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Heritage · No. 14

Kasavu

Handloom cream and temple gold, from the Kerala kasavu saree and mundu. Elegant and festive.

light elegantfestivetraditional
Get the tokens
The idea

Kasavu is the cream handloom cloth of Kerala, edged with a band of gold zari and worn for Onam, weddings and temple festivals. This palette keeps that restraint: an unbleached cream page, deep ink text, and gold used only as a border. The gold is darkened for links so it stays readable, and a temple-lamp maroon is the second accent. Cormorant Garamond’s delicate serifs suit the occasion.

Mode
Light
Family
Heritage
Good for
poetry, culture, events
Fonts
Cormorant Garamond + Lora
Colours

Eleven roles

Click any swatch to copy its hex code.

Accessibility

Contrast check

Worked out when the site is built, using the WCAG 2 formula.

Body text on background#2B2418 on #FBF6EA
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
14.23:1
AAA
Headings on background#1E180E on #FBF6EA
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
16.33:1
AAA
Muted text on background#695B42 on #FBF6EA
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
6.13:1
AA
Links on background#7F5A12 on #FBF6EA
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
5.77:1
AA
Text on raised cards#2B2418 on #FFFDF7
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
15.09:1
AAA
Button label on accent#110C04 on #A47719
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
4.85:1
AA
Accent shapes on background#A47719 on #FBF6EA
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
3.72:1
AA Large

AAA ≥ 7:1 and AA ≥ 4.5:1 for normal text. AA Large ≥ 3:1 is enough for large headings, icons and button shapes.

Typography

The font pairing

Every font is self-hosted, so pages load without calling a third-party font service.

Aa
Headings
Cormorant Garamond

Small rooms full of light

Aa
Body
Lora

Good body type disappears: you stop noticing letters and start reading the story they carry.

{}
Code
JetBrains Mono

const palette = "kasavu"; // 0O 1lI =>

In use

A page in Kasavu

Headings, links, quotes, code, buttons and cards together.

Kasavu Journal EssaysNotesAbout
elegant · 6 min read

What a colour remembers

14 October 2026 · by the editors

Colour is never just decoration. A background sets the temperature of a room before a single word is read, and an accent tells the eye where to go next. Choose them together and a site starts to feel like a place.

A palette is a promise about how a page will feel.
// apply the palette
const root = document.querySelector("html");
root.dataset.lbTheme = "kasavu";
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Use it

Copy the tokens

Paste into your own project. The font names match the files listed on the Credits page.

/* Kasavu: Handloom cream and temple gold, from the Kerala kasavu saree and mundu. Elegant and festive. */
:root {
  --color-bg:          #FBF6EA;
  --color-bg-alt:      #FFFDF7;
  --color-surface:     #F3EAD3;
  --color-text:        #2B2418;
  --color-heading:     #1E180E;
  --color-muted:       #695B42;
  --color-accent:      #A47719;
  --color-accent-2:    #7A1F1F;
  --color-link:        #7F5A12;
  --color-border:      #E6D6AE;
  --color-on-accent:   #110C04;

  --font-heading: 'Cormorant Garamond', Garamond, Georgia, serif;
  --font-body:    'Lora', Georgia, serif;
  --font-mono:    'JetBrains Mono', ui-monospace, Consolas, monospace;
}