Making Beautiful Software That Just Works
Why I spent three months building a cyberpunk theme for a document viewer
I spent three months building an animated cyberpunk theme for a document viewer. Some people would call that insane. They're probably right. But here's the thing: when someone opens a 500-page PDF at 2 AM to debug a production issue, why shouldn't that experience be beautiful?
The Original Sin
Telescopo started as Smackdown, a simple markdown viewer for Mac. It did one thing well: it rendered markdown files with nice typography. That was it. 500 lines of Swift code, shipped in a weekend, five bucks on the Mac App Store.
But every time I opened it, I'd think about what else it could do. Not feature creep exactly, more like feature destiny. The code was begging to handle more than just markdown.
The Beauty Principle
Most document viewers look like they were designed by someone who hates both documents and viewers. Gray backgrounds, system fonts, utilitarian interfaces that scream "I am a tool you tolerate." Even Apple's Preview, while functional, feels like it hasn't been touched since 2011.
I wanted Telescopo to feel different. When you open a Python file, the syntax highlighting should be gorgeous. When you're reading an EPUB novel, the typography should be perfect. When you're reviewing a PDF at midnight, dark mode should feel like it was designed by someone who actually uses dark mode.
So I built three themes. Light for normal humans. Dark for developers. And Cyberpunk for... well, for me initially, but turns out a lot of people love subtle animations while they read.
The Constraint Advantage
Here's a decision that shaped everything: Telescopo is a viewer, not an editor. You can't modify files. You can't annotate PDFs. You can't edit markdown.
This constraint was liberating. Instead of building yet another mediocre text editor, I could focus entirely on the reading experience. How fast can a PDF open? How smooth can scrolling be? How quickly can you navigate between chapters in an EPUB?
When you're not worried about saving changes or managing undo states, you can use all that computational power for one thing: making viewing files feel incredible.
Native or Nothing
I wrote Telescopo in Swift, using AppKit, optimized with Metal. No Electron. No web views. No cross-platform frameworks.
This matters more than you'd think. Native means when you press Command-O, the file dialog appears instantly. When you scroll, it follows your trackpad perfectly. When you pinch to zoom, it responds immediately. These milliseconds add up to something that feels right.
Metal acceleration means a 1000-page PDF scrolls like butter. It means the Cyberpunk theme can have subtle animations without destroying your battery. It means switching between tabs is instant, not "pretty fast for a document viewer."
The Tab Revolution
For some reason, document viewers hate tabs. Preview doesn't have them. Most PDF readers don't have them. It's 2025 and we're still opening seventeen windows to compare files.
Building proper tabs was harder than I expected. Not just the UI, but making them feel native. Command-T for new tab. Command-W to close. Command-Shift-[ and ] to switch. Dragging tabs between windows. All the muscle memory Mac users have from Safari and Terminal.
But here's what made it worth it: watching someone realize they can have their Python script in one tab, the API documentation in another tab, and flip between them instantly. That moment of "oh, this is how it should work" makes the weeks of implementation worth it.
Supporting Everything
The feature that gets the most reactions: Telescopo opens 70+ file formats. PDFs, EPUBs, markdown, Python, Swift, Rust, JSON, CSV, even Mermaid diagrams render inline.
Each format required its own parser, its own optimizations, its own edge cases. Python files need different syntax highlighting than Swift. EPUBs need chapter detection. CSVs need column recognition. Mermaid diagrams need to render without launching a browser.
But when someone drops any file onto Telescopo and it just works, that surprise and delight is worth every parser I had to write.
The Free Upgrade
When I released Telescopo, I had a choice. Charge existing Smackdown users for the upgrade (it was 30x more code, after all) or give it to them free.
I made it free. Not because I'm running a charity, but because surprising users with unexpected value creates something money can't buy: genuine enthusiasm. Those users became my best advocates. They wrote reviews. They told friends. They posted on forums.
Turns out, generosity is good business.
What I Learned
Beautiful software doesn't mean ornamental. It means thoughtful. Every animation in Telescopo has a purpose. Every color was chosen deliberately. Every interaction was refined until it felt invisible.
Fast is a feature. Not "fast enough" but genuinely, surprisingly fast. When a massive PDF opens instantly, users notice. When search completes before they finish typing, they remember.
Constraints create clarity. By refusing to be an editor, Telescopo became a better viewer than apps trying to do both.
Native matters. In a world of Electron apps and web wrappers, native Mac software stands out just by feeling correct.
The Point
Software can be functional and beautiful. It can be powerful and simple. It can be professional and have a cyberpunk theme with subtle animations.
We spend hours every day looking at documents, code, and data. Those hours should be pleasant. The tools we use every day should bring us joy, not just utility.
That's why I spent three months on that cyberpunk theme. Because at 2 AM, when you're debugging production issues, reading through logs and documentation, you deserve software that makes you smile.
Even if it's just a document viewer.
Telescopo is available on the Mac App Store for $24.99 (50% off the $49.99 price for a limited time). No subscriptions, no in-app purchases, just a native Mac app that makes reading files beautiful. www.telescopo.ai