Settings: Align tab typography with WordPress design system tokens

[CGastrell]

Proposed changes

Align the Settings page tab navigation styling with the @wordpress/ui Tabs component by switching from ad-hoc Jetpack CSS variables to WordPress design system tokens.

• font-size: var(--font-body) to var(--wpds-font-size-md, 13px) — matches the Tabs component's 13px
• line-height: 1.5 to 1.2 — matches the Tabs component's tighter line-height
• color: var(--jp-black) to var(--wpds-color-fg-interactive-neutral, #1e1e1e) — proper foreground token
• hover/focus color: use var(--wp-components-color-accent, var(--wp-admin-theme-color, #3858e9)) — matches the accent color seen on the Tabs component in Storybook

All tokens include hardcoded fallbacks for contexts where the design token CSS custom properties aren't defined.

Before:

After:

Other information

This is a lightweight visual alignment step toward eventually adopting the @wordpress/ui Tabs component. No structural or behavioral changes — just typography tokens.

Related product discussion/links

• Part of the Jetpack admin UI modernization / header standardization effort.

Does this pull request change what data or activity we track or use?

No.

Testing instructions

1. jetpack build plugins/jetpack
2. Navigate to Jetpack > Settings (wp-admin/admin.php?page=jetpack#/settings)
3. Verify tabs render with consistent font sizing (13px, tighter line-height)
4. Hover over tabs — text should shift to the accent/theme color
5. Check mobile (≤ 660px) — tabs should still work in the dropdown

[github-actions]

Are you an Automattician? Please test your changes on all WordPress.com environments to help mitigate accidental explosions.

• To test on WoA, go to the Plugins menu on a WoA dev site. Click on the "Upload" button and follow the upgrade flow to be able to upload, install, and activate the Jetpack Beta plugin. Once the plugin is active, go to Jetpack > Jetpack Beta, select your plugin (Jetpack), and enable the update/settings-tabs-font-alignment branch.
• To test on Simple, run the following command on your sandbox:

bin/jetpack-downloader test jetpack update/settings-tabs-font-alignment

Interested in more tips and information?

• In your local development environment, use the jetpack rsync command to sync your changes to a WoA dev blog.
• Read more about our development workflow here: PCYsg-eg0-p2
• Figure out when your changes will be shipped to customers here: PCYsg-eg5-p2

[github-actions]

Thank you for your PR!

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[jp-launch-control]

Code Coverage Summary

This PR did not change code coverage!

That could be good or bad, depending on the situation. Everything covered before, and still is? Great! Nothing was covered before? Not so great. 🤷

Full summary · PHP report · JS report

_{Coverage check overridden by Coverage tests to be added later Use to ignore the Code coverage requirement check when tests will be added in a follow-up PR .}