The Three Pillars of Respect

Standard Garden is built on three foundational principles that guide every line of code, every design decision, and every feature we build.

These aren’t just marketing slogans or aspirational values. They’re the non-negotiable constraints that shape how we build. If a feature violates any of these pillars, it doesn’t belong in Standard Garden.

The Philosophy

Standard Garden is a digital utility that pays homage to 500 years of typographic refinement. We’re competing with Google Docs and Pastebin, and we’re prettier than both.

But beauty isn’t enough. A well-made tool must also be fast and sustainable. Like a fine hand plane or a cast-iron skillet, it should work perfectly today and still work in 10 years.

These three pillars embody that philosophy:

1. Respect for the Author

Give their thoughts the dignity of professional typography.

Your mom’s recipe should look like it belongs in a cookbook. Your brother’s snowmobile repair notes should look like a manual. Your girlfriend’s poem should look like it came from a letterpress.

Automatically.

We apply 500 years of typographic refinement—Swiss Grid, Golden Ratio, baseline alignment—so every piece of content looks professional by default. No configuration required. No design skills needed.

→ Learn more about Respect for the Author

2. Respect for the User

Do not waste their time. Speed is respect.

The web makes sharing text too damn hard. Open Google Docs, format, set sharing, copy link, explain permissions.

We say: paste, click, done. 10 seconds from thought to beautiful URL.

No account required to start. No configuration. No friction. Just utility.

→ Learn more about Respect for the User

3. Respect for the World

Build sustainably. Efficiency is ethics.

Efficient code running on the edge isn’t just good engineering—it’s ecological stewardship.

Our target: 10,000 users for less than $200/month in hosting costs. Every millisecond saved is energy saved. Every byte eliminated is bandwidth respected.

Fast code is sustainable code. Performance is not a feature—it’s a responsibility.

→ Learn more about Respect for the World

Why These Three?

Because they balance the entire ecosystem:

Most platforms optimize for one at the expense of the others. We refuse that trade-off.

A well-made tool respects everyone it touches.

For Developers

If you’re contributing code to Standard Garden, these pillars are your North Star:

When in doubt, choose simplicity. A well-made tool doesn’t need to justify itself.

This philosophy guides everything we build. It’s not aspirational—it’s operational.