Content

What goes inside a section: buttons and links, steps and lists, callouts, pills, screenshots, videos, code, countdowns and icons.

Buttons and Links Template

A solid button for the main action on a page, ghost buttons for the rest and a call to action (cta) for a link that should stand out from the text. external marks a link to another site.

btn, ghost, small, wide, cta, external

On a Colored Band

The solid button is see-through black, so it takes on the band's color: dark red on red, darker gray on gray. On a red or dark band (invert), a ghost button turns into a white outline. As anywhere else, the solid one is the main action and ghost buttons are the rest.

Use <button class="btn"> for things that happen on the page and <a class="btn"> for things that go somewhere.

A button is the page's main action and can go wherever that action happens, such as an app's sign-in or a request form in another system. A call to action is a next step on your own site or app. Any other link to another site is an ordinary external link in sentence case, as in the last row; a link is a cta or external, never both.

Link Button App

A button that looks like a link, for a small action in place (such as a form post) among plain links, where a full button would be too heavy. It still behaves like a button. Signing out isn't one of these: it goes in the menu.

cmu-link-button

Button With a Note App

A short note beside a button, centered on it top to bottom, saying what the button does or what to expect. On a narrow screen the note wraps under the button. Keep it to a sentence; anything longer goes above the button. Right under a photo (figure.image), it sits close to the photo it acts on, as with a Show Another Photo button; the note is optional.

cmu-button-note, cmu-hint

Call-to-Action Row CMS

Lines up a button, a call to action and an optional note, in a hero or anywhere on a page. A paragraph with just a button and then a call to action gets the same spacing without it. The note (cmu-cta-note) can answer the one question the button raises, such as what to sign in with; keep it to a short line.

An app page's actions, such as New Semester on a list of semesters, go in a row like this under the heading and its lead, never beside the heading.

cmu-cta-row, cmu-cta-note

Numbered Steps CMS

Instructions to follow in order, with the step numbers in red circles.

ol.cmu-steps

Bullet, Check and Plain Lists CMS

For describing things (the parts of a component, the options there are), use the template's own list: a plain <ul> with no class, which gets gray open circles. Use check marks for a list of dos and don'ts, or of things you get, such as what a kit includes; when every list is checked, a page reads like a to-do list. Either way, start each item with a short bold phrase when it helps people scan. When each item starts with its own label, such as a pill, use cmu-plain for no bullets.

ul, ul.cmu-checks, ul.cmu-plain

Callout and Note CMS

A callout is a labeled aside on a page, with roomy spacing: the label sits beside a short text when there's space, and above a longer one. A note is a plainer tinted box for a message among other content, such as in an app. Give a callout a color for what kind of aside it is: blue for a note, green for a tip, gold for a warning, red for a caution; the plain gray one is for anything else. Save color for the asides that call for it. For which color to use, see Colors.

• A callout is an aside within a section, for the people reading that part of the page: a note, a tip, a warning. It stays until someone edits the page.
• Not the result of something someone just did, such as saving a form: that's a flash message, shown once.
• Not a notice everyone should see first, such as who a page is for or a deadline: that's an announcement, a color band at the top of the page.

cmu-callout with cmu-label, cmu-callout--blue, cmu-callout--green, cmu-callout--gold, cmu-callout--red, cmu-note

Eyebrow and Lead CMS

• Eyebrow: an optional short red line right above a heading. Use it on a page or card meant for one group ("For Students," as on path cards), or to flag something new ("New for Spring 2027"). Leave it off a page for everyone, such as an app's home page, and never repeat the site's name in it: that's already the big title at the top of every page.
• Lead: the larger first paragraph under a page title.

cmu-eyebrow, cmu-lead

Small Text App

Gray secondary text, a smaller hint under a field, a centered empty-list message and codes kept on one line.

cmu-muted, cmu-hint, cmu-empty, cmu-code, cmu-label

Pills CMS

A short status label. Gray by default; green for done or available, amber for waiting or missing. Use amber, not red: a missing item isn't an error. Pills stay on one line, except in app tables below 1200px. Choose a color from the color guide.

cmu-pill, cmu-pill--green, cmu-pill--amber

Photo Captions and Credits Template

A photo with a caption under it. Use Cascade's image block, or figure.image with a <figcaption>: the template sets the caption in italics and spaces the figure from the text below. Put floatright or floatleft on the image to set the figure beside the text at half width; on phones it goes full width.

figure.image, figcaption, floatright, floatleft

The page's own text goes here, beside the photo. The figure floats right at half width from 550px up, and the text wraps around it.

