Put it in writing.
Keep it in writing.
This is the source of truth for how It's In Writing speaks, writes and looks. If you're about to put words on a screen or paint on a pixel, read this first.
A record both people can trust.
It's In Writing is the calm place co-parents (and anyone else who needs proof) keep their messages. We do three things and nothing else: send a message, log when it was read, and keep an honest record neither side can edit later.
Who it's for
Most of our users are separated parents — often in stressful, sometimes legally fraught situations. They are not here for delight. They are here because the cost of he-said-she-said is too high to keep paying. Everything we write should sound like it was written by someone who understands that.
Why we exist
Because the existing court-grade tools are expensive, ugly and adversarial — and most people don't need a courtroom. They need a record. We're the affordable, calmer, less-aggressive version. Same trustworthy bones, none of the war-room theatrics.
The one promise we make
Once it's sent, it stays exactly as it was sent — and the record belongs to both of you, not us.
How we actually sound.
Warm. Calm. Plain English. Slightly wry when it helps, never when it doesn't. We are talking to a real person on a real bad day — not an investor, not a recruiter, and definitely not another startup.
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Talk like a person, not a product.
If you wouldn't say it out loud to a friend going through a rough divorce, don't write it. Read every line back in your head before you ship it.
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Plain English. Always.
If a normal person would have to Google a word, find a better word. We do clever, complicated, technical things — but the user never has to know about any of them.
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Calm in a storm.
Our users are often anxious, angry or exhausted. Our copy lowers their heart rate. No urgency typography. No exclamation marks. No countdown timers.
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Honest about what we are.
We don't pretend to be a courtroom. We don't pretend to be a therapist. We don't pretend to be your friend. We're the place the record lives — that's the whole job.
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Slightly wry, never sarcastic.
A small dry smile is fine. A wink is fine. Punching down is not. Our users have enough people being clever at their expense already.
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One italic phrase per headline.
Headlines lean on one phrase set in Fraunces italic, in deep sage. It's our voice on the page. Use it sparingly — once is a signature, twice is a tic.
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The platform is the record. Email is the nudge.
Notification emails never carry the message body. Subject only. Get the user back to the platform — that's where the record lives, and where the read receipt fires.
Do / don't
"Your message is on the record. Your co-parent will see it next time they sign in."
"Message successfully hashed and committed to the immutable chain. ✅"
"Read receipts can't be turned off. That's the point — and it works the same way for both of you."
"Unlock seamless court-grade evidence with our robust read-receipt journey."
"Open the conversation to read and reply."
"Click here to access your secure encrypted communications portal."
"It belongs to both of you."
"Empower your co-parenting journey with bidirectional ownership."
Words we do & don't use.
We're building something cryptographically interesting under the hood. None of that vocabulary belongs in front of the user. Use these lists as a checklist before any user-facing copy ships.
Always
- Record
- Message
- Subject
- Conversation
- Read receipt
- On the record
- In writing
- Sent
- Opened
- Belongs to both of you
- Honest
- Calm
- Co-parent
- Sign in
Sometimes
- Tamper-proof — marketing only, never UI
- Court-grade — Court tier only
- Notification — "we'll let you know" is better
- Account — prefer "your record"
- Verify — "confirm" is friendlier
"Sometimes" words are fine in context but always have a warmer alternative. Reach for the alternative first.
Never
- Hash
- Hash chain
- Chain
- Immutable
- Blockchain
- Encrypted
- Cryptographic
- Leverage
- Unlock
- Journey
- Ecosystem
- Robust
- Seamless
- Empower
- Solution
- Platform — internally fine, never to users
- Drip series
- Onboarding
- User
If you catch yourself reaching for one of these, the fix is almost always a more concrete, more human verb. Show, don't claim.
A pen nib. That's it.
The mark is a single-line pen nib — the shape of putting something in writing. Drawn in deep sage, never in any other colour. Always with the dot.
Rules
Sage on cream. Cream on espresso. That's the whole pairing list.
Don't recolour the mark. Don't drop-shadow it. Don't fill it.
Give it room to breathe. Minimum clear space = the height of the dot, all sides.
Never display below 24×24 px. Below that, use the wordmark only.
Warm cream. Deep sage. Nothing else.
We are not a SaaS app. We don't use AI blue, urgency red, or trust-signal corporate navy. The whole palette is built on warm paper, espresso ink, and one quiet sage accent that does all the emotional work.
Click any swatch to copy the hex
Sage is the only accent. There is no secondary brand colour. Reds and ambers exist for system states (errors, warnings) but never for marketing.
Two faces. One voice.
Display in Fraunces — variable serif with a soft optical axis we lean on for emotional warmth. Body in Plus Jakarta Sans — modern, friendly, completely unfussy.
The italic-as-voice rule
One phrase per headline gets set in Fraunces italic, SOFT 100, sage. That's the brand voice on the page. Any more than once and it stops being a signature and starts being a tic. Reserve it for the line that matters most.
The small stuff, worded right.
These are the lines that show up most often. Reuse them verbatim wherever the same thing needs saying. If you're tempted to invent a new phrase, check here first.
Email is a nudge, not the record.
Every email IIW sends rides on the same shell — iiwShell() in src/lib/email.js — so the brand stays consistent
across magic-link, invites, notifications and receipts. The rules are tight and they exist for good reasons.
Body never carries content.
Notification emails show subject + sender + timestamp. Never the message body. The user goes back to the platform to read — that's where the record lives, and that's where the read receipt fires honestly.
One CTA per email.
One job, one button. The button is the only place the user should feel they need to click. No "or you can also…" links.
Eyebrow → headline → lede → CTA.
Always in that order. Eyebrow is a 10px uppercase pill. Headline uses one italic phrase in sage. Lede is one paragraph max.
Hosted PNG, not inline SVG.
Gmail strips SVG. The mark is a 312×312 PNG hosted at /img/mark.png, rendered at 26px (2x retina).
Fraunces via <link>, Georgia fallback.
Apple Mail and most webmail get the real face. Outlook degrades cleanly to Georgia. That's acceptable — don't fight it.
Table layout, hex colours, no CSS vars.
Email isn't the web app. Hard-code everything. Test in Litmus before any change to iiwShell() ships.
The five live templates
emailMagicLink · sign-in · emailInvite · co-parent invite · emailNewMessage · subject-only nudge · emailReadReceipt · metadata filing card · emailSponsorCancelled · coverage ending
A sixth — emailWelcome — is in progress and will be rewritten from this manual once approved.
Take what you need.
The mark and stylesheet, ready to drop into anything that needs them.
