# Broadsheet — style guide for coding agents

> Generated from the Aesthetary record for **Broadsheet**.
> Research: **Partly sourced** · Build guidance: recorded in 6 of 8 research dimensions.
> 12 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:** Narrow justified columns, hairline rules, masthead, black ink on newsprint

**Recognise it by:** Narrow justified columns packed edge to edge, divided by hairline rules doing structural work, under a masthead that anchors the top of the sheet, with two or more stories on the front and the most important at the top, in ink on newsprint rather than in one signature spot colour. The diagnostic condition is density under economic pressure: the page is full because space costs money, and the rules exist because the columns are too close to separate themselves. Editorial Modernism, a proposed relation, opens the same column structure out for long-form reading. Archival orders a collection for retrieval rather than packing a sheet with stories.

**Family:** Editorial & Typographic
**Era:** 19th-century, modernist
**Native medium:** print_serial

**Scope:** The visual register of broadsheet newspaper pages, a format named for its sheet size: dense justified columns, rules, masthead, as Aesthetary's reading of newspaper practice; no source yet evidences these as broadsheet-specific.

## What it is arguing

A page of newsprint must carry the maximum number of stories a reader can navigate at a glance. Narrow justified columns and hairline rules exist to subdivide a crowded sheet into findable units, and every millimetre of white space is a story that did not run.

**It refuses:** Refuses generous white space, and refuses any device that reduces how much fits on the sheet.

## What it is not

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

- Editorial Modernism
- Archival

## 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 · Documented · Source attached · Seen in the work.
- **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/broadsheet.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: narrow justified columns; masthead.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: Layout
- **density** — Density: "denser than the parent".
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: Density
- **form / motif / surface / technique** — Form/motif/surface/technique: hairline rules, newsprint.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: not mapped

### Our reading

- **typography** — Editorial Modernism's serif-text / condensed-sans-furniture pairing, tightened. Borrowed and declared — Broadsheet has no rule of its own, and this is not a claim about it.
  - Kind of claim: Our reading · Evidence: Our reading · Product area: Typography
- **hierarchy** — Rank by column position and rule weight — above the fold and left-most leads. Not scale; the page has no room for scale.
  - 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** — Times New Roman, a serif commissioned for The Times in 1931, has short descenders to allow tight linespacing and a relatively condensed appearance.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:typography-1` · Covers The Times, 1931–32, when it was a broadsheet (S6).
- **Typography** — A contemporary broadsheet printer recommends a minimum type size of 8 pt.
  - Evidence: Seen in the work · Claim: `kcc:typography-2` · Covers one current short-run printer.
- **Color** — Colour, where used, can be four-colour process or spot, depending on the press; one current printer refuses spot colour, while US newspapers had a specified spot-colour palette. A single spot colour is not a broadsheet attribute.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:revision-color-5`
- **Imagery** — Broadsheet front pages tend to show two or more stories, with the most important at the top, where tabloids tend toward a single story dominated by a headline.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:imagery-1` · Covers UK/US/AU/CA perception.
- **Imagery** — The Times carried no news, only small advertisements, on its front page until 1966.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:imagery-2` · Covers The Times.
- **Imagery** — At The New York Times, a picture editor was removed in January 1954 after placing a photograph of Monroe and DiMaggio kissing on the front page.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:imagery-3` · Covers The New York Times.
- **Imagery** — A content study of Swedish dailies that moved from broadsheet to tabloid found page format had only a minor influence on content; all papers, whatever their size, moved the same way.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:w2-imagery-1` · Covers Swedish morning and evening papers, samples from 1990, 2000 and 2010..
- **Imagery** — The study treats as a prior belief, which it then tests, the idea that quality papers switching to tabloid would bring more tabloidisation, including more pictures, illustrations, graphics and large headlines.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:w2-imagery-2`
- **Imagery** — Swedish papers that went tabloid in the early 2000s had a low share of articles with pictures in the 1990s, and that share almost doubled; the study concludes newspapers in general devote more space to pictures and illustrations.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:w2-imagery-3` · Covers Swedish urban morning papers, 1990s-2010..
- **Imagery** — In US newspaper design (not broken down by format), photographs became the dominant front-page graphic element; a 1984 survey (Utt & Pasternack) found 96.2 percent of papers used a dominant photograph and most ran two front-page photographs.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:w2-imagery-4` · Covers US newspapers generally, 1970s-1980s; secondary report of Utt & Pasternack in an undergraduate journal; format not specified..
- **Motif** — The masthead is the banner name on a newspaper's front page (US: nameplate).
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:motif-1` · Covers all newspapers and periodicals, not broadsheet-specific.
- **Motif** — The Times's masthead dropped a feature it had carried since the paper's founding.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:motif-2` · Covers The Times.
- **Motif** — Engraved symbols in newspaper mastheads are attested as a practice in American Revolutionary-era newspapers, where printers added and removed political emblems.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:w2-motif-1` · Covers Colonial American newspapers of the Revolutionary era; the thesis does not tie the practice to the broadsheet format..
- **Technique** — Modern presses print broadsheet sections in multiples of eight pages, and the width of a newsprint roll is called its web.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:technique-1`
- **Technique** — A complete layout dummy fixed column widths for the typesetter; photographic plates are still wrapped on printing drums to apply ink to newsprint.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:technique-2` · Covers newspapers generally.
- **Technique** — Newsprint becomes brittle and yellow when exposed to air or sunlight; it can take four-colour printing, and one printer reduces ink coverage for it.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:technique-3`
- **Form** — The sheet is folded vertically in half to make four pages, and inside sheets nest inside one another.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:form-1`
- **Form** — On broadsheet front pages the most important stories sit at the top of the page.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:form-2`
- **Form** — At least one current printer cannot print a full double-page spread on a traditional broadsheet.
  - Evidence: Seen in the work · Claim: `kcc:form-3` · Covers one printer.
- **Density** — Nineteenth-century newspapers were often densely packed with type, often arranged vertically, with multiple headlines per article.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:density-1` · Covers newspapers generally, 19th century.

