Design reference 41 · Retro & experimental
Terminal Manual
Make technical information feel immediate, inspectable, and economical.
Download design ZIP · Open interactive specimen
Design specification
Philosophy and fit. Make technical information feel immediate, inspectable, and economical. Suitable for developer documentation, command reference guides, release logs, and technical portfolios.
Visual grammar. Build a text-first document with a narrow command index, full-width examples, prompt markers, and terse status labels. Use a monospace family with comfortable line spacing, near-black surfaces, warm pale text, and limited green or amber accents. Heading hierarchy and ordinary underlined links carry the structure; colour alone never identifies a command’s status.
Specimen and flow. *Relay CLI* documents a fictional file synchronisation utility. Select a command, inspect its arguments, edit a harmless example’s options, and copy the resulting sample command. Supporting states are search with no matching command and an expanded examples section. Nothing executes in a shell.
Mobile and motion. Move the index into an accessible disclosure and let long code blocks scroll within their own bounds. Text appears immediately; simulated typing is optional and off by default.
Identity and effort. Preserve text density and documentation logic; avoid demanding typed commands to navigate or decorating every page with fake hacker output. Effort: low.
Files for a coding model
Reference images
- Desktop — 1440 × 1000 viewport
- Phone — 390 × 844 viewport
- Supporting state — 1440 × 1000 viewport
- Full page — 1440 × 1000 viewport
Supporting routes
Reuse
Use and adapt the original code and specifications for personal or commercial work under MIT. Keep applicable font and photo notices. The ZIP includes the complete runnable reference and its local assets.