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Design language comparison

Cursor vs Hex

Both Cursor and Hex commit to a dark-canvas approach, and they pair different display families (ui-monospace vs IBM Plex Sans). Beyond surface, motion levels are both subtle.

Palette · side by side

Up to 8 dominant swatches each

Side A · dark

Cursor

Full Page

#666666

foreground

#000000

foreground

#ffffff

background

Side B · dark

Hex

Full Page

#01011b

brand

#31263b

foreground

#717a94

foreground

#000000

foreground

#22863a

accent

#472d7b

accent

#ecedf2

background

#5ec962

accent

Typography · side by side

Primary family + weight ladder + sample

Side A · 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.

Side B · dark

Hex

Full Page

Display
IBM Plex Sans
Body
Cinetype
Mono
IBM Plex Mono
Weights
400 · 500 · 600 · 700

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

Cursor

Full Page

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

Side B · dark

Hex

Full Page

Base unit
4 px
Container max
1000 px
1px
4px
6px
8px
10px
12px
14px
16px

Motion vocabulary · side by side

Level + durations + easings

Side A · 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…

Side B · dark

Hex

Full Page

Level
subtle
Libraries
Framer Motion

Durations

100ms150ms250ms

Easings

cubic-bezier(0.25, 0.1, 0…easelinear

Palette & spacing overlap

Their palettes share 10% 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 (2)

#000000#ffffff

Curator verdict

If you are building an interface that needs to reference both, Cursor's restraint reads as the safer default and Hex's rhythm provides the accent moments — pair them at section-level, not at component-level.

Full Cursor brief →Full Hex brief →Back to gallery

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