## 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
- **Imagery** — Left open
- **Surface** — Specified
- **Technique** — Specified
- **Form** — Specified
- **Interface** — Outside this language. The area does not apply; this is not a gap in the research.
- **Motion** — 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 Broadsheet: a tall front packed with two or more stories, the most important at the top, in narrow justified columns divided by hairlines, ink on newsprint with one red of our choosing.

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/broadsheet.json.

### Colour

| Role | Value | Contrast | Use | Kind |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| newsprint | `#F2EEE3` | — | The ground. | Web translation |
| ink | `#191813` | 15.3:1 | Text, heads, structural rules. | Web translation |
| grey | `#514D42` | 7.3:1 | Decks, by-lines, folio. | Web translation |
| rule | `#B9B2A0` | — | Hairlines between columns. Never text. | Web translation |
| red | `#A11A1A` | 6.8:1 | Kickers, the dateline, focus rings: the room's one accent, spent sparingly. | Web translation |

- **On the record · From our catalogue entry** · `claim:surface-8.surface` → Print on newsprint.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:revision-color-5` → Colour, where used, is four-colour process or spot, depending on the press. A single spot colour is not the format's mark.
- **Web translation** — Spend one red sparingly on kickers, the dateline and focus: the room's accent, not the format's mark. _Why:_ Spot colour is established newspaper practice, so a red is a lawful choice; which red, and that there is one, is ours. Rank still comes from position and rules. (`claim:kcc:revision-color-5`, `claim:dcc:failure-4`, `token_rule:hierarchy-13`)
- **Not specified by the source** — The sources set no newspaper palette. _Instead:_ If a story needs colour, use it as a press would: in a photograph or in process colour, not as a signature accent.

### Typography

Family: serif text with condensed sans furniture (borrowed from Editorial Modernism, declared). Stack: `"FrankRuhlX", "Frank Ruhl Libre", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif`

| Role | Size | Weight | Line height | Case | Tracking | Measure | Use |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| head | clamp(1.5rem, 2.6vw, 2.25rem) | 600 | 1.02 | uppercase | not specified | — | Story heads, in the condensed sans. |
| kicker | 0.75rem | 500 | 1.2 | uppercase | 0.06em | — | Section labels over a head. |
| text | 1rem | 400 | 1.45 | not specified | not specified | a narrow column | Justified, hyphenated story text. |

- **On the record · Our reading** · `token_rule:typography-4` → Serif for the text, condensed sans for the furniture, tightened.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:typography-1` → A newspaper text face may be condensed with short descenders, to allow tight linespacing.
- **On the record · Seen in the work** · `claim:kcc:typography-2` → Set nothing below 8pt.
- **Web translation** — Use Frank Ruhl for text, Oswald for furniture and a blackletter for the masthead. _Why:_ The room's own faces; the pairing is the record's borrowed and declared reading. (`token_rule:typography-4`, `claim:freedom-typography`)

