# Archival — style guide for coding agents

> Generated from the Aesthetary record for **Archival**.
> Research: **Partly sourced** · Build guidance: recorded in 7 of 8 research dimensions.
> 9 sources attached.

## How to use this

Paste this file into your agent as context before asking it to design or build something in this visual language. It states what is established, what is our interpretation, and what nobody has established. Treat all three differently.

**The most important section is "Not researched yet".** Its purpose is to stop you and your agent inventing rules that sound right and are not recorded anywhere.

## What this language is

**Defining:** Index-card layout, call numbers, alphabetical navigation, aged paper ground

**Recognise it by:** Records presented as uniform units of one standard card size, each carrying a call number in the upper left and a fixed set of fields on the same ruled lines, interfiled in a single alphabetical order with projecting guide cards exposed as the primary structure, and lettered in one upright, unornamented hand, whether written, typed or printed. The diagnostic condition is volume made visible: the register needs a collection large enough that the ordering system earns its place, and a handful of items styled this way reads as affectation. Apothecary shares the engraved-label grammar but organises around a single product and its dosage. Dystopian Bureaucratic shares the typewriter mono exactly, but its forms exist to withhold rather than to retrieve.

**Family:** Technical & Documentary
**Era:** 19th-century, contemporary
**Native medium:** print, interior

**Scope:** The visual register of the library card catalogue: uniform 3-by-5 cards, call numbers and exposed alphabetical order, as Aesthetary's design language; the aged-paper ground and typewriter labelling are our art direction.

## What it is arguing

A collection is worth more than any item in it, so the design's job is to make the ordering visible and the individual item findable. Retrieval outranks presentation, and the apparatus of retrieval is not hidden.

**It refuses:** Refuses curation that privileges one item, and refuses any layout that conceals the size of the collection.

## What it is not

Commonly confused with these. Getting the difference right matters more than getting the surface right:

- Scientific
- Apothecary
- Dystopian Bureaucratic
- Broadsheet
- Stamp & Ink — Vernacular repetition rather than refined single impression

## Established rules

Grouped by what kind of claim each is. A requirement of the language and our own interpretation are not interchangeable.

**How to read each rule.** Every rule states two separate things, and neither stands in for the other:

- **Kind of claim** (the heading): From our catalogue entry · Our reading · Our reading · Documented · Source attached.
- **Evidence** (how it is established): Graded by our research brief · No source attached (`DOCUMENTED`) · From our catalogue entry (`SUPPORTED`) · Our reading (`CURATORIAL`) · Not researched yet (`UNKNOWN`) · No grade recorded (no grade in the record). Where a claim has its own canonical label, the Evidence line gives that label instead of the grade.
- **Product area**: which of the twelve areas the rule belongs to (Layout, Typography, Color, Imagery, Surface, Interface, Motion, Motif, Technique, Form, Hierarchy, Density), mapped from its raw area label in bold. "Context" means the rule is about the Aesthetic (its name, origin, lineage) rather than a part of the design. "Not mapped" means the raw area has no single area yet.
- The code in brackets is the `grade` field at `implementationConstraints.tokenRules.value.rules[].provenance.grade` in https://aesthetary.com/data/archival.json. "From our catalogue entry" means: Stated in Aesthetary’s existing catalogue entry. An outside source is named only where one is linked to the claim.

### From our catalogue entry

_Carried over from Aesthetary's original catalogue entry. The reasoning behind it was never recorded._

- **layout** — Composition: index-card units; catalogue systems.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: Layout
- **typography** — Typography: monospace, typewriter era, ink spread.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: Typography
- **color** — Colour: aged paper ground.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: Color
- **form / motif / surface / technique** — Form / motif / surface / technique: card stock, ruled fields, ink spread.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: not mapped

### Our reading

- **apparatus** — Every unit carries an identifier and the same fields in the same positions, and the ordering system is exposed rather than hidden. Description is consistent across units by repository rule, not by item.
  - Kind of claim: Our reading · Evidence: Our reading · Product area: not mapped

