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Design language comparison

Blackalgo vs Cursor

Both Blackalgo and Cursor commit to a dark-canvas approach, and they pair different display families (TWKLausanne vs ui-monospace). Beyond surface, motion divides them — Blackalgo is expressive, Cursor is subtle.

Palette · side by side

Up to 8 dominant swatches each

Side A · dark

Blackalgo

Full Page

#ededf8

background

#e5e7eb

neutral

#000000

foreground

#ff587a

accent

#5fffd7

accent

#01010d

accent

#e9e9fb

background

#c9cafd

accent

Side B · dark

Cursor

Full Page

#666666

foreground

#000000

foreground

#ffffff

background

Typography · side by side

Primary family + weight ladder + sample

Side A · dark

Blackalgo

Full Page

Display
TWKLausanne
Body
GeistMono
Mono
GeistMono
Weights
300 · 350 · 400 · 500

Sample

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

1234567890 — Body sample renders in the captured family if your browser has it; otherwise system fallback signals the weight ladder.

Side B · dark

Cursor

Full Page

Display
ui-monospace
Body
-apple-system
Mono
ui-monospace
Weights
200

Sample

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

1234567890 — Body sample renders in the captured family if your browser has it; otherwise system fallback signals the weight ladder.

Spacing scale · side by side

Base unit + first 8 scale values

Side A · dark

Blackalgo

Full Page

Base unit
4 px
Container max
1312 px
2px
4px
6px
8px
10px
12px
14px
16px

Side B · dark

Cursor

Full Page

Base unit
4 px
Container max
1536 px
3px
12px
19px
64px
96px

Motion vocabulary · side by side

Level + durations + easings

Side A · dark

Blackalgo

Full Page

Level
expressive
Libraries

Durations

50ms100ms200ms250ms400ms

Easings

cubic-bezier(0.6, 0.6, 0, 1)cubic-bezier(0.76, 0, 0.2…linear(1 0%, 0.5 14.2857%…linear

Side B · dark

Cursor

Full Page

Level
subtle
Libraries

Durations

150ms300ms600ms

Easings

cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1)cubic-bezier(0.16, 1, 0.3…

Palette & spacing overlap

Their palettes share 11% of swatches at the dominant tier — a quiet signal both teams drew from the same neutral library before applying brand accents. Their spacing scales overlap by 8% (12 px shared) — a rhythm any agent can transfer between the two systems with minimal recalibration.

Shared swatches (1)

#000000

Curator verdict

Pick a side. Mixing Blackalgo's dark-first canvas with Cursor's subtle motion vocabulary produces visual whiplash. Adopt one system as your primary, study the other for individual technique transfers (e.g. Blackalgo's spacing, Cursor's shadow).

Full Blackalgo brief →Full Cursor brief →Back to gallery

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