Windows 95 Interface

Windows 95 インターフェース / 1995–2001 / Style / Microsoft UI

The screen language Microsoft set down in its 1995 handbook for software design. Gray panels are carved with a doubled outer and inner edge, so the direction of the shadow alone says what can be pressed. A bar sits permanently along the bottom, and every application is assembled from the same system parts.

Windows 95 Interface — Polish edition of Windows 95, desktop and Start menu — Wikimedia Commons / CC0 — Polish edition of Windows 95, desktop and Start menu — Wikimedia Commons / CC0 · CC0

Windows 95 Interface — Windows 95 build 4.00.116, right-click menu, 1994 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — Windows 95 build 4.00.116, right-click menu, 1994 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Windows 95 Interface — Windows 95 build 4.00.180, "Close Program" dialog, 1994 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — Windows 95 build 4.00.180, "Close Program" dialog, 1994 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

At a glance

Visual cues

Gray panels framed by a doubled edge, one light line and one dark line, outside and inside
A bar pinned to the bottom of the screen with a single square button at its left end
A flat navy title bar with three small squares grouped at its right end
Small bitmap text with no antialiasing, one letter underlined to mark the keyboard shortcut

Best used for

Laying out a list or settings screen for business software at a fixed pixel size that never has to scale
Rebuilding the look of a 1990s personal computer for an exhibition or a video

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Dictionary entry

Type: Set a bitmap sans at its native size with antialiasing off. Use one size, reserve bold for emphasis, and underline the single shortcut letter.
Composition: Split the screen into a permanent bottom bar and a work area. Pack controls about four pixels apart, and put confirm and cancel in a row at the lower right of a dialog.
Material: Carve everything from four values: the gray face, a white highlight, a mid gray shadow, a black outline. Build relief from an outer and an inner line, and swap light for dark on press.
Caution: Copy the gray and the doubled line but add rounded corners or soft shadows, and the direction of the carving stops reading, taking the hardness that defined the original with it.
Further study: the plates and table of contents of the guidelines book Microsoft Press published in 1995 / the combinations of outer and inner edge specified in the Windows drawing API / the part dimensions and gaps preserved in screenshots of business software of the period

Related entries

Luna (ルナ)Same Microsoft UI lineage.Compare Windows 95 Interface and Luna
Terminal UI (ターミナルUI)Shared effects: Technique.Compare Windows 95 Interface and Terminal UI

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/windows-95-interface
Markdown: [Windows 95 Interface — IndexStyle](https://indexstyle.org/styles/windows-95-interface)
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