### Our reading

- **density** — Dense, and the density is the argument. Show more records than fit comfortably.
  - Kind of claim: Our reading · Evidence: Our reading · Product area: Density
- **motion** — Retrieval behaviours — filtering, jumping to a letter, the card advancing — not decorative transition.
  - Kind of claim: Our reading · Evidence: Our reading · Product area: Motion
- **hierarchy** — Rank by position in the ordering, not by importance. The first card is first because of its call number. This is a genuinely unusual instruction — the register refuses editorial ranking, which is the opposite of almost every other page on this site.
  - Kind of claim: Our reading · Evidence: Our reading · Product area: Hierarchy

## Found in research

What research established from sources Aesthetary opened and checked. Each line names its area, how it is known, and where it is scoped. "Seen in the work" means the source documents particular works or products rather than the Aesthetic as a whole.

- **Typography** — The preferred card hand was upright with as little slant as possible, and was often called the 'printing hand'.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:typography-1` · Covers Dewey 1904.
- **Typography** — The hand was a uniform black line without shading, and hairline strokes were to be avoided.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:typography-2` · Covers Dewey 1904.
- **Typography** — Letterforms were to carry no ornament or flourish.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:typography-3` · Covers Dewey 1904.
- **Typography** — Letter size was keyed to the standard card's printed rulings, using one-third of the distance between them.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:typography-4` · Covers Dewey 1904.
- **Interface** — Projecting labelled guide cards divide the drawer so a reader can find a heading.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:interface-1`
- **Interface** — A rod through the cards keeps them from falling out, and cards left sticking up make it easy to double-check the filing.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:interface-2` · Covers Folger practice.
- **Interface** — Drawers and the call number tie the card to a location: the call number on the card matches the one on the book's spine.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:interface-3`
- **Motion** — Entries on the back of a card were written so they could be read from the front of the drawer by tipping the card forward.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:motion-1` · Covers physical handling, not screen animation.
- **Motion** — Newly filed cards were left sticking up so the filing could be double-checked by flipping through them.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:motion-2` · Covers Folger practice.
- **Motif** — The standard card carried a 'left red line' and a 'right red line': the author's name begins at the left red line and runs on at the right red line.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:motif-1` · Covers Dewey 1904 standard card.
- **Motif** — The standard card was horizontally ruled, and handwriting size was keyed to the rulings.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:motif-2`
- **Motif** — Ink colour coded the fields: subject headings in red ink, call numbers in blue.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:motif-3` · Covers Dewey 1904; red call numbers were allowed as an option.
- **Technique** — Cards were handwritten in a prescribed hand with rules for uniformity, upright letters with little slant, and permanent ink of uniform colour.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:technique-1` · Covers New York State Library School practice, 1904 edition.
- **Technique** — The Library of Congress began printing catalogue cards in 1901, and printed LC card sets in the ALA standard size were then sold to other libraries.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:technique-2` · Covers S2 dates printing to January 1901; S5 dates sale from 1902.
- **Technique** — Typewriters replaced handwritten cards; the New York Society Library wrote its cards by hand until buying an Underwood typewriter in 1908.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:technique-3` · Covers New York Society Library case plus general statements.
- **Technique** — The sequence of card-lettering techniques was handwriting, then typewriting, then purchased printed cards, then online catalogues, so typewriting is one historical stage rather than the defining technique.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:technique-4` · Covers LISWiki is secondary; the dates are confirmed by LOC (S2).
- **Form** — Cards of uniform size are stored on edge in drawers.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:form-1` · Covers Sharp 1935 as quoted by LISWiki, corroborated by Dewey.
- **Form** — Catalogues were furniture at architectural scale: cabinets and trays sold by the Library Bureau, and at the Library of Congress 22,000 drawers in cases in the reading room.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:form-2`
- **Form** — The Folger holds all five main types of card catalogue drawer.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:form-3` · Covers one institution.

## Positions by area

The overall position recorded for each area. "No overall position recorded" means rules exist for the area but no position above them; the rules still apply. It is not the same as "Not established", which means nobody has researched the area.

