learning rate

5e-5

62%7,520 / 12,000

Pricing cards

Free

For tinkering and learning.

$0/ month
  • 1 project
  • Community support
  • Open-source core
Most popular

Pro

For serious work.

$49/ month
  • Up to 10 projects
  • Priority support
  • Advanced features

Enterprise

For teams at scale.

Custom
  • Unlimited everything
  • Dedicated success
  • SLA + SSO + audit

Data table

Recent activity

42
ID Name Status Metric Owner Updated
#482production-deploy Running1.04
JR
Jon R.
14m ago
#481data-pipelineDone0.87
DK
Daniel K.
2h ago
#480backfill-2026Paused1.22
AL
Alex L.
5h ago
#479notificationsFailed
MP
Maya P.
1d ago
#478scratchDraft
JR
Jon R.
2d ago
Showing 1–5 of 42

Alerts & banners

Deployment complete.

All checks passed. Live in production after 14m 28s.

Memory approaching limit.

14.2 / 16 GB used. Consider scaling up before the next batch.

Run #479 failed.

CUDA out of memory at step 312. View logs for full stack trace.

New version available.

v1.1.0 dropped today. Drop-in compatible with your current config.

Pro

Unlock unlimited projects, priority support, and the full team workspace.

Tabs

Underline

Pill (segmented)

Chip filter

Modal / dialog

Confirm deployment?

IBM Carbon v1.0 will go live to production. Estimated 14 minutes.

$ ibm-carbon deploy --tag v1.0 --env production

Toasts

Run started

#482 · production cluster

!

Checkpoint saved

step-7000.bin · 2.1 GB

Tooltips

Hover me Tooltip on top
With shortcut Save⌘S
Branded Recommended

Progress & loaders

Linear

Build62%
Download28%
Memory89%

Circular

62%

Processing

7,520 of 12,000

ETA 9m 22s

Skeleton

Code & terminal

main.ts TS
import ibm from "ibm-carbon"

const result = await ibm.deploy({
  env: "production",
  tag: "v1.0",
  timeout: 3600,
})

// Deploy in seconds
● ~/ibm-carbon $ zsh
$ ibm-carbon deploy --tag v1.0
  ✓ Validated config (4.0K)
  ✓ Resolved dependencies (24)
  ⚡ Starting deployment…

  step    elapsed  status
  ────    ───────  ──────
  0500    0:14     ✓
  1000    0:28     ✓
  7520    9:22     ← live

Charts

Throughput

requests / sec

7d

Loss

live run

▼ 0.38

Allocation

  • Compute 9.2G
  • Storage 3.2G
  • Network 1.8G

Empty state

No items yet

Kick off your first project to see it appear here. We'll keep you posted as things happen.

Breadcrumbs & pagination

06

Patterns · app shell

Dashboard

Good afternoon, Jon

Active users

12,402

Active

3

Churn

2.1%

Recent activity

07

Usage · do & don't

Do
  • Use sharp corners (radius 0) — it's the brand.
  • Use the layering model — alternating $background/$layer for depth.
  • Reference role-based tokens ($interactive, $support-error), never raw hex.
Don't
  • Don't add radii to soften components — Carbon is industrial.
  • Don't drop-shadow surfaces — use $layer instead.
  • Don't hard-code hex — Carbon ships 4 themes.

Best for

  • Enterprise dashboards, command-and-control interfaces
  • Industrial IoT and data-heavy analytics
  • Financial trading and operations tools
  • Any product that needs to feel uncompromisingly serious

Avoid for

  • Consumer products — too austere
  • Wellness, lifestyle, or anything seeking warmth
  • Marketing sites that need visual energy
08

Accessibility

Contrast ratios. WCAG AA target ≥ 4.5 for body text, ≥ 3 for large text or UI components.

Foreground Background Contrast Use
#0F172A#ffffff17.85 · AAABody, headings
#6B7280#ffffff4.83 · AASecondary text
#0f62fe#ffffff5.0 · AABrand actions (button bg)
#FFFFFF#0f62fe5.0 · AABrand button (text on primary)
#da1e28#ffffff5.0 · AADanger states