Skin:MonoBook

MonoBook is a skin. It was the previous default man-skins>Special:MyLanguage/Manual:Skins|skin for wmf>Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia Foundation|Wikimedia Foundation websites since mw-hist>MediaWiki 1.3|MediaWiki 1.3, as the replacement for the old usemod>Skin:Standard|Standard skin.

It became the most popular and most widely supported skin in the MediaWiki ecosystem until it was finally superseded by the vector>Special:MyLanguage/Skin:Vector|Vector skin as the default on May 13, 2010 (MediaWiki 1.17, ), as a result of the efforts of the wui>Special:MyLanguage/Wikipedia Usability Initiative|Wikipedia Usability Initiative to improve Wikipedia user experiences and potentially draw in more contributor participation.

It served as a common backup for Vector and is still present on many wikis using older versions of MediaWiki software.

Installation
This skin is included in the download>Special:MyLanguage/Download|MediaWiki download tarball.

You only need to install it separately if you installed MediaWiki using a different method.

Historical notes
See Layout design document and MediaWiki 1.3 comments and bug reports/Archive for related discussions during MonoBook's development.

Status
In 2013, MonoBook became primarily supported by volunteer developers, not the Wikimedia Foundation. As of 2019, it is one of the four volunteer-supported skins used on Wikimedia projects: MonoBook,, , and.