Monoline

Monoline is a term used in graphic design and finance with distinct meanings. In graphic design, monoline refers to a drawing technique in which all strokes have a uniform width. This approach yields a clean, minimal aesthetic that remains legible at small scales and across different media. Monoline artworks are common in iconography, logos, typography-inspired illustrations, and decorative line art. Practitioners typically use vector tools to create paths with a constant stroke weight, exploring forms with continuous lines and limited or no shading. The style is often paired with flat fills or negative space to emphasize silhouette and readability. Common uses include branding, user interface icons, and modern illustration.

Historically, monoline drawing grows from traditional pen-and-ink line art and has become prominent with digital vector graphics, where precise, scalable strokes can be maintained at any size.

In finance, monoline describes a specialized insurer or financial service provider that underwrites a single type of risk, such as bond or mortgage insurance. This specialization can simplify risk assessment but concentrates exposure, a factor that proved consequential during financial crises when pricing and guarantees were stressed. The term remains in use to describe such single-line insurers, though many markets have restructured or evolved their models since the late 2000s.