12 September 2026Four looks

Four looks: pick the one that feels at home on your device

Signature, Studio, Lucid and Monet: four looks for the same calm place. Pick the one that feels at home on the screen you're using, and a different one on your next device.

What you can do with the four looks

Four looks for the same calm place. Each keeps everything where it is and changes how it feels:
- Signature: expressive and calm, with serif headlines and soft colour. The Xale you know.
- Studio: warm and quiet, like paper on a desk. Steady for long sessions at a big screen.
- Lucid: glass and light, with your content flowing beneath the controls. At home on screens that are all glass.
- Monet: tonal and rounded, a whole palette grown from one colour. Made for phones that match their colours to you.
A look for each device. Choose a look in Settings → Appearance. It's remembered on that device only, so your laptop and your phone can each wear the one that suits them.
Back to the default any time, with one click.
Light or dark, either way. Each look works with Light, Dark or System, and E-ink mode still takes over on paper-like screens.

Why I wanted Xale to feel at home on every screen

I use Xale on a computer at my desk, on my phone, and on an e-ink tablet. A screen that feels right on one can feel out of place on another.

I wanted Xale to feel at home on each of them, so the calm carries over wherever I pick it up.

Rachit, founder of Xale

The ideas behind the four looks

What feels good tends to work better

People judge how easy something is partly by how it looks, and a tool that feels pleasant is easier to return to.

Worth reading: Don Norman, Emotional Design (2004). Attractive things put people in a better frame of mind, which makes them more patient and more creative with what's in front of them.
The usual way: one fixed look for everyone, on every screen.
In this release: four looks, so the app can feel right rather than merely work.

The right look depends on the person, and the screen

There is no single calm. What soothes one person can distract another.

Worth reading: Elaine N. Aron, The Highly Sensitive Person (1996). Some people take in far more sensory detail than others, so colour, contrast and busyness weigh more heavily on them.
In this release: you choose, per device, and can change your mind any time.

Type and spacing do quiet work

Most of what makes a page restful is invisible: the letters, the space between them, the space around them.

Worth reading: Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style (1992). Good typography serves the reader and stays out of the way.
In this release: each look brings its own type, spacing and corner shapes, not just a new colour.