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Design language comparison

Maze vs Raycast

Maze runs a light-canvas system while Raycast chose dark, and they pair different display families (ui-sans-serif vs Inter). Beyond surface, motion levels are both expressive.

Palette · side by side

Up to 8 dominant swatches each

Side A · light

Maze

Full Page

#000000

foreground

#212121

foreground

#ffffff

background

#d0d5d2

background

#008000

accent

#1863dc

accent

Side B · dark

Raycast

Full Page

#ffffff

background

#000000

foreground

#434345

foreground

#6a6b6c

foreground

#9c9c9d

foreground

#e6e6e6

background

#02193b

accent

#2f3031

foreground

Typography · side by side

Primary family + weight ladder + sample

Side A · light

Maze

Full Page

Display
Phonic
Body
ui-sans-serif
Weights
300 · 400

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

Raycast

Full Page

Display
Inter
Body
SF Pro Text
Weights
400 · 500 · 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.

Spacing scale · side by side

Base unit + first 8 scale values

Side A · light

Maze

Full Page

Base unit
4 px
Container max
1280 px
1px
4px
8px
10px
12px
16px
20px
22px

Side B · dark

Raycast

Full Page

Base unit
4 px
Container max
1204 px
2px
4px
6px
8px
10px
12px
15px
20px

Motion vocabulary · side by side

Level + durations + easings

Side A · light

Maze

Full Page

Level
expressive
Libraries
GSAP

Durations

0.15s0.25s0.4s0.5s

Easings

linearcubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1)cubic-bezier(0, 0, 0.2, 1)ease-in-out

Side B · dark

Raycast

Full Page

Level
expressive
Libraries

Durations

0.2s0.3s0.4s0.7s1.5s

Easings

cubic-bezier(0.23, 1, 0.3…cubic-bezier(0.215, 0.61,…cubic-bezier(0.165, 0.84,…ease

Palette & spacing overlap

Their palettes share 13% 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 67% (4, 8, 10, 12, 20 px shared) — a rhythm any agent can transfer between the two systems with minimal recalibration.

Shared swatches (2)

#000000#ffffff

Curator verdict

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

Full Maze brief →Full Raycast brief →Back to gallery

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