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notion.so vs perplexity.ai

Two design systems side by side, measured from the live sites — colour, type, shape, depth, components, states and responsive behaviour.

notion.so
notion.so· read 2026-08-09
perplexity.ai
perplexity.ai· read 2026-08-09

Worth knowing

  • Neither side has named colour roles, so both predate role-based extraction. Re-generating either one fills in the palette comparison.
  • Interaction states are missing on at least one side — that site's stylesheets were cross-origin and could not be read.

Ground and ink

Each side painted in its own measured canvas, ink, muted and primary roles.

notion.so

No colour roles measured on this side, so there is no ground to paint. The palette below is still real; re-extracting the site fills this in.

perplexity.ai

No colour roles measured on this side, so there is no ground to paint. The palette below is still real; re-extracting the site fills this in.

Palette

Named roles first, then every colour measured without one.

notion.so

No named roles measured.

18 more, no measured role

perplexity.ai

No named roles measured.

14 more, no measured role

Type scale

Set at the measured size, weight, tracking and leading. Brand typefaces are not loaded, so the metrics are real and the letterforms are not.

notion.so

h1

96px · 600 · shown smaller

h1

64px · 700 · shown smaller

h2

54px · 700 · shown smaller

h2

42px · 700 · shown smaller

h2

32px · 700

h3

22px · 700

h5

18px · 700

perplexity.ai

body

16px · 400

Corners

Drawn at the measured radii.

notion.so

8px

4px

8px

5px

pill

100px

perplexity.ai

pill

6px

11px

8px

12px

4px

Spacing

One shared scale across both sides, so the bars are directly comparable.

notion.so

4
8
12
16
20
24
28
32

perplexity.ai

4
8
12
16
32
92

Depth

Shadows cast on each side's own ground.

notion.so

sm

md

lg

xl

perplexity.ai

sm

md

lg

Buttons

Rendered from the measured computed styles.

notion.so

default

perplexity.ai

default

The measured values behind the panels above.

notion.soperplexity.ai

At a glance

CornersPillPill
Display size — these differ96px16px
Spacing base4px4px
Accent colours — these differ107
Type families11
Components — these differ54

Full palette

Every colour each extraction kept, including the ones with no measured role.

All colours — these differ#0075DE#097FE8#62AEF0#27918D#9849E8#1313BA#FF6D00#005BAB#000000#FFFFFF#31302E#A39E98#F6F5F4#615D59#F9F9F8#F2F9FF#F64932#FFB110#271A00#0000#27251E#FFF0#016A71#A23544#DC6973#97431A#000000#D6D5D4#FDFBFA#FFFFFF#539E55#E10600
Semantic — these differError/Danger #F64932Warning #FFB110Success #539E55Error/Danger #E10600

Typography

Families — these differNotionInterpplxSans
h164px · 700 · 64px · NotionInter—
h254px · 700 · 56px · NotionInter—
h322px · 700 · 28px · NotionInter—
h518px · 700 · 28px · NotionInter—
link16px · 400 · 24px · NotionInter—
body — these differ14px · 400 · 20px · NotionInter16px · 400 · 24px · pplxSans
span14px · 500 · 20px · NotionInter—
list-item12px · 500 · 16px · NotionInter—

Shape and rhythm

Radius — these differ4px5px8px8px 8px 0px 0px100%9999px4px6px8px11px12px9999px
Spacing — these differ4px8px12px16px20px24px28px32px36px64px80px124px4px8px12px16px32px92px
Border widths — these differ1px2px1px

Depth

Strategy——
Shadows — these differrgba(0, 0, 0, 0.01) 0px 0.175px 1.041px 0px, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.02) 0px 0.8px 2.925px 0px, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.027) 0px 2.025px 7.847px 0px, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.04) 0px 4px 18px 0pxrgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 0px 1px 0px 0pxrgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 2px 7px 0pxrgba(0, 0, 0, 0.04) 0px 4px 18px 0px, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.027) 0px 2.025px 7.84688px 0px, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.02) 0px 0.8px 2.925px 0px, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.01) 0px 0.175px 1.04062px 0px, rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.6) 0px 0px 1px 0pxrgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 0px 0px 0px 0px, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 0px 0px 0px 0px, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.08) 0px 1px 2px 0pxrgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 0px 0px 0px 0px, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 0px 0px 0px 0px, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.05) 0px 0px 0px 1pxoklch(0.5525 0.085 207.66 / 0) 0px 0px 36px 4px
Gradients——
Opacity — these differ0.200.420.800.100.500.050.700.20
Z-index — these differbase 1base 2base 3base 4dropdown 10sticky 100sticky 500modal 1000base 1dropdown 10dropdown 20dropdown 30sticky 500

Components

Sharedbuttoncardnavigationlinkbuttoncardnavigationlink
Only here — these differinput—
Signature——

How this was measured

Differences here are ours, not the brands'.

Pages read6—
Extracted2026-08-092026-08-09
Stylesheets——
Roles unassigned——

Measured by DesignMD from the live sites. Compare two others. Generate a DESIGN.md for your own site.