Credits go at the end of the caption, in parentheses, in the caption's own style; CMU sites don't use a separate credit line or credit class.

• Photos by University Communications & Marketing need no credit.
• Someone else's photo or work: "(Courtesy of Name)" for a photo given to you, or "(Photo: Name)" for a photographer.
• Creative Commons: Name the author, link the source and the license, and say if you changed it: "(Photo: Author, CC BY 4.0, cropped)."
• Never put the credit in the alt text. Alt text describes the picture; a screen reader would read a credit there as part of it.

Screenshots CMS

A screenshot of a page or an app, set off from the page around it with a thin border and a soft shadow, in a figure.cmu-shot. Add cmu-shot--browser to draw it in a browser window, with a bar and three dots across the top; the window is as wide as the screenshot, never wider than the column. A <figcaption> under it is italic, like the template's photo captions. Use a screenshot that shows the page's top, roof and all, and write alt text that says what's on it.

• To let people see it up close, link it to its full-size image; see Enlarge on Click.
• To pair it with a short explanation, use Text With a Screenshot.
• To feature it at the top of a page, use one screenshot or a stack of two or three in a Split Hero.

figure.cmu-shot, cmu-shot--browser

Examples CMS

A screenshot or picture of something in use, on a light gray mat with a small label at its top, so it reads apart from the thing itself. Use it beside an image people copy or download, to show where it goes. Put a cmu-label and the screenshot in a div.cmu-example; the picture is centered on the mat, however narrow it is.

cmu-example, cmu-label

Example

Transparent Images CMS

An image with see-through parts, such as a logo, a cutout or a generated image, over a light checkerboard, the way image editors show transparency. Use it where people pick or check an image, such as a preview of one they're about to download; on an ordinary page, let the image sit on the page's own background. Add cmu-transparent to the image, or to a <figure> holding it, with or without a screenshot frame.

cmu-transparent

Enlarge on Click CMSScript

A screenshot or a photo that people can select to see up close. Link the image to its full-size version and add data-cmu-zoom: selecting it opens the image over the page, with the page dimmed behind it. Escape, the close button or a click or tap anywhere closes it, and focus goes back to the image. Without the script, the link opens the image itself. An image much taller than the window, such as a whole page, opens at full width and scrolls. The enlarged image uses the image's alt text, so write that as usual. It works on a screenshot in any frame, a photo or a plain image.

data-cmu-zoom, cmu-zoom

Videos Template

A YouTube video in the page, or beside a few sentences about it on a band. Paste YouTube's embed code (Share, then Embed) and keep its width and height: the template's script fits the video to its column and keeps that shape, on phones too.

• Give it a title that names the video, not "YouTube video player": screen readers announce it for the frame.
• Use youtube-nocookie.com in the address instead of youtube.com, so YouTube doesn't set its tracking cookies until someone plays the video.
• Turn on captions in YouTube, and check them: automatic captions get names and terms wrong.
• Add loading="lazy" so the video loads only when someone scrolls to it.

iframe, grid column2 grey

Embedded Page CMS

A page from another site shown in a frame, such as a dashboard or a form. Give the <iframe> the cmu-embed class, and it fills its column at any screen size; set its height in the height attribute, tall enough for what's in it. The template sizes YouTube and other video frames itself (see Videos), but no others.

• Give it a title that names what's in it: screen readers announce it for the frame.
• Link to it below, as an ordinary external link, for people who'd rather open it in a tab of its own, and for phones, where a tall frame is hard to scroll.
• Add loading="lazy" so it loads only when someone scrolls to it.
• Set height to a number of pixels, such as height="700", with no units or CSS in it. Leave out frameborder and scrolling, which are obsolete; the class handles the border and the width.
• Embed only pages that allow it. Many sites forbid being framed, and the frame then stays blank; check it on a test page first.

cmu-embed

Code Block CMS

Code or an address for people to read or copy, on a light gray box. Long lines wrap, so each one stays in view even on a phone; copying still gives each line as written. Put the text inside <code>, and write < for each < in HTML.

pre.cmu-snippet

<link href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/cmu-web/cmu-web-kilt@0.6.8/css/cmu-cms.css" integrity="sha384-9jhXiuuhmbvQJYP71Rg8e7/NBlfXA/7MjHSMxZeSbELc/fdpt3PAwyoS4jvEMXqy" crossorigin="anonymous" rel="stylesheet">

https://placemellon.andrew.cmu.edu/1400/700?category=campus&gray

Copy Button CMSScript

Copies a code block for people to paste somewhere else. Give the block an id and point the button's data-cmu-copy at it. It requires cmu-app.js. There are two kinds:

