Four Pixels

Sirius2 v0.11 shipped this week. The biggest change is four pixels.

The default button went from 32px tall to 28px. We eliminated the :slim variant entirely. It’s now the default. We added a :large variant at the old 32px height for the rare places that need it.

Four pixels sounds like nothing. But buttons are everywhere. They’re in toolbars, in table rows, in card actions, in form footers, in modals. When every button in every product shrinks by four pixels, the entire UI tightens up. Toolbars feel more compact. Table rows are denser. Card actions don’t dominate the card content. Everything breathes differently.

We also reduced the start/end padding based on icon presence and position. A button with an icon on the left gets less left padding. A button with an icon on the right gets less right padding. An icon-only button gets symmetric padding. These are 2-3px adjustments that make buttons feel balanced instead of padded.

The modal backdrop got darker too, from a light overlay to something that actually emphasizes the focused content. And the default button now has a subtle border and bevel shadow that gives it physical presence without looking heavy.

None of these changes are individually dramatic. Together they transformed how our products feel. Flux’s artifact tables are noticeably cleaner. Meera’s board rows are tighter. Journey’s story map cards are less chunky.

This is why a design system exists. One decision, encoded once, applied everywhere.