Motif

モチーフ / 1989– / Style / Platform Screen Languages

Motif is the interface language of UNIX workstations, maintained by The Open Group, standardized as IEEE 1295 and shipped on more than two hundred platforms. Its own data sheet calls the look a distinctive 3D beveled appearance, meaning every part sits on a gray face edged with one light line and one dark line.

Motif — Default screen of the Motif Window Manager (mwm), 2014 — Wikimedia Commons / CC0
Default screen of the Motif Window Manager (mwm), 2014 — Wikimedia Commons / CC0 · CC0
Motif — CDE desktop built with Motif, 2012 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 · © User230792
CDE desktop built with Motif, 2012 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · © User230792

At a glance

Visual cues

  • A gray face lit along its top and left edges and darkened along its bottom and right, so every part appears raised
  • While a control is held down the two edge colors swap and the part sinks
  • A thin rectangular ring is drawn around whichever control currently takes keyboard input
  • Scroll bars are square cornered rectangles with a triangular arrow button at each end

Best used for

  • Rebuilding a UNIX workstation era application for an exhibit or a technical write up
  • Building instrument or CAD controls where pressable and unpressable must read as relief rather than color

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Dictionary entry

Type
A small sans at one fixed size, labels held to a single line, no letterspacing and no ornament inside the text.
Composition
Windows are cut into beveled rectangles and controls are packed a few pixels apart; there is almost no breathing room, the screen is filled with operable parts.
Material
Pick one face color, derive a light edge and a dark edge from it, and paint them on opposite sides; swap the two while pressed, and never round a corner.
Caution
Replacing the two hard edge colors with a soft drop shadow kills the flip that signals a press, leaving decoration that merely looks raised.
Further study
The Open Group's Motif data sheet, source of the self description distinctive 3D beveled appearance / CDE screenshots set against Motif's parts, and where the two agree and where they differ / the formula that derives a light edge and a dark edge from the face colour, in mwm's default colour settings

Related entries

Often confused with

More from Platform Screen Languages

Continue through styles in the same Platform Screen Languages family, prioritised by shared effects.

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Cite this entry

The dictionary is meant to be linked to. Take whichever form fits where you are writing.

Link
https://indexstyle.org/styles/motif
Markdown
[Motif — IndexStyle](https://indexstyle.org/styles/motif)
HTML
<a href="https://indexstyle.org/styles/motif">Motif — IndexStyle</a>

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