The controls look great but the text looks off. I forgot the UI font in Windows 98 but perhaps it was Tahoma. Maybe try that and disable anti-aliasing. Better yet, get an image of how the actual font is rendered on Windows 98 and make the glyphs into a bitmap font. That would also sidestep all the font renderer differences between then and now.
98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs
61–70 of 216 posts
Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
I might be a few years older than you – I get far stronger nostalgic feelings from Windows 3.x UI than that of Windows 9x.
You're in luck: https://codepen.io/matthijss/pen/wzYjJQ
Haha. I was just thinking of that. Been wondering if there's any operating system I can theme to look like Win3.1 any more - the aesthetic of Windows 95 is better but Windows 3.1 seems to fit our contemporary standards of flat and fewer colors better. I did like the more rounded buttons of Windows 3.1 better than the harsher edges of the Windows 95 buttons.
The mistakes a driving me crazy. I assume the fonts are just issues with me not having the right font installed. The command menu should be flat and the bar in it should be longer, rectangular and with a drop shadow. The minimize/maximize buttons don't look at all right (no highlight, too stretched). When you move the window, the frame looks wrong - i think the grains are too big and widely separated.
Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs
#63Author here! Thanks for all the nice comments (and helpful bug reports). This idea has been in the back of my mind for ~2 years now but I recently got a wave of motivation and decided to ride it - and here we are. Happy to answer any Qs :)
Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs
#64Check out https://poolside.fm/ for some extra nostalgia Operating Systems.
Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs
#65The controls look great but the text looks off. I forgot the UI font in Windows 98 but perhaps it was Tahoma. Maybe try that and disable anti-aliasing. Better yet, get an image of how the actual font is rendered on Windows 98 and make the glyphs into a bitmap font. That would also sidestep all the font renderer differences between then and now.
I started off by bringing in MS Sans Serif from my windows 98 VM, but ditched it since it was rendering almost identically to Arial.
Making a webfont out of the original 8pt Tahoma sounds fun, but I am unsure if I have to do it manually. I was worried about having to provide bold glyphs, and wasn't sure how to make it scale while still looking pixelated. (That is, if I need to hand-draw an 8x7 lowercase 'e' do I also need to hand-draw the 24x21 version?)
Anyway, I cut it but agree I should get this right!
Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs
#66My heart beat a little faster when I saw the VB dialog box. I experienced building software for the first time when I was taken to my father's office where they used VB and Foxpro (and still do) to build ERP systems. Everything looked like this site. The waves of nostalgia are sure coming on hard. Thank you to the author of this. This whole site is a work of art!
This is so wonderful to read, thank you :) 100% feel the same way which is what kept me going to ship this.
Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs
#67The joy I get by clicking on those buttons cannot be expressed in words here.
The clarity of such perfectly defined buttons is unbeatable! Maybe they'd be more amicable to modern tastes with rounded shapes or a touch of color, but that 3d visual effect of a button being physically pushed definitely needs to come back and never leave us again, it's so clear and pleasant!
Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs
#68Brilliant. Now for Windows XP...
In between thinking of this project (about 2 years ago) and now I was _so_ desperate for someone to clue me in on the gradients used to draw windows XP window title bars. Still never found the answer.
Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs
#69Author here! Thanks for all the nice comments (and helpful bug reports). This idea has been in the back of my mind for ~2 years now but I recently got a wave of motivation and decided to ride it - and here we are. Happy to answer any Qs :)
I think the Text input field doesn’t match the rest.
Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs
#70Isn't it a bit ridiculous that we need to do this in the first place? Shouldn't clear 3D controls on a neutral gray background be the default user-agent appearance, with no need for custom CSS of any sort?
No, it's not. If it were gray then it would be already opinionated. Why #eee, why not #e9e9e9 or #fefefe or how about #c9c9c9? That doesn't make much sense and it's hard to settle on a color or should it be Tim Berners Lee average hair color? :)
So what remains is either black or white. White seems to be a more rational pick.