- **Layout** — Specified
- **Typography** — Specified
- **Color** — Specified
- **Surface** — Specified
- **Interface** — Specified
- **Motion** — Specified
- **Motif** — Specified
- **Technique** — Specified
- **Form** — Specified
- **Imagery** — Outside this language. The area does not apply; this is not a gap in the research.

## Design grammar — web primitives

A starting grammar for a website in Archival: every record on one standard ruled card, the call number upper left, one alphabetical order exposed with guide tabs, and nothing ranked above anything else.

Three kinds of line: **On the record** names a rule this record holds (its wording is under Established rules) and states what it becomes on the web. **Web translation** is Aesthetary's choice for the web, derived from the rules it cites; change it if you have a reason, keep the cited rule. **Not specified by the source** means the research reached this but the sources say nothing about it; **Not researched yet** means the research has not reached it yet. Either way, follow the instruction and do not invent a rule. Structured version: `designGrammar` in data/archival.json.

### Colour

| Role | Value | Contrast | Use | Kind |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| ground | `#E9E0C8` | — | The page: aged stock. The record's art direction. | On the record |
| card | `#F1EAD6` | — | Every card and unit. | Web translation |
| ink | `#2A241A` | 12.8:1 | Text and rulings: one uniform ink. | Web translation |
| ink-2 | `#5C5138` | 6.5:1 | Field labels, counts. | Web translation |
| red | `#7A3B2E` | 7.0:1 | The red lines, subject headings, and call numbers on this page. | Web translation |
| blue | `#2E4470` | 8.0:1 | Call numbers, where the page follows the default ink. | Web translation |
| rule | `#A89A78` | — | Card edges and field rulings. Never text. | Web translation |

- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:motif-3` → Colour-code the fields: subject headings in red ink, call numbers in blue.
- **Web translation** — Call numbers may run in the red instead, as this page files them. _Why:_ Red call numbers were an allowed option. (`claim:kcc:motif-3`)
- **On the record · From our catalogue entry** · `token_rule:color-5` → Lay the cards on an aged-paper ground.
- **Web translation** — Keep the aged ground as art direction, never as evidence of age. _Why:_ The aged ground is Aesthetary's reading; the catalogue card was written in permanent ink of uniform colour. (`token_rule:color-5`, `claim:kcc:definition`, `claim:kcc:technique-1`)

### Typography

Family: typewriter monospace (the record's art direction). Stack: `"SpaceMonoX", "Courier New", monospace`

| Role | Size | Weight | Line height | Case | Tracking | Measure | Use |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| label | 0.75rem | 400 | 1.5 | uppercase | 0.1em | — | Field labels, call numbers, headings of units. |
| heading | 0.9rem | 700 | 1.35 | uppercase | 0.12em | — | The heading on a card or unit. Never larger than this. |
| entry | 0.9rem | 400 | 1.7 | not specified | not specified | 68ch | The entry itself, in sentence case at a reading size. |

- **On the record · From our catalogue entry** · `token_rule:typography-4` → Set labels in typewriter monospace.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:typography-1`, `claim:kcc:typography-2` → Keep letters upright, a uniform black line without shading or hairlines.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:typography-3` → No ornament or flourish on any letter.
- **Web translation** — One face for everything, Space Mono. _Why:_ The record calls for typewriter labelling and refuses proportional type in labels; the room's face does both. (`token_rule:typography-4`, `claim:failure-4`)
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:technique-4` → Treat typewriting as one stage, not the defining technique: cards were handwritten, then typed, then printed, so an upright unornamented hand or print face is as true to the catalogue.

### Grid and layout

Cards of one size in one alphabetical sequence, divided by guide tabs. The grid is a drawer, not a column system.

