# SOMA Inspired Terminal Display with CSS 2021-05-29 A few years back I played (and loved) [SOMA](https://store.steampowered.com/app/282140/SOMA/), a first-person sci-fi horror-adventure game. The story was intriguing and the developers nailed the overall atmosphere of Pathos-II. Though both those aspects were great, what I found the most enjoyable were the interactive computers and displays found sprinkled throughout the world. Three years ago I wanted to see if I could recreate one of those terminal displays with HTML & CSS. And I did just that. So, why am I writing about this *three years later*? Well, I never did a proper write-up explaining how I achieved it. I'm sure someone out there in the wild west of the web could get some value out of this tutorial, right? I hope so! ## The Live Demo ![Terminal based off the SOMA computers](/public/images/soma-terminal.png) [Live CodePen Example](https://codepen.io/bradleytaunt/pen/ZEeLgmz) ## The HTML Nothing fancy going on here - just some simple `div` elements holding a few paragraphs and spans:

Key Control

Panel Chip (Connector)

Security Keys: 023-027
C819738-23
Error: Key Expired
Please update...

Permission
Standard ThetaCipher
Secop-Jstrohweier

## The CSS Let's just dump all the CSS right here (don't worry, it looks far more complicated than it really is): @import url('https://opentype.netlify.com/sansation/index.css'); * { box-sizing: border-box; } body { background: #333; font-family: "Sansation", sans-serif; padding: 3rem 0; } button { appearance: none; border: 0; cursor: pointer; font-family: "Inconsolata", "Consolas", mono; font-size: 18px; transition: 0.3s ease all; } .outer-frame, .screen { display: block; margin: 0 auto; position: relative; } .outer-frame { background: #ccc url("https://preview.ibb.co/iS9nz7/screen_grunge.webp") no-repeat center; background-size: cover; border-radius: 5px; box-shadow: 0 5px 20px rgba(0,0,0,0.6); height: 560px; width: 750px; } .outer-frame:before { background: rgba(0,0,0,0.3); border-radius: 5px; box-shadow: inset 5px 5px 10px rgba(0,0,0,0.4), 1px 1px 1px rgba(255,255,255,0.3); content: ''; height: 538px; left: 15px; position: absolute; top: 11px; width: 720px; } .screen { background: #000 url("https://image.ibb.co/gOqSz7/screen_dust.webp") no-repeat center; background-size: cover; border-radius: 5px; height: 450px; left: 75px; padding: 60px; position: absolute; top: 55px; width: 600px; } .screen:after { background: url("https://s13.postimg.org/85ryuy1o7/dust.webp") no-repeat center; background-size: cover; border-radius: 5px; box-shadow: inset 0 0 20px rgba(0,0,0,0.5), inset 5px 5px 10px rgba(0,0,0,0.4), 1px 1px 1px rgba(255,255,255,0.3); content: ''; height: 100%; left: 0; opacity: 0.8; pointer-events: none; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 100%; z-index: 2; } .screen-guts { border-bottom: 2px solid #8fc8c8; border-top: 2px solid #8fc8c8; height: calc(100% - 50px); position: relative; width: 100%; z-index: 0; } .screen-guts:after { border: 2px solid #8fc8c8; color: #8fc8c8; content: '键'; padding: 5px 8px; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 5px; } .screen-guts h2 { background: #8fc8c8; color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-size: 24px; margin: 0 0 30px 0; padding: 10px; } .screen-guts p { color: #8fc8c8; font-size: 18px; margin: 0 0 30px 0; } .screen-guts p.column { column-width: 200px; } .screen-guts p span { text-transform: uppercase; } .screen-guts p span.error { color: #f37c56; } .screen-guts p span em { text-transform: none; } .screen-guts button.update-button { background: #889314; bottom: 10px; color: #fff; padding: 15px 20px; position: absolute; right: 0; } .screen-guts button.update-button:hover { background: #515905; } .bottom-controls { background: #8fc8c8; border-radius: 0 0 5px 5px; bottom: 0; display: flex; left: 0; height: 50px; padding: 5px; position: absolute; width: 100%; } .bottom-controls button.back-button { background: rgba(0,0,0,0.2); color: #fff; line-height: 20px; padding: 8px 20px; text-transform: uppercase; } .bottom-controls button.back-button:hover { background: rgba(0,0,0,0.6); } The overall styling is fairly simple (which is great for browser support) with only a couple pseudo elements. It's important to include the custom `Sansation` typeface, since this is what the game uses for most UI elements and terminals. (I'm loading in this font via my [OpenType side project](https://opentype.netlify.app)) The most important properties that truly bring this design together are those associated with the `.outer-frame` and `.screen` pseudo elements. Both of these elements use custom `background-images` that give a little more depth and life to the terminal - in this case fingerprints, dust and smudges. Feel free to swap these image textures out with your own and alter the terminal as you see fit!