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Design language comparison

Comet vs Cursor

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

Palette · side by side

Up to 8 dominant swatches each

Side A · dark

Comet

Full Page

#313131

foreground

#0000ee

brand

#d9d9d9

neutral

Side B · dark

Cursor

Full Page

#666666

foreground

#000000

foreground

#ffffff

background

Typography · side by side

Primary family + weight ladder + sample

Side A · dark

Comet

Full Page

Display
system-ui
Body
monospace
Mono
monospace
Weights
400 · 600

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

Comet

Full Page

Base unit
8 px
Container max
960 px
8px
16px
32px
128px

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

Comet

Full Page

Level
expressive
Libraries

Durations

400ms600ms900ms1200ms

Easings

cubic-bezier(0.16, 1, 0.3…cubic-bezier(0.22, 1, 0.3…

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

Palette overlap is zero — Comet and Cursor live in completely different chromatic registers, even when their layout grids feel adjacent. Spacing scales diverge entirely — agents porting components from one to the other should expect to re-derive the ladder, not interpolate.

Curator verdict

Pick a side. Mixing Comet'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. Comet's spacing, Cursor's shadow).

Full Comet brief →Full Cursor brief →Back to gallery

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