Breeze

ブリーズ / 2014– / Style / Platform Screen Languages

The default visual style KDE introduced with Plasma 5, described in its own announcement as a high contrast, flat theme for the workspace. Graphics assets are simpler and more monochromatic, and layouts lean on typography rather than ornament so elements stay recognisable. Light and dark variants shipped as a matched pair from the beginning.

Breeze — Breeze on KDE Plasma 6 (Debian Trixie) — Wikimedia Commons / CC0 — Breeze on KDE Plasma 6 (Debian Trixie) — Wikimedia Commons / CC0 · CC0

Breeze — Breeze on KDE Plasma 5, light colour scheme (Kubuntu 20.10), 2020 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 4.0 · © Kubuntu, Breeze — Breeze on KDE Plasma 5, light colour scheme (Kubuntu 20.10), 2020 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 4.0 · CC BY 4.0 · © Kubuntu, Breeze

Breeze — Breeze on KDE Plasma 5, application launcher in the dark colour scheme (Kubuntu 21.04), 2021 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 · © Diego Carvalho — Breeze on KDE Plasma 5, application launcher in the dark colour scheme (Kubuntu 21.04), 2021 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · © Diego Carvalho

At a glance

Visual cues

Flat surfaces with no modelled shading, where edges are carried by contrast alone
Icons and graphic assets reduced toward monochrome, with a tight colour count
Type contrast doing the work ornament would otherwise do, so layout reads through text
The same assets existing as a matched light and dark pair

Best used for

Making a Linux desktop application sit naturally inside the default workspace appearance
Setting the look of an admin interface that has to ship light and dark as a matched pair from day one

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Dictionary entry

Type: Let type carry the hierarchy. Open a wide gap in size and weight between heading and body, and never separate them with ornament.
Composition: Divide regions with space and thin rules rather than stacked frames or shadows. Keep the arrangement plain so visual clutter drops.
Material: Build on flat fields with no shading or gloss and hold the palette near monochrome. Push contrast hard, then derive light and dark from the same assets.
Caution: Softening the contrast breaks the premise, because a flat surface has nothing but contrast left to separate one element from the next.
Further study: how the Plasma 5.0 announcement describes Breeze / the order in which window decorations, then widgets, then icons were brought over to Breeze / how the same imagery is drawn differently in the light version and the dark one

Related entries

Adwaita (アドワイタ)Same Platform Screen Languages lineage.Compare Breeze and Adwaita
Flat Design / Vector Minimalism (フラットデザイン / ベクターミニマリズム)Shared effects: Trust.Compare Breeze and Flat Design / Vector Minimalism

Often confused with

Adwaita (アドワイタ)compare

Cite this entry

The dictionary is meant to be linked to. Take whichever form fits where you are writing.

Link: https://indexstyle.org/styles/breeze
Markdown: [Breeze — IndexStyle](https://indexstyle.org/styles/breeze)
HTML: <a href="https://indexstyle.org/styles/breeze">Breeze — IndexStyle</a>

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