Tokens: card-min `13.5rem` · label-col `11rem` · gap `0.5rem`

- **On the record · From our catalogue entry** · `token_rule:layout-3` → Compose in index-card units within catalogue systems.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `token_rule:ar-r1` → Every unit carries an identifier and the same fields in the same positions; expose the ordering.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `claim:dcc:hierarchy-13` → Rank by position in the ordering, not importance.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `token_rule:density-6` → Dense: show more records than fit comfortably.
- **Web translation** — Fill the row with equal cards and divide the run with guide tabs by letter. _Why:_ Cards stand in drawers in one alphabetical order; guide cards divide it by heading. (`claim:kcc:form-1`, `claim:kcc:interface-1`)

### Shape and geometry

Tokens: radius `0` · card-ratio `5 / 3` · card-edge `1px solid #A89A78` · unit-rule `1px solid #2A241A`

- **On the record · From our catalogue entry** · `token_rule:surface-8` → Card stock, ruled fields, ink spread.
- **Web translation** — Keep every card at 5:3, square-cornered. _Why:_ The standard card is postcard size, about 3 by 5 inches. (`claim:kcc:definition`)
- **Web translation** — Mark the foot of a card with the rod hole. _Why:_ A rod through the cards keeps them in the drawer. (`claim:kcc:interface-2`)

### Imagery

- **Not specified by the source** — Imagery is neither demanded nor forbidden. _Instead:_ Use images only where a record needs one, filed inside its card like any other field.

### Components

Anatomy, tokens and states below are Web translation: Aesthetary's specification for the screen. Each value line after them says whether it restates a rule this record holds.

#### Button

A guide card: a labelled tab standing proud of the row, square, in card stock with a ruled edge.

- Anatomy: card-stock tab; 1px rule on three sides, open at the foot; label in the typewriter face, capitals
- Tokens: background `#F1EAD6` · color `#2A241A` · border `1px solid #A89A78` · radius `0`
- State, default: Card-stock tab, ruled edge.
- State, hover: The rule darkens to ink: the tab is pulled.
- State, focus: 2px outline in the call-number red, 2px outside.
- State, active: The tab drops level with the row, as a card pushed back into the drawer.
- State, disabled: Dashed rule, label in the second ink.
- Accessibility: Label at 12.8:1 on card stock.
- Accessibility: At least 44px tall.
- Accessibility: The label says what it retrieves.
- **Web translation** — Make a button a projecting labelled tab. _Why:_ Projecting labelled guide cards are how a reader finds a heading; a button is a place to reach for. (`claim:kcc:interface-1`)
- **Web translation** — Set the label in the typewriter face, in capitals. _Why:_ Catalogue labels on this page are typed; typing is the record's art direction, one stage of three. (`token_rule:typography-4`, `claim:technique-scope-reading`)

#### Card

The catalogue card: one fixed size for every record, horizontal rulings, a left and a right red line, the call number in the upper left.

- Anatomy: 5:3 card, one size for all; call number upper left, left of the red line; heading at the left red line; entry running on at the right red line; horizontal rulings behind the text
- Tokens: ratio `5 / 3` · background `#F1EAD6` · border `1px solid #A89A78` · rule `#7A3B2E` · ruling `1.5rem`
- State, default: Every card identical in size and structure.
- State, hover: Heading underlined. The card does not grow, lift or brighten.
- State, focus: 2px outline in the call-number red.
- Accessibility: The heading is the one link; the call number is text a reader can copy.
- Accessibility: Rulings are background; nothing is read from them.
- **Web translation** — Give every record the same card: one standard size, stored on edge. _Why:_ The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. (`claim:kcc:form-1`, `claim:kcc:definition`)
- **Web translation** — Put the call number in the upper left. _Why:_ The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. (`claim:kcc:definition`)
- **Web translation** — Start the heading at the left red line and run the entry on at the right red line. _Why:_ The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. (`claim:kcc:motif-1`)
- **Web translation** — Rule the card horizontally and size the lettering to the rulings. _Why:_ The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. (`claim:kcc:motif-2`, `claim:kcc:typography-4`)
- **Web translation** — Never feature one card: no larger, brighter or lifted state. _Why:_ The register ranks by position in the ordering, not importance. (`claim:dcc:hierarchy-13`, `claim:failure-1`)

#### Input

A ruled line on card stock: the field is one of the card's rulings, with a typed label in the ruled column to its left.

