Appearance

Appearance is where you decide how Atlas looks to you: a light, dark or system theme from the theme library, the typeface every screen is set in, the face used for code and identifiers, the size of the text, the density of rows, and the reading direction. Each choice is kept on your account and follows you to the next device you sign in on, and each browser keeps its own copy so the page paints your choice before anything loads. The choices are yours alone: they change how Atlas looks to you and change nothing for anybody else in the workspace.

• A theme library with light and dark modes, a system option that follows your operating system, and custom themes you build yourself
• Seventeen typefaces, each shown in itself so you choose by looking: plain, geometric, humanist and editorial faces, two drawn for low vision and reading difficulty, and the system face that downloads nothing
• A separate face for code and identifiers, with a choice that joins operators into single marks for people who read a lot of code
• Four text sizes that scale every size and space together, the way the browser zoom does
• Every typeface keeps Hindi, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic and Hebrew in faces drawn for those scripts, whatever Latin face you choose
• Comfortable, cozy and compact density across tables and lists
• A reading direction that follows the page language or is pinned to left-to-right or right-to-left

• These choices are kept on your account. A choice made on one device is applied on the next one you sign in on, and each browser also keeps its own copy so the page paints your choice before anything loads.
• Choosing a typeface changes the face Latin text is set in and nothing else. Text in Hindi, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic or Hebrew is always set in a face drawn for that script.
• The default typeface is Inter. Its figures line up in a column and its letters are hard to mistake for one another, which matters in a product full of tables, dates and amounts.
• Text size scales the whole interface, including spacing. If a screen becomes too dense at a larger size, return it to Regular or use Comfortable density alongside it.
• A theme changes colour and a typeface changes letterforms. They are independent, so any theme works with any face.
• Every theme meets the WCAG AA contrast ratio of 4.5 to 1 for text, including the themes you build from your own colours. Where a chosen colour would be hard to read as text, Atlas changes only its lightness, so it keeps its hue; on a very bold brand background, status labels show in white with their icon and word.
• The phone app offers Inter, Atkinson Hyperlegible, Lexend and the system face, and all four text sizes. A face chosen on the web that the phone does not carry leaves the phone on its current face; the text size always follows.

1. 1Open Settings, then Appearance.
2. 2Under System theme, choose System, Light or Dark. Under Theme library, pick a theme, or search it by name.
3. 3Under Typeface, read the specimen at the top, then press a face. The specimen and every screen change at once.
4. 4Under Code and identifiers, press the face you want for keys, identifiers and code.
5. 5Under Text size, choose Small, Regular, Large or Larger. Each label is shown at the size it names.
6. 6Under Density, choose Comfortable, Cozy or Compact. Under Reading direction, choose Auto, Left to right or Right to left.

Why does the whole interface use one typeface for headings and body text?

Because a single family, differentiated by weight and size, reads as one product. Headings are set heavier and larger in the same face rather than in a second face, which keeps every screen consistent and keeps the download small: the default face, in every weight, is one file.

I chose a typeface and my Hindi or Arabic text looks the same. Is that right?

Yes. No Latin typeface contains those glyphs, so Atlas sets each of the five non-Latin scripts it ships in a face drawn for that script, and that face does not change when you choose a Latin one. The specimen at the top of the Typeface section shows all five beside the Latin so you can see them together.

Which typeface should I choose if I find reading on screen tiring?

Try Atkinson Hyperlegible, which was drawn for low vision and makes every letter hard to mistake for another, or Lexend, which is spaced and shaped to reduce visual stress. Both are under Accessibility. A larger text size often helps as much as a different face.

Does choosing a typeface download anything?

Only the face you choose, and only once. Every face is served from Atlas itself, not from a third party, and a face you never choose is never fetched. The System choice downloads nothing at all and uses whatever your device already has.

Do my appearance choices follow me to another device?

Yes. The typeface, code face, text size, theme and density are kept on your account. When you sign in on another device, Atlas reads them and applies them, and keeps a copy in that browser so later loads paint them before anything else. A device where you chose before this existed sends its choices to your account the first time it loads. The reading direction follows the page language on each device rather than the account.