diff --git a/src/app/features/scene/skyPlate.ts b/src/app/features/scene/skyPlate.ts
index 872e2fd6..86429ba5 100644
--- a/src/app/features/scene/skyPlate.ts
+++ b/src/app/features/scene/skyPlate.ts
@@ -7,3 +7,12 @@ export const SKY_PLATE_FALLBACK = {
   text: '#b7c7d9',
   link: '#99c7ff',
 } as const;
+
+/**
+ * The sign-in footer's tint: how much of the plate's fill (--sky-bubble) is mixed over the blurred scene behind the
+ * footer line. The footer is a blurred, tinted band with soft edges, not a plate: the scene shows through it. The
+ * footer ink is the plate's, so the tint has to bring the scene behind it to where that ink clears 4.5:1
+ * (skyTheme.test.ts). The browser mixes in sRGB, so the test does too (skyTheme.test.ts): over pure black 0.80 gives 4.36 and 0.82 gives 4.55, and
+ * the darkest terrain drawn is 0.0045, not black; measured on the drawn pixels the footer clears 6.2.
+ */
+export const FOOTER_TINT = 0.82;
diff --git a/src/app/features/scene/skyTheme.test.ts b/src/app/features/scene/skyTheme.test.ts
index 53cf2873..3229cf36 100644
--- a/src/app/features/scene/skyTheme.test.ts
+++ b/src/app/features/scene/skyTheme.test.ts
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ import { PageContent, PageNavContent } from '../../components/page/style.css';
 import { CallStatus } from '../call-status/styles.css';
 import { MembersDrawer } from '../room/MembersDrawer.css';
 import { RoomViewTyping } from '../room/RoomViewTyping.css';
-import { SKY_PLATE_FALLBACK } from './skyPlate';
+import { FOOTER_TINT, SKY_PLATE_FALLBACK } from './skyPlate';
 import { SkyPlate, plateRegions } from './skyPlate.css';
 import { getResolvedSkyState, setSkyClock, skyBackdrop } from './skyState';
 import type { SkyBackdrop } from './skyState';
@@ -160,3 +160,31 @@ describe('regions that sit on the plate', () => {
     expect(plateRegions.some((r) => r.includes(':not(:has('))).toBe(true);
   });
 });
+
+describe('the sign-in footer band', () => {
+  // The footer line is the plate's ink on a band that mixes FOOTER_TINT of the plate's fill over the blurred scene,
+  // as the browser does: per channel, in encoded sRGB (not in linear light, which flatters dark scenes). The scene
+  // behind it is the terrain, taken as grey: as dark as 0, as light as the sky state's lightest backdrop. Ink
+  // contrast is lowest at one of those two ends, so both are checked.
+  const encode = (l: number) => (l <= 0.0031308 ? 12.92 * l : 1.055 * l ** (1 / 2.4) - 0.055);
+  const channels = (hex: string) => [1, 3, 5].map((i) => parseInt(hex.slice(i, i + 2), 16) / 255);
+  const hexOf = (c: number[]) =>
+    `#${c
+      .map((v) =>
+        Math.round(v * 255)
+          .toString(16)
+          .padStart(2, '0')
+      )
+      .join('')}`;
+  const bandOver = (fill: string, behind: number) =>
+    hexOf(channels(fill).map((f) => FOOTER_TINT * f + (1 - FOOTER_TINT) * encode(behind)));
+  it.each(fixed)(
+    '%s: the ink clears AA over the darkest and the lightest scene behind it',
+    (state, id) => {
+      const { Other, OtherText } = SKY[id].bubbles;
+      [0, skyBackdrop(state).lightest].forEach((behind) => {
+        expect(contrast(OtherText, bandOver(Other, behind))).toBeGreaterThanOrEqual(AA);
+      });
+    }
+  );
+});
diff --git a/src/app/pages/auth/styles.css.ts b/src/app/pages/auth/styles.css.ts
index b13bf868..772f02a2 100644
--- a/src/app/pages/auth/styles.css.ts
+++ b/src/app/pages/auth/styles.css.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import { globalStyle, style } from '@vanilla-extract/css';
 import { DefaultReset, color, config, toRem } from 'folds';
+import { FOOTER_TINT } from '../../features/scene/skyPlate';
 
 export const AuthLayout = style({
   minHeight: '100%',
@@ -88,3 +89,25 @@ globalStyle(`${scene} ${AuthCardContent}`, {
   paddingBottom: config.space.S400,
   gap: config.space.S500,
 });
+
+// The footer line sits on the terrain, which is dark at its foot in every sky (luminance 0.02 to 0.04 at dusk), where
+// the sky's dark ink is unreadable. Over the scene it gets a blurred band tinted with the plate's fill and the plate's
+// ink, faded out at its edges so it reads as haze and not as a bar: the scene shows through and round it. A browser
+// without color-mix gets the plate's opaque fill, as the chat bubbles do (message/layout/layout.css.ts). The tint (FOOTER_TINT) is checked against the ink in skyTheme.test.ts.
+const FADE_Y =
+  'linear-gradient(to bottom, transparent, #000 16px, #000 calc(100% - 16px), transparent)';
+const FADE_X =
+  'linear-gradient(to right, transparent, #000 24px, #000 calc(100% - 24px), transparent)';
+const tint = `color-mix(in srgb, var(--sky-bubble, #0d1a26) ${FOOTER_TINT * 100}%, transparent)`;
+globalStyle(`${scene} ${AuthFooter}`, {
+  paddingTop: config.space.S500,
+  paddingBottom: config.space.S500,
+  backgroundColor: ['var(--sky-bubble, #0d1a26)', tint],
+  backdropFilter: 'blur(12px)',
+  maskImage: `${FADE_Y}, ${FADE_X}`,
+  maskComposite: 'intersect',
+  color: 'var(--sky-bubble-text, #b7c7d9)',
+});
+globalStyle(`${scene} ${AuthFooter} a`, {
+  color: 'var(--sky-bubble-text, #b7c7d9)',
+});