DESIGN/10's ≥ 4.5:1 rule gets its owner. ContrastMath is the pure seam:
WCAG relative luminance (piecewise sRGB linearization), symmetric
contrast ratio, source-over compositing (an #RRGGBBAA board colour
resolves over the window background of the active appearance), and
inkChoice — native label if it clears AA, else the other appearance's,
else the higher ratio with meetsAA false (a mid-grey hex can max out
below 4.5 against both 85%-alpha labels; the app paints the best
available rather than overriding the user's colour). BoardTextInk is
the board's application: the decision is a ColorScheme, not a Color —
the text on the board fill is a hierarchy (.primary/.secondary/
.quaternary), and overriding the subtree's scheme moves the whole
vocabulary coherently. Recomputed on appearance change by construction
(read in body); label/backdrop colours resolve inside the asked-for
appearance, Increase Contrast variants included.
Two render sites — the only board text that sits on the user's colour:
the lane header (lanes draw no plate; title, icon, badge, rename field
and the + button land directly on the board fill) and the trash header
(its wash is ~5% effective alpha). Menus, popovers, and drag replicas
deliberately stay native; card faces carry their own opaque plates.
The card's premise fell during implementation: 03's "palette pairs
AA-verified at design time, pinned by a computed-contrast unit test"
was false — no such test existed, and the m4 path drew the native label,
failing AA in one appearance for all twelve wells (obsidian in Light
Mode: 1.0:1). Palette names now route through the same ink selection
(paintedColor delegates to Palette.nsColor — one predicate with
BoardView's paint decision), and PaletteContrastTests pins that the
chosen ink clears AA for every well in both appearances — plus
theNativeLabelIsNeverEnough, which would have failed on the m4 code.
Filed on the Redesign board for ratification. 1579 unit tests green,
both schemes build.
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01SR4XGjmBE16ZUYWpfFHXwY
