Add brand items

Author: cwickham

docs/blog/posts/2025-10-06-1.8-release/index.qmd

@@ -14,20 +14,63 @@ image-alt: ""
 
 Quarto 1.8 is available! You can get the current release from the [download page](/docs/download/index.qmd).
 
-
+Quarto 1.8 has improvements 
 You can read about these improvements and some other highlights below. You can find all the changes in this version in the [Release Notes](/docs/download/changelog/1.8/).
 
-## Dark and light colors in brand
+## Dark and light colors and logos in brand
+
+You can now specify `light` and `dark` versions of any colors or logo in a brand specification:
+
+```{.yaml filename="_brand.yml"}
+color:
+  foreground:
+    light: "#333333"
+    dark: "#EEEEEE"
+  background:
+    light: "#EEEEEE"
+    dark: "#333333"
+logos:
+  medium:
+    light: logo.png
+    dark: logo-white.png         
+```
+
+This works in `_brand.yml` files as well as `brand` specified directly in document metadata. 
+You can now also present in dark mode by specifying `brand-mode: dark` in your `format: revealjs`  presentations.
+
+Read more in the updated [Guide > Brand](/docs/authoring/brand.qmd):
+
+- [Light and dark colors](/docs/authoring/brand.qmd#light-and-dark-colors)
+- [Light and dark logos](/docs/authoring/brand.qmd#light-and-dark-logos)
+- [Brand mode](/docs/authoring/brand.qmd#brand-mode)
 
 ## Brand extensions
 
+You can now share brand definitions and assets across Quarto projects with a brand extension.
+
+Get started with:
+
+```{.default filename="Terminal"}
+quarto create extension brand
+```
+
+Read more in the [Extensions > Brand](/docs/extensions/brand.qmd), and keep an eye out for other ways to reuse and share brand in future releases.
+
 ## Accessibility checks for HTML
 
 ## Accessing execution information
 
 ## Other Highlights
 
--  
+-  [Access metadata and variables in filters and shortcodes](): Use the new `quarto.variables.get()` and `quarto.metadata.get()` APIs.
+
+- The default LaTeX engine is now `lualatex`.
+
+Dependency updates:
+
+- `mermaidjs` updated to 11.6.0.
+- Bootstrap icons updated to v1.13.1
+- `QuartoNotebookRunner` in `julia` engine updated to 0.17.3
 
 ## Acknowledgements