HyperCard Stack
ハイパーカードのスタック / 1987–2004 / Layout / Digital Retro
Stacks of screens made and passed around by amateurs, drawn one bit black on white. A single card fills the screen instead of a page, picture and text are pasted onto the same surface, and a row of small icon buttons along the bottom jumps to another card or another stack.

At a glance
Visual cues
- One card filling the screen, with no motion of turning a page
- One bit black on white drawing, where greys and photographs both arrive as dither patterns
- A row of small square icon buttons packed along the bottom edge of the card
- Picture and text sharing one surface, with an input field marked by a single rule
Best used for
- Building an exhibition screen that presents holdings one card at a time instead of as a run of pages
- Rebuilding the feel of late 1980s and 1990s homemade software in one bit black and white
Use this style
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Dictionary entry
- Type
- Use a bitmap screen face. Do not enlarge headings, and let text carry the same weight as the drawing on the card.
- Composition
- One card is one screen. Put the shared frame on the background layer and lay the individual picture and text over it. Pack the navigation buttons along the bottom.
- Material
- Black on white at one bit. Make midtones from dither patterns and halftone any photograph before placing it. Draw outlines as single pixel rules.
- Caution
- Hiding the links inside the artwork erases the way back, and nobody can tell which stack they are in or how far along it.
- Further study
- the near English phrasing of HyperTalk, made by Dan Winkler in 1986 and 1987 / the fact that Myst first shipped as a bundle of cards / the make of the stacks that circulated free as teaching material and address books
Related entries
- Web 1.0 (ウェブ1.0)Same Digital Retro lineage.Compare HyperCard Stack and Web 1.0
- Pixel Art (ピクセルアート)Shared effects: Play / Nostalgia.Compare HyperCard Stack and Pixel Art
More from Digital Retro
Continue through styles in the same Digital Retro family, prioritised by shared effects.
- Web 2.0 Gloss (ウェブ2.0グロス)Shared effects: Nostalgia / Play / Intimacy.
- Y2K (ワイツーケー)Shared effects: Play / Nostalgia.
- Future Funk (フューチャーファンク)Shared effects: Play / Nostalgia.
Browse all Digital Retro entries
Cite this entry
The dictionary is meant to be linked to. Take whichever form fits where you are writing.
- Link
- https://indexstyle.org/styles/hypercard
- Markdown
- [HyperCard Stack — IndexStyle](https://indexstyle.org/styles/hypercard)
- HTML
- <a href="https://indexstyle.org/styles/hypercard">HyperCard Stack — IndexStyle</a>