### Grid and layout

A tall front on a six-column grid: two or more stories, the lead at the top left, spans in whole columns, divided by hairlines.

| Viewport | Columns |
| --- | --- |
| ≥1000px | 6 |
| 640–1000px | 2 |
| <640px | 1 |

Tokens: col-rule `1px solid #B9B2A0`

- **On the record · From our catalogue entry** · `token_rule:layout-3` → Narrow justified columns under a masthead.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `token_rule:hierarchy-13` → Rank by column position and rule weight: above the fold and left-most leads.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:form-2` → Put the most important stories at the top of the front.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:imagery-1` → Carry two or more stories on the front, not one dominated by a headline.
- **On the record · From our catalogue entry / Our reading** · `token_rule:density-6`, `claim:failure-1` → Denser than the parent: no generous white space.
- **Web translation** — Span stories across whole columns of a six-column grid. _Why:_ A layout dummy fixed column widths for the typesetter; the grid is that dummy. (`claim:kcc:technique-2`)

### Shape and geometry

Tokens: radius `0` · hairline `1px solid #B9B2A0` · story-rule `1px solid #191813` · mast-rule `4px double #191813`

- **On the record · From our catalogue entry** · `token_rule:surface-8` → Hairline rules do the structural work.
- **Web translation** — Close the masthead and the folio with a double rule; square corners throughout. _Why:_ Rule weight carries rank on this page. (`token_rule:hierarchy-13`)

### Imagery

- **Not specified by the source** — Imagery is a declared freedom. _Instead:_ Photographs became the dominant front-page element in US papers by the 1980s; use one where a story has one, set in its column span.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:w2-imagery-1` → Page format did not decide how many pictures a paper ran.

### The sheet

Broadsheet is a size before it is a look: the largest newspaper page, folded once.

Tokens: sheet-ratio `tall`

- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:definition` → Broadsheet is the largest newspaper page, long and vertical, about 57 cm tall.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:form-1` → Fold the sheet vertically in half to make four pages; inside sheets nest inside one another.
- **Web translation** — Build the front tall: let it scroll as one sheet rather than break into screens. _Why:_ The format is a long vertical page. (`claim:kcc:definition`)

### 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 classified box: a 2px ink rule round a condensed capital head, reversing to ink when pressed.

- Anatomy: 2px ink border; head in the condensed sans, capitals; optional one line of serif text
- Tokens: background `#F2EEE3` · color `#191813` · border `2px solid #191813` · radius `0`
- State, default: Ink rule on newsprint.
- State, hover: Reversed: newsprint type on an ink field (15.3:1).
- State, focus: 2px ink outline, 2px outside.
- State, active: Reversed, the rule doubled.
- State, disabled: Rule in the hairline colour, type in the grey.
- Accessibility: Ink on newsprint at 15.3:1 in both states.
- Accessibility: At least 44px tall.
- **Web translation** — Make a button a ruled box, like a classified advertisement. _Why:_ Hairline rules subdivide the crowded sheet into findable units; an action is one more unit. (`token_rule:surface-8`, `claim:intent`)
- **Web translation** — Set its head in the condensed sans. _Why:_ The pairing puts condensed sans on the furniture and serif on the text. (`token_rule:typography-4`)

#### Card

A story: kicker, condensed head, a justified column, closed by a hairline, with no box and no image required.

- Anatomy: kicker in condensed capitals; head in condensed capitals; justified, hyphenated serif text; hairline rule dividing it from its neighbour
- Tokens: rule `1px solid #B9B2A0` · rule-top `1px solid #191813` · padding `0 12px 14px`
- State, default: Divided from its neighbour by a hairline.
- State, hover: Head underlined.
- State, focus: 2px ink outline.
- Accessibility: The head is the link.
- Accessibility: Justified text drops to ragged right below 640px so words are not stretched.
- **Web translation** — Divide stories with hairline rules on newsprint. _Why:_ The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. (`token_rule:surface-8`)
- **Web translation** — Set text in narrow justified columns. _Why:_ The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. (`token_rule:layout-3`)
- **Web translation** — Size a story by its column span, not by its type. _Why:_ Rank by column position and rule weight; the page has no room for scale. (`token_rule:hierarchy-13`)

#### Input

A ruled line in a column: condensed capital label above, a single ink rule, the reply in the serif.