• Code gets an icon in its corner, where anyone who copies code expects it. Put the block and the button in a cmu-copyable box, and name the button with aria-label and title ("Copy Code," "Copy HTML") for screen readers and the tooltip.
• Anything else gets a named button beside the block, for people who don't copy code every day: a link to share, an address to paste or a code to type somewhere else. Put the block and the button in a cmu-copy-row; it lines them up as a field with a button does.
• It says it worked. The icon turns into a green check, the named button reads "Copied" for two seconds and screen readers hear "Copied."
• If automatic copying isn't available, the button selects the text and tells the user to press Ctrl+C or Command+C to copy it.

data-cmu-copy, cmu-copyable, cmu-copy, cmu-snippet, cmu-copy-row, btn

<link href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/cmu-web/cmu-web-kilt@0.6.8/css/cmu-cms.css" integrity="sha384-9jhXiuuhmbvQJYP71Rg8e7/NBlfXA/7MjHSMxZeSbELc/fdpt3PAwyoS4jvEMXqy" crossorigin="anonymous" rel="stylesheet">

https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/

AI Agent Prompt AppScript

A prompt for people to paste into an AI coding agent, such as the steps to set up a tool in their project. The kit puts a robot before the heading. A sentence says what the prompt does and ends with a lone copy button, and the prompt itself sits folded under it in a folded list, so people can read it before they paste it. Put the prompt in a code element with an id for the button to copy; it copies the whole prompt whether the fold is open or not.

cmu-agent, cmu-copy, cmu-more

Set up the course site in this project. Read https://example.cmu.edu/setup.html for the steps, add the site's files in the order it gives and keep the project's own styles last.

Email Links TemplateScript

An email link whose address isn't in the page's HTML, so very simple scrapers can't harvest it. Write the address with (through) for the @ in data-cmu-email, and give the link words that name the person or office, such as "Email Andrew Carnegie." cmu-app.js fills in the address only when someone points at, focuses or taps the link, so scrapers that just load the page don't get it, and it leaves the words alone. Without the script, it's plain text.

• Use it for people, such as staff or student workers on a team page. A shared office address people should copy, like a help desk's, can just be shown.
• Alternative to the template's email link, span.protect, which only displays "Email" with an envelope icon.

data-cmu-email

Countdown CMSScript

Days, hours, minutes and seconds to a moment, on flip cards. Put the date and time, with its time zone, in data-cmu-countdown, and write the same moment as a sentence inside. The script hides the sentence and shows the cards; screen readers and pages without the script get the sentence. It stops at zero, and the cards don't flip for people who ask their device for less motion. A page can have as many as it likes; each runs on its own. To show something once it reaches zero, such as a link to the schedule, put it inside in a <div class="cmu-countdown-done" hidden>; the script shows it under the cards. Add cmu-countdown--replace to the countdown to have it take the cards' place instead. Try a past date. It depends on cmu-app.js.

cmu-countdown, data-cmu-countdown, cmu-countdown-done, cmu-countdown--replace

Icons TemplateIcons

Icons help people scan, such as beside an event's details or one on each card in a row of cards. Load the icon stylesheet to use them. Each is an <i> with bi and its name from Bootstrap Icons, such as bi-calendar-event, and takes the size and color of the text around it.

• Add aria-hidden="true", since the words beside an icon already say what it means.
• No icons in buttons. The only icon-only buttons are the kit's copy, close, sorting arrows, the question card's arrows and a table row's ⋯ menu.
• Never use an icon alone to tell things apart.

bi, bi-name, floatright

FAQ Template

Questions that open to show their answers. A heading with collapsed hides everything after it, up to the next collapsed heading, until it's selected; it depends on the template's script.

collapsed

A long FAQ divides into categories. Each category is its own .content block with an id, headed by an <h1> whose text is in a rule-bottom span, so the rule runs under the words. Give each question an id too: a link to it, such as faq.html#miss-turn, opens that answer when the page loads. With more than a few categories, list them in an On This Page box in the first block's sidebar.

And More Template

• Tables: table.alternate for striped rows; see Tables.
• Bio, News and Course pages: Cascade page types with their own layouts and indexes.
• Load More: news and bio indexes show 12 items, then a btn ghost wide Load More button that shows 12 more each time. Cascade writes the markup; you don't. In an app, the kit's Load More matches it.