Matrix for NetNewsWire
Stuart Breckenridge
February 23, 2026
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Matrix
This theme is *Matrix-*inspired and was built with the help of Claude (there's simply no way my CSS is this clean and tidy). This theme shines when your device is in dark mode.
Features
Visual Style
Phosphor-green palette — deep near-black background with glowing green text
CRT vignette — a radial gradient overlay darkens the screen edges for a vintage monitor feel (macOS only)
Boot flicker — the page and article animate in with a CRT power-on flicker effect
Monospace throughout — SF Mono
Article Header
Feed name is prefixed with a shell prompt: user@nnw:~$ cat
Publish date is prefixed with # timestamp:
External link is prefixed with # source:
Feed icon is rendered in greyscale with a green tint and a pixel-art rendering mode
Article Title
Typewriter animation — the title types out character by character in reading order, correctly handling titles that span multiple lines
Blinking block cursor (█) appears after the last character lands and blinks indefinitely
Article Body
Separator line of ─ characters between the header and body
Headings prefixed with Markdown-style ##, ###, #### markers
Blockquotes styled with a left border and faint green background
Code blocks include a fake terminal title bar (● ● ● output) and horizontal scroll on overflow
Inline code highlighted in amber with a subtle glow
Tables use uppercase headers, row hover highlights, and a green glow on the border
Figcaptions prefixed with //
Images are desaturated and dimmed; hovering partially restores colour
Platform Behaviour
iOS — uses dynamic type sizing, system hyphenation, and respects safe area insets; html background is set so native navigation and tab bar blur effects sample the correct dark colour
macOS — includes the CRT vignette, wider padding, and fixed text-size classes (smallText → xxlargeText)
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