How a section looks: looks, backdrops, glass and edges

One click for a whole look, and every control behind it.

Every section has a “How it looks” panel at the bottom of its editor, and in the studio it is in the side panel. It is collapsed by default, because most of the time the words are the job. Open it and the first thing you see is a row of looks.

The band sits on	What it does
The page colour	The default.
Inverted	Background and text swap. The classic way to break up a long page.
The surface colour	The colour your cards use, with the cards on the page colour instead. Quieter than inverting.
The accent colour	The whole band in your accent, with the text in whichever of black or white reads on it. Always readable, by design.

Behind the section	What it does
Nothing	The band's own colour. This is the default and it is often right.
A photograph	A picture behind the whole band, with the band's colour washed over it so the words stay readable. Black and white is one tick away, and usually the fix when it looks like too much.
A gradient	A fade between two — or three — of your own theme colours. It always suits your site, because it is made of your site's colours.
A mesh	Soft blobs of your own colours. Frosted or glass cards on top is the look everybody wants this year, and it is one click: the Aurora look.
A pattern	Dots, a grid, lines, scallops, crosshatch, rings or a fine grain, drawn very faintly in your accent colour.
A video	A short, muted loop, uploaded on the Photos page with a still. It never plays for anyone whose device asks for less motion — they see the still — and it wants a heavier wash than a photograph.

Cards and panels	What it does
Plain	The usual: cards use your surface colour.
Glass	Translucent, with whatever is behind showing through and blurred. This is what makes a photographic band readable.
Frosted	Heavier blur, nearly opaque. Calmer than glass, and safer over a busy photograph.
Outline	No fill at all, just a hairline. Very quiet.
Raised	Lifted off the page with a soft shadow.
Inset	Pressed into the page.

Room and shape: how much space above and below the band, how wide its column is (from narrow to edge to edge), whether its headings sit left or centred, the corners in this section, and the heading size and case. The edge above: a wave, a slant, a curve, peaks, scallops or torn paper cut into the top of the section, so the section above shows through it. Best on a band that has a colour or a picture of its own.

Motion: how the band's content arrives as it scrolls into view (fade, rise, sharpen from a blur, grow, slide), and what the heading does (rise, word by word, blur, or a sweep of your accent colour as you scroll past). Your theme sets a default for the whole site; a section can override it. None of it needs script, nothing is ever hidden first, and every bit of it is off for anyone who has asked their device for less motion.

Used once on a page, a photographic band or a torn edge is striking. Used on every section, it is a mess. The restraint is the design.