OPEN LOOK

オープンルック / 1988–1990s / Style / Platform Screen Languages

A screen language for Unix workstations, specified by Sun Microsystems in a functional specification published by Addison-Wesley in 1989. The book defines two parallel designs, one black and white for monochrome displays and one three dimensional for grayscale and colour, sets a single sans serif variable width face for every common element, and tells implementers that restraint is the key to colour. Each pop-up window carries a pushpin at the left of its header, and pinning it leaves the window on the workspace.

OPEN LOOK — OPEN LOOK style windows and window menu (olvwm), 2016 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 · © Amacbride — OPEN LOOK style windows and window menu (olvwm), 2016 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · © Amacbride

OPEN LOOK — Sun Microsystems, widget samples from The NeWS Toolkit — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 · © Xardox — Sun Microsystems, widget samples from The NeWS Toolkit — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · © Xardox

OPEN LOOK — olvwm root menu and virtual desktop manager, 2013 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 · © Vivek.m1234 — olvwm root menu and virtual desktop manager, 2013 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · © Vivek.m1234

At a glance

Visual cues

A pushpin at the left end of a pop-up window's header, which pins the window to the workspace instead of dismissing it
Three dots after a label announce a window, an outlined triangle announces a menu
Scrollbars split into an elevator, a cable and top and bottom cable anchors, with the dark part of the cable showing how much is in view
The workspace is a 50 percent dither pattern and menu drop shadows are a 75 percent pattern

Best used for

Rebuilding a Unix workstation screen from around 1990 with a look that reads as Sun rather than Motif
Rebuilding a working screen so it survives a one bit display, using dither patterns and outlines alone

Use this style

Take the compact brief into a project or hand the structured version to an AI tool.

design.md image prompt JSON API MCP & machine access Compose

open in ChatGPT open in Claude open in Google AI

Detailed guidance and sourcesProduction rules, reference works, comparisons, research and citation formats

Dictionary entry

Type: Set every shared element in the same sans serif variable width face. Size in points rather than pixels, and scale through the 10, 12, 14 and 19 point steps the spec provides.
Composition: Give each window four resize corners and gather commands into control areas outside the pane. Every pop-up window opens with a header that carries a pushpin.
Material: Make the design work in black and white first. For the three dimensional version pick one background colour, derive the recessed shade by adding 10 to 15 percent black, and reserve white for lit edges.
Caution: Starting from the three dimensional colour scheme collapses the moment the design meets a monochrome display, where neither the raised edges nor the pushpin survive.
Further study: the full size drawings in Appendix B of the specification, with elements given in points / Motif of the same years placed alongside it, and the differences in shadowing and in the handling of type / the split between windows pinned to stay open and dialogs meant to be dismissed

Related entries

Terminal UI (ターミナルUI)Shared effects: Technique.Compare OPEN LOOK and Terminal UI
Aqua (アクア)Editorially linked for a useful contrast.Compare OPEN LOOK and Aqua

Often confused with

Motif (モチーフ)compare

Cite this entry

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

Link: https://indexstyle.org/styles/open-look
Markdown: [OPEN LOOK — IndexStyle](https://indexstyle.org/styles/open-look)
HTML: <a href="https://indexstyle.org/styles/open-look">OPEN LOOK — IndexStyle</a>

Back to index position