---
layout: post
title: "SOMA Inspired Terminal Display with CSS"
date: 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:


    <div class="outer-frame">
        <div class="screen">
            <div class="screen-guts">
                <h2>Key Control</h2>
                <p><span>Panel Chip</span> (Connector)</p>
                <p class="column">
                    Security Keys: 023-027<br>C819738-23
                    <br>
                    <span class="error">Error: Key Expired</span>
                    <br>
                    <em>Please update...</em>
                </p>
                <p>
                    <span>Permission</span>
                    <br>
                    Standard ThetaCipher
                    <br>
                    <span>Secop-Jstrohweier</span>
                </p>
                <button class="update-button">Update Chip</button>
            </div>
            <div class="bottom-controls">
                <button class="back-button">Back 背部</button>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>


## 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!