- Anatomy: label in condensed capitals; single 1px ink rule; entry in the serif
- Tokens: border `0 0 1px 0 solid #191813` · background `transparent` · radius `0` · height `2.75rem`
- State, default: One ink rule.
- State, focus: Rule to 2px and an outline.
- State, error: Message in italic serif, beginning "Error:".
- State, disabled: Rule in the hairline colour.
- Accessibility: Label is real text above the field.
- Accessibility: Error is words, not colour.
- **Web translation** — Draw the field as a column rule, not a box. _Why:_ Rules do the structural work on this page. (`token_rule:surface-8`, `claim:failure-8`)
- **Not specified by the source** — The sources do not specify newspaper forms. _Instead:_ Keep the field a plain ruled line; do not dress it as a coupon.

#### Navigation

The dateline strip under the masthead: section names in condensed capitals between two rules, the current one set bold.

- Anatomy: 1px rule above and below; names in condensed capitals; current section bold, never coloured
- Tokens: rule `1px solid #191813` · color `#191813`
- State, default: Condensed capitals in ink.
- State, hover: Underline.
- State, focus: 2px ink outline.
- State, current: Bold weight and a 2px underline. No colour.
- Accessibility: aria-current on the current section.
- Accessibility: Each link at least 44px tall.
- **Web translation** — Anchor the top of the page with a masthead. _Why:_ The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. (`token_rule:layout-3`, `claim:kcc:motif-1`)
- **Web translation** — Put navigation in the dateline strip under the masthead. _Why:_ The masthead is the banner name on the front page; the strip below it is newspaper furniture. (`claim:kcc:motif-1`, `token_rule:typography-4`)

### Motion

- **Web translation** — Do not animate. Newsprint does not move. _Why:_ The record gives motion no place; state changes are instant. (`claim:motion-reason`)

### Deliberately not added

- **A palette or accent** (color): A single spot colour is not a broadsheet attribute; colour depends on the press. The red is the room's.
- **A broadsheet typeface** (typography): Typography is a declared freedom; the pairing is borrowed from Editorial Modernism.
- **Interface conventions** (components): The sources do not specify them. The four components are contemporary translations of documented rules.
- **Any position on screen motion** (motion): Newsprint does not move. Choosing none is this grammar's translation.

## 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 | Aesthetary decided | yes |
| Hierarchy | Specified · Our reading | Aesthetary decided | yes |
| Colour | Specified · From our catalogue entry | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Density | Specified · From our catalogue entry | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Imagery | Left open | Aesthetary decided | no |
| Form/motif/surface/technique | Specified: form, surface, technique · Open question: motif | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Motion | Not specified by the source | — | no |

Unresearched: Typography, Imagery. 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

Nobody has established a position for this language on:

- Motif

**Do not fill these in.** An absent position is absent research, not permission and not a blank for you to complete. If the work needs a decision in one of these areas, make it on other grounds and do not attribute it to this language.

## Grade your own work

16 checks: 7 mechanically testable, 7 needing a person to look, 0 needing a source Aesthetary does not hold, 2 with no recorded position. 2 further research dimensions produced no rule (Imagery, Motion). This rubric is silent on them. 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: Narrow justified columns packed edge to edge, divided by hairline rules doing structural work, under a masthead that anchors the top of the sheet, with two or more stories on the front and the most important at the top, in ink on newsprint rather than in one signature spot colour. The diagnostic condition is density under economic pressure: the page is full because space costs money, and the rules exist because the columns are too close to separate themselves. Editorial Modernism, a proposed relation, opens the same column structure out for long-form reading. Archival orders a collection for retrieval rather than packing a sheet with stories.
  - _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: narrow justified columns; masthead.
  - _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. Editorial Modernism's serif-text / condensed-sans-furniture pairing, tightened. Borrowed and declared — Broadsheet has no rule of its own, and this is not a claim about it.
  - _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. Rank by column position and rule weight — above the fold and left-most leads. Not scale; the page has no room for scale.
  - _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. Density: "denser than the parent".
  - _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: hairline rules, newsprint.
  - _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 generous white space.
  - _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 wide measure.
  - _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 unjustified columns.
  - _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 single spot colour worn as the format's signature.
  - _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 single dominant 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.
- **[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 Editorial Modernism (parent, GREEN): density and rules versus air and sequence. Against Archival: packing versus ordering. Anti-signature: open the density and it becomes Editorial Modernism.
  - _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: opening the density.
  - _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: removing the rules..
  - _If it fails:_ This one is closed, not open. The record says generation must not go here.

### 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: Left open; Motion: 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: `broadsheet` · status `draft` · research `not_researched`
- Full structured record: https://aesthetary.com/data/broadsheet.json
- Human-readable record: https://aesthetary.com/a/broadsheet.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._