--- version: "alpha" name: "Hacker Aesthetic CRT/CLI" description: "Hacker style landing page, terminal ui, crt monitor effect, green text on black, ascii art, command line interface, retro coding. Ideal for landing pages, modern websites. AI-ready template." colors: primary: "#050505" secondary: "#2CFF56" tertiary: "#FFB200" neutral: "#111111" surface: "#FF3333" accent: "#FFFFFF" typography: h1: fontFamily: VT323 fontSize: 2.5rem fontWeight: 700 body-md: fontFamily: VT323 fontSize: 1rem fontWeight: 400 components: button-primary: backgroundColor: "{colors.primary}" textColor: "{colors.neutral}" padding: 12px --- ## Overview Hacker style landing page, terminal ui, crt monitor effect, green text on black, ascii art, command line interface, retro coding. Ideal for landing pages, modern websites. AI-ready template. The green-on-black terminal didn't start as an aesthetic choice. It was phosphor. P1 phosphor monitors glowed green because that's what the chemistry allowed — and an entire visual language was born from hardware limitation. Then Hollywood got hold of it. The Matrix (1999) turned cascading green katakana into a cultural icon. Suddenly, scrolling monospace text meant you were *in* the machine. Mr. Robot doubled down fifteen years later — Elliot's terminal wasn't decoration, it was character. The show's creators hired actual hackers to make the screens real, and audiences learned to read nmap output as dramatic tension. That mattered. Now we're in a CLI renaissance. Developers are building beautiful terminal tools — Warp, Fig, charm.sh — because the command line never actually lost. It just waited for designers to show up. The hacker aesthetic isn't nostalgia anymore. It's a living design language that signals competence, speed, and zero tolerance for fluff. When you see monospace green on black, you know: this thing does real work. - Density: 8/10 — Dense - Variance: 4/10 — Moderate - Motion: 4/10 — Subtle - **Style:** Technical, Nostalgic, Cryptic - **Keywords:** hacker, terminal, cli, crt, coding, matrix, green, retro, command line - **Era:** Retro Tech - **Light/Dark:** ✗ No / ✓ Full ## Colors - **Background** (#050505) — Primary background surface - **Text** (#2CFF56) — Primary text color - **Accent** (#FFB200) — Primary accent, CTAs and interactive elements - **Dark Grey** (#111111) — Deep contrast surface - **Error Red** (#FF3333) — Error states, destructive actions - **Cursor White** (#FFFFFF) — Secondary surface ## Typography - **Display / Hero:** VT323 — Weight 700, tight tracking, used for headline impact - **Body:** VT323 — Weight 400, 16px/1.6 line-height, max 72ch per line - **UI Labels / Captions:** VT323 — 0.875rem, weight 500, slight letter-spacing - **Monospace:** JetBrains Mono — Used for code, metadata, and technical values Scale: - Hero: clamp(2.5rem, 5vw, 4rem) - H1: 2.25rem - H2: 1.5rem - Body: 1rem / 1.6 - Small: 0.875rem ## Layout - **Grid:** CSS Grid primary. Max-width containment: 1280px centered with 1.5rem side padding. - **Spacing rhythm:** Balanced. Base unit: 0.5rem (8px). - **Section vertical gaps:** clamp(4rem, 8vw, 8rem). - **Hero layout:** Split-screen (text left, visual right). - **Feature sections:** Zig-zag alternating text+image rows. No 3-equal-columns. - **Mobile collapse:** All multi-column layouts collapse below 768px. No horizontal overflow. - **z-index contract:** base (0) / sticky-nav (100) / overlay (200) / modal (300) / toast (500). ## Elevation & Depth ASCII ART, pixel-art iconography, binary rain data streams, CRT monitor phosphor glow, scanlines, digital noise. - **Physics:** Ease-out curves, 200-300ms duration. Smooth and predictable. - **Entry animations:** Fade + translate-Y (16px → 0) over 420ms ease-out. Staggered cascades for lists: 80ms between items. - **Hover states:** Subtle color shift + shadow adjustment over 200ms. - **Page transitions:** Fade only (200ms). - **Performance:** Only transform and opacity animated. No layout-triggering properties. ## Shapes Base corner radius: 8px. See rounded tokens in front matter for the full scale. ## Components - **Primary Button:** Subtly rounded (0.5rem) shape. Accent color fill. Hover: 8% darken + subtle lift shadow. Active: -1px translate tactile press. Font weight 600. No outer glows. - **Secondary / Ghost Button:** Outline variant. 1.5px border in muted color. Text in primary color. Hover: subtle background fill. - **Cards:** Subtly rounded (0.5rem) corners. Surface background. Subtle shadow (0 2px 12px rgba(0,0,0,0.06)). 1px border stroke. - **Inputs:** Label above input. 1px border stroke. Focus ring: 2px accent color offset 2px. Error text below in semantic red. No floating labels. - **Navigation:** Primary surface background. Active item: accent color indicator. Font weight 500 when active. - **Skeletons:** Shimmer animation matching component dimensions. No circular spinners. - **Empty States:** Icon-based composition with descriptive text and action button. ## Do's and Don'ts - No emojis in UI — use icon system only (Lucide, Heroicons) - No pure black (#000000) — use off-black or charcoal variants - No oversaturated accent colors (saturation cap: 80%) - No 3-column equal-width feature layouts — use zig-zag or asymmetric grid - No `h-screen` — use `min-h-[100dvh]` - No AI copywriting clichés: "Elevate", "Seamless", "Unleash", "Next-Gen" - No broken external image links — use picsum.photos or inline SVG - No generic lorem ipsum in demos - Do Black terminal background - Do Bright Green/Amber monospace text - Do CRT scanline overlay - Do Typing animations - Do ASCII art elements ## Use Case Landing pages, Modern websites