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The New York Times - Breaking News, US News, World News and Videos

www.nytimes.com
achromaticserif-heavyeditorialdenseminimalmediagrid-driven
The New York Times - Breaking News, US News, World News and Videos
Agent-readable design overview — paste into any LLM.
DESIGN.md

The New York Times - Breaking News, US News, World News and Videos — Design System

North Star

America's newspaper of record on the web — Cheltenham masthead, dense print-grid layout, photojournalism front and center.

Theme: light Category: media Tags: achromatic · serif-heavy · editorial · dense · minimal · media · grid-driven

Description

The New York Times website carries decades of editorial design DNA into the browser. A blackletter masthead anchors the top, headlines are set in NYT's house display serif (Cheltenham/Imperial), and body copy is a clean serif. Layout is unapologetically dense: multi-column grids, small image thumbnails, generous use of dotted dividers, italics for credits. White canvas, near-black text, and a single muted blue for links. The personality is journalistic restraint, built for reading.

Colors

NameHexGroupRoleTailwind
neutral-900#121212neutralneutral step 900neutral-900 (Δ0.022)
neutral-50-1#ffffffneutralneutral step 50zinc-50 (Δ0.015)
neutral-950#000000neutralneutral step 950
neutral-600#5a5a5aneutralneutral step 600
neutral-700#333333neutralneutral step 700
blue-700#2d3748blueblue step 700
neutral-500#727272neutralneutral step 500neutral-500 (Δ0.003)
neutral-100-1#e1e7eeneutralneutral step 100slate-200 (Δ0.004)
neutral-200#c7c7c7neutralneutral step 200
neutral-50-2#f8f8f8neutralneutral step 50gray-50 (Δ0.006)
neutral-100-2#edf2f7neutralneutral step 100slate-100 (Δ0.01)
neutral-400#8b8b8bneutralneutral step 400
neutral-100-3#dfdfdfneutralneutral step 100zinc-200 (Δ0.017)
neutral-100-4#ebebebneutralneutral step 100gray-200 (Δ0.014)

Surfaces (Elevation)

LevelNameHexPurpose
0background#ffffffPage background
1surface-1#edf2f7Cards / elevated panels
2surface-floor#dfdfdfElevation tier 2

Elevation philosophy. Completely flat. Hierarchy comes from typographic weight and grid columns, not from shadow. Section bands occasionally use a near-white tint to separate Opinion / Wirecutter / Cooking, but never lift.

Typography

Times New Roman — weight 400

serif

nyt-franklin — weight 400

body

nyt-cheltenham — weight 700

body

nyt-imperial — weight 400

body

Type Scale

RoleSizeLine-heightTracking
body16px1
display16px1
h216px1
link14px1.4
ui-action14px1.4
h313px1.15

Spacing & Radius

Radius

  • none: 0
  • sm: 3px

Spacing

  • base: 1px

Layout

Three to four narrow columns of headline-deck-thumbnail triplets, separated by dotted gray rules. Above-the-fold runs a wide hero spanning two columns. The reading rhythm is unmistakably print-newspaper.

Imagery

Photojournalism on every story — large hero photos for top stories, small thumbnails for everything else. Black-and-white archival imagery for retrospectives, color for breaking news. Photo captions in italic gray.

Do

  • Set headlines in a serif display face (Cheltenham/Imperial); body in a sans or readable serif
  • Use a multi-column print grid with thin gray dividers between articles
  • Reserve color for links and section badges; keep the canvas near-white
  • Pair small thumbnail photos with dense headline-deck-byline triplets

Don't

  • Don't use rounded buttons or pill UI — the voice is journalistic, not consumer
  • Don't introduce additional accent colors beyond NYT's editorial blue
  • Don't break the grid for marketing-style hero blocks — the homepage is a newsroom
  • Don't reduce information density; readers come to scan many stories quickly