- Anatomy: label in a fixed-width column, capitals; field as a single ink ruling on card stock; error as a typed line below
- Tokens: border `0 0 1px 0 solid #2A241A` · background `#F1EAD6` · radius `0` · height `2.75rem`
- State, default: One ink ruling.
- State, focus: The ruling thickens to 2px, with a red outline.
- State, error: Message typed below in the call-number red (7.0:1), beginning "Error:".
- State, disabled: Dashed ruling, second ink.
- Accessibility: The label is real text, programmatically tied to the field.
- Accessibility: Error is words, not colour alone.
- **Web translation** — Draw the field as one of the card's rulings, the label in a fixed column. _Why:_ Every unit carries the same fields in the same positions; a form is a card being filled. (`token_rule:ar-r1`, `claim:kcc:motif-2`)
- **Not specified by the source** — The sources do not specify catalogue forms. _Instead:_ Do not dress the field as a period slip; keep it one ruled line.

#### Navigation

The alphabet, exposed: every letter a link, in order, on one ruled strip; the current heading is a guide tab.

- Anatomy: a strip ruled above and below; letters in the typewriter face, in alphabetical order; current heading raised as a tab
- Tokens: background `#E9E0C8` · color `#7A3B2E` · rule `1px solid #2A241A`
- State, default: Red letters on the aged ground.
- State, hover: Underline.
- State, focus: 2px outline in the ink.
- State, current: The letter sits on a card-stock tab, the way a guide card stands proud.
- Accessibility: aria-current on the current heading.
- Accessibility: Each letter at least 44px tall.
- Accessibility: Letters at 7.0:1.
- **Web translation** — Expose the ordering as the primary structure: one alphabetical sequence. _Why:_ The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. (`claim:kcc:definition`, `token_rule:ar-r1`)
- **Web translation** — Mark the current heading as a guide tab. _Why:_ Guide cards project so a reader can find a heading. (`claim:kcc:interface-1`)
- **Web translation** — Retrieval behaviours only: jumping to a letter, filtering, the card advancing. _Why:_ The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. (`token_rule:motion-14`)

### Motion

Durations, easing and the rest of this specification are Web translation: Aesthetary's choice for the screen.

- Durations: advance 0ms
- Easing: advance `linear`
- Transforms: none
- Entrance: None. The drawer is open when the page arrives.
- Hover: Underline or a darker rule; nothing grows.
- Reduced motion: Identical: nothing moves.
- **Web translation** — Motion is retrieval only: filtering, jumping to a letter, the card advancing. No decorative transition. _Why:_ The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. (`token_rule:motion-14`, `claim:failure-5`)
- **Web translation** — Jump, do not scroll-animate, to a letter. _Why:_ Retrieval behaviours only; the record refuses decorative transition. (`token_rule:motion-14`)
- **Not specified by the source** — The sources do not specify screen motion for the catalogue. _Instead:_ Tipping a card forward and leaving new cards standing up are hand actions, not animations; do not animate them.

### Deliberately not added

- **A single period typeface** (typography): Cards were lettered by hand, typewriter and print in turn. The typewriter face is our art direction.
- **Exact ink values** (color): The record names red and blue inks, not their values. The hexes are the room's.
- **Any imagery** (imagery): Neither demanded nor forbidden.
- **Screen components** (components): The record documents the drawer's own conventions (guide cards, the rod, the call number), not screen controls. The four components are contemporary builds on them.
- **Screen motion** (motion): The documented movements are a hand tipping and flipping cards.

