Phosphor

Retro CRT terminal with a real command line.

Live demo  ·  Build notes  ·  More templates

Use this template — copy the source into a new project:

npx degit bswxyz/formwork-phosphor my-app

Live demo → https://bswxyz.github.io/formwork-phosphor/ · How it was built

A green-phosphor CRT that boots, glows, flickers — and answers real typed commands.

A free, MIT-licensed website template. Good for: developer portfolios, retro products, docs with personality, 404 pages. The demo brand ("PHOSPHOR") is fictional — every word and colour is meant to be replaced with yours.

The signature technique

• CRT stack in pure CSS: scanlines, vignette, flicker, phosphor text-glow
• Typed boot sequence on a jittered timer, then a working shell (help, neofetch, …)
• Hidden input mirrors to a fake caret — works on desktop and mobile keyboards

Use this as your own site

This repo is a template — everything is plain HTML/CSS/JS with relative paths, so it works under any repo name with zero configuration.

1. Click Use this template → Create a new repository (top of this page). Name it whatever you like — my-site, portfolio, anything.
2. In your new repo: Settings → Pages → Build and deployment → Deploy from a branch, then pick main / / (root) and save. (CLI: see below.)
3. Wait ~1 minute. Your site is live at https://YOUR-USERNAME.github.io/YOUR-REPO-NAME/.

Prefer the command line?

gh repo create my-site --template bswxyz/formwork-phosphor --public --clone
cd my-site
gh api --method POST /repos/YOUR-USERNAME/my-site/pages \
  -f 'source[branch]=main' -f 'source[path]=/'

No build step, no dependencies to install — edit the files, push, done. The only external requests are Google Fonts and (where used) pinned CDN copies of GSAP/three.js.

Customize it

• Commands: add entries to the COMMANDS object in main.js (a command = a function returning text)
• Boot log: edit the BOOT array; banner text is the BANNER constant
• Phosphor colour: --p in styles.css (try amber #ffb000 for a VT220 feel)

The /guide/ page documents the signature technique in depth (with code) — keep it, rewrite it, or delete the folder entirely.

Files

index.html        the page
styles.css        all styling (design tokens in :root at the top)
main.js           the signature effect + motion
guide/index.html  how-it-works write-up (optional — yours to keep or delete)

Built-in quality

• Works with JS disabled or a CDN failure (content is never permanently hidden)
• Respects prefers-reduced-motion; keyboard focus styles throughout
• Canvas/WebGL feature-detected with graceful fallbacks; devicePixelRatio capped for performance
• Responsive at phone / tablet / desktop widths

License & credit

MIT — free for personal and commercial use, no attribution required (a link back is always appreciated). Part of FORMWORK — a collection of 25 free website templates: the full gallery →