Beatrice!

Hey there! For those that like a retro feel, I made an Ao3 site skin that resembles that OS. Everything should be okay to see for everyone in terms of icons. Big thanks to this css and this icons archive for the icons used. Whole thing is a bit big top paste in here, but you can find the doc via my website here.

Some extra tweaks:

Custom logo, mini-icon, and kudos image

Darkened author notes sections

I'm making a full dark-mode version of this, but that will be for later.

​For this one, I incorporated lace elements. I really wanted the layout to have a light and airy feel to it, so I intentionally avoided using a lot of heavy color blocks or borders.

​While swapping out the rating icons, I noticed a brilliant little detail in AO3's original design: the Gen icon is actually a sun, and Other relationships is Uranus. I looked into it and learned that historically, Uranus carries a metaphor for breaking traditional gender binaries and embracing all queer/minority relationships. Using it to represent Other is honestly just so romantic. The original Multi icon is a four-color square, but since the others are celestial-themed, I replaced it with "⨁". In astronomy and astrology, ⨁ represents Earth, which feels perfectly fitting for the all-encompassing meaning of Multi. As for Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, I used a sealed box—it gives off a blind box vibe where you never know what's inside until you open it.

​Also, I used to always wonder why the date occupies its own separate block on the right, which forces the title and author to squeeze together (sometimes when the page auto-translates, I can't even tell which text is the actual fic link!). But while making this skin, I finally figured it out: that space is deliberately reserved to prop open an area for the bookmark category icons!

​📢 Disclaimer

​Non-Commercial: This skin was created purely for fun and personal interest. It is shared for free and is not intended for any commercial activity or profit.

​Language: Please note that English is not my native language. There might be some grammatical errors or awkward phrasing. No offense is intended—if any wording feels inappropriate, it is purely unintentional.

​Assets: All visual materials and decorative assets used in this skin were sourced from the internet. All credits go to the original creators.

​Content: The works shown in the screenshots are for demonstration purposes only. They are not my own writing; I have only used them to showcase the visual effects of the skin.

⚠️ If you modify this, please fork and credit the original creator. ⚠️ For non-commercial use only.

mobile preview:

doc link here

Rounding out to a modest 30 responses, that's a wrap! Thank you so much to EVERYONE who shared showed, shared ideas, and/or gave feedback‼️