## Coverage — what has been looked at

One row per research dimension a research pass considered. "Not researched yet" (`UNKNOWN`) means exactly that; a dimension can carry an Aesthetary recommendation and still be unresearched, and those are different things.

| Research dimension | Evidence | Resolved by | Carries a rule |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Composition | Specified · From our catalogue entry | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Typography | Specified · From our catalogue entry | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Hierarchy | Specified · Our reading | Aesthetary decided | yes |
| Colour | Specified · From our catalogue entry | — | yes |
| Density | Specified · Our reading | Aesthetary decided | yes |
| Imagery | Not specified by the source | — | no |
| Form / motif / surface / technique | Specified | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Motion | Specified | Aesthetary decided | yes |

Unresearched: Motion. Where a rule appears for one of these it is Aesthetary's implementation recommendation, not a property of the language, and its Evidence line above says so.

## Not researched yet

Every area of this record has a recorded position. That is unusual — most records do not.

## Grade your own work

22 checks: 7 mechanically testable, 13 needing a person to look, 0 needing a source Aesthetary does not hold, 2 with no recorded position. 1 further research dimension produced no rule (Imagery). This rubric is silent on it. Scores do not add up. A failure against a required rule and a departure from something we invented are not the same result, and no total should let them cancel.

### Recognition — does this read as the intended Aesthetic?

- **[visual_human · recognition signature · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Strip every logo, word and borrowed image out of your work, then show it to someone who knows the collection. Do they land on this Aesthetic? The signature to hold is: Records presented as uniform units of one standard card size, each carrying a call number in the upper left and a fixed set of fields on the same ruled lines, interfiled in a single alphabetical order with projecting guide cards exposed as the primary structure, and lettered in one upright, unornamented hand, whether written, typed or printed. The diagnostic condition is volume made visible: the register needs a collection large enough that the ordering system earns its place, and a handful of items styled this way reads as affectation. Apothecary shares the engraved-label grammar but organises around a single product and its dosage. Dystopian Bureaucratic shares the typewriter mono exactly, but its forms exist to withhold rather than to retrieve.
  - _If it fails:_ The work may be competent and still read as a different Aesthetic, or as none. Nothing below matters until this passes.

### Fidelity — are its defining rules present?

- **[unassessable · no recorded position · Evidence: Not researched yet (`UNKNOWN`)]** Nothing is recorded as a requirement of this Aesthetic. There is no rule here that your work must hold — which means nothing you do can fail this dimension, and nothing you do can satisfy it either. That is missing research, not freedom: our research brief does record failure modes to avoid, listed under avoidance below. They are recorded judgement, not requirements.
  - _If it fails:_ Not applicable. An empty dimension is an absence of research, never a pass and never a failure.

### Implementation — were those rules translated appropriately into this medium?

- **[visual_human · From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Composition: index-card units; catalogue systems.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.
- **[visual_human · From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Typography: monospace, typewriter era, ink spread.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.
- **[visual_human · From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Colour: aged paper ground.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.
- **[visual_human · Our reading · Evidence: Our reading]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Dense, and the density is the argument. Show more records than fit comfortably.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.
- **[visual_human · From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Form / motif / surface / technique: card stock, ruled fields, ink spread.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.
- **[visual_human · Our reading · Evidence: Our reading]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Retrieval behaviours — filtering, jumping to a letter, the card advancing — not decorative transition.
  - _If it fails:_ Nothing. No one has researched the dimension yet, and this is only what Aesthetary would do. Departing from it costs you nothing.
- **[visual_human · Our reading · Evidence: Our reading]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Every unit carries an identifier and the same fields in the same positions, and the ordering system is exposed rather than hidden. Description is consistent across units by repository rule, not by item.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.

