---
title: "Legacy Web (1990-2009)"
url: https://memocore.ai/memos/6ab4a32faf51aac421da878b
project: "Brand Styles"
tags: "design-system"
updated_at: "2026-09-25T05:43:57.691Z"
---

# Legacy Web (1990-2009)

Add-on to the templates for designs dated before about 2010. Record these in the Overview (LAYOUT, TOKENS, COMPONENTS, GUARDRAILS) and in Page memos. Screenshots at the period viewport (800x600 or 1024x768) from Wayback captures with CSS and images loaded.

1 CANVAS
target resolution: 640x480 | 800x600 | 1024x768; layout width: fixed px (760, 780, 960...) or fluid 100% tables; alignment: left | centered; browser target (Netscape, IE 3-6, Firefox 1-3, "best viewed in" badges); quirks mode yes/no.

2 STRUCTURE
frameset: rows and cols, borders, scrolling, nav frame, link targets
tables: nesting, cellpadding, cellspacing, border, bgcolor per cell, widths, spacer GIFs
sliced images for header and nav; image maps with their hot areas

3 COLOR
web-safe 216 palette (00, 33, 66, 99, CC, FF per channel) or free; body bgcolor, text, link, vlink, alink; tiled background (tile size, pattern); dithering

4 TYPE
font tags (face, size 1-7, color); system fonts (Times, Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, Georgia, Comic Sans, Courier); image-text headings; sIFR or Cufon; no anti-aliasing on early Windows

5 WIDGETS
marquee (direction, speed, behavior), blink, animated GIFs (content, size), hit counters, guestbooks, under-construction signs, 88x31 badges, webrings, bevel or emboss buttons (light direction, bevel px), JS rollovers, DHTML menus, pop-ups, status-bar text, colored scrollbars (IE), hr (size, noshade)

6 FLASH
intro: length, content, Skip intro position; full-Flash site: stage size, scale mode, percentage preloader, sound toggle. Wayback plays surviving SWF files through Ruffle (usable as reference).

7 QUIRKS
IE box model, 8px default body margin, default link colors (#0000EE, visited #551A8B), OS-native form controls (Windows 98/XP, Mac Aqua), rounded corners only as images, GIF transparency halos.

8 TECHNIQUES (name in HOW TO BUILD of Recipes)
table layout, frameset, spacer GIF, image map, image slices, CSS sprites, DHTML, Flash, Shockwave, Java applet, sIFR, Cufon, marquee, blink, animated GIF, PNG alpha hack, rounded corner images, VML.

9 GUARDRAILS (mandatory)
List every modern feature the design lacks: no border-radius, no box-shadow, no web fonts, no flexbox look, no smooth transitions, fixed width, no responsive layout, etc. as applicable.