### Avoidance — known failure modes, neighbour drift, cloning

- **[mechanical · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: No hero item.
  - _If it fails:_ A failure mode recorded in our research brief: recorded judgement about what weakens this Aesthetic, not a requirement of the language.
- **[mechanical · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: No editorial ranking.
  - _If it fails:_ A failure mode recorded in our research brief: recorded judgement about what weakens this Aesthetic, not a requirement of the language.
- **[mechanical · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: No hiding the collection size.
  - _If it fails:_ A failure mode recorded in our research brief: recorded judgement about what weakens this Aesthetic, not a requirement of the language.
- **[mechanical · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: No proportional type in labels.
  - _If it fails:_ A failure mode recorded in our research brief: recorded judgement about what weakens this Aesthetic, not a requirement of the language.
- **[mechanical · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: No decorative transition.
  - _If it fails:_ A failure mode recorded in our research brief: recorded judgement about what weakens this Aesthetic, not a requirement of the language.
- **[visual_human · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Have you made any of these changes? Each one moves the work into a neighbouring Aesthetic: Against Scientific: ordering versus evidence. Scientific argues a finding; this presents a holding. Against Apothecary: collection versus single product. Against Dystopian Bureaucratic (not a listed neighbour; they share a rule): retrieval versus withholding. Their typography is identical and cannot carry the discrimination. Anti-signature: styling a small set this way, or emphasising one record, breaks it.
  - _If it fails:_ You have built the neighbour. That may be fine — but name which Aesthetic you are in.
- **[mechanical · declared closure · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: Not open: privileging one record.
  - _If it fails:_ This one is closed, not open. The record says generation must not go here.
- **[mechanical · declared closure · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: Not open: concealing volume..
  - _If it fails:_ This one is closed, not open. The record says generation must not go here.
- **[visual_human · neighbour drift · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Could your work be mistaken for Scientific? That language is: Evidence-first presentation; invites the reader to check
  - _If it fails:_ Not necessarily wrong, but you are closer to Scientific than to this Aesthetic.
- **[visual_human · neighbour drift · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Could your work be mistaken for Dystopian Bureaucratic? That language is: Bureaucratic coldness as a statement; no comfort offered
  - _If it fails:_ Not necessarily wrong, but you are closer to Dystopian Bureaucratic than to this Aesthetic.
- **[visual_human · neighbour drift · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Could your work be mistaken for Broadsheet? That language is: Denser and more ruled than the parent; newspaper rather than magazine
  - _If it fails:_ Not necessarily wrong, but you are closer to Broadsheet than to this Aesthetic.
- **[visual_human · neighbour drift · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Could your work be mistaken for Stamp & Ink? That language is: Vernacular repetition rather than refined single impression
  - _If it fails:_ Not necessarily wrong, but you are closer to Stamp & Ink than to this Aesthetic.

### Accessibility — the Aesthetic preserved without its inaccessible practice

- **[unassessable · no recorded position · Evidence: Not researched yet (`UNKNOWN`)]** Does this Aesthetic conflict with any usability floor? Nobody has recorded one for it.
  - _If it fails:_ Nothing — and that is the problem. An unrecorded conflict is not an absent one. Hold AA on reading matter and decide the rest on other grounds.

**Not covered at all:** Imagery: Not specified by the source. These research dimensions produced no rule, so there is no check. Treat them as unscored, never as passed and never as failed.

## Rules for the agent

1. Do not invent rules for any area listed under **Not researched yet**.
2. Do not treat an absent position as permission to do anything you like — say that the language has no position, and decide on other grounds.
3. Keep our interpretations separable from the language's own requirements. If asked to justify a choice, cite which kind of claim it came from.
4. If you need something this record does not contain, say so rather than producing a confident answer from the aesthetic's name.
5. When you self-score against "Grade your own work", score only checks marked `mechanical`. Declare `visual_human` and `evidence_dependent` checks unjudged rather than guessing, and never score an `unassessable` one.
6. Evidence "Not researched yet" (`UNKNOWN`) is never a failure. It means nobody researched the dimension, so departing from what is written there costs nothing and must not be reported as a defect. "No grade recorded" is not a grade either: do not treat it as our decision or as an outside source.
7. In **Design grammar**, a "Web translation" line is our choice for the web and may be changed with a reason; the rules it cites may not. Never present a translation as a property of the language.

## Provenance

- Record: `archival` · status `draft` · research `not_researched`
- Full structured record: https://aesthetary.com/data/archival.json
- Human-readable record: https://aesthetary.com/a/archival.html
- This file is a snapshot. The record may have changed since; check the page above.

_Aesthetary is an alpha. Where a page says nothing, nobody has done the work yet._