Introducing the ultimate game-changer for your Tailwind app! Say goodbye to cluttered dark variants and messy CSS variables. With this tailwind plugin, switching between color themes is as effortless as changing one className.
This plugin was originally designed for Tailwind CSS v3. With Tailwind v4's release, you may want to consider using Tailwind's built-in CSS configuration for managing multiple themes instead.
- 🚀 Scalable, add as many themes and colors as you want. There is no limit on the number of themes and color you can use
- 💫 Flexible, don't limit yourself to colors, with the built-in variants you can theme any css property
- ✨ Easy to adopt, no need to change your markup, it just works!
- 🤩 Nested themes are supported for complex use cases
- 🎯 Full Tailwind CSS Intellisense support 🔥🔥🔥
See the full changelog here
npm i -D [email protected]npm i -D [email protected]Take an existing tailwind config and move the colors in the createThemes plugin, giving it a name (e.g. light).
tailwind.config.js
+ const { createThemes } = require('tw-colors');
module.exports = {
content: ['./src/**/*.{astro,html,js,jsx,md,mdx,svelte,ts,tsx,vue}'],
theme: {
extends: {
- colors: {
- 'primary': 'steelblue',
- 'secondary': 'darkblue',
- 'brand': '#F3F3F3',
- // ...other colors
- }
},
},
plugins: [
+ createThemes({
+ light: {
+ 'primary': 'steelblue',
+ 'secondary': 'darkblue',
+ 'brand': '#F3F3F3',
+ // ...other colors
+ }
+ })
],
};
💡 tip: you can use any color name as you usually do, not just the ones from the example. The same goes for the theme names.
Note: With Tailwind 4, you need to import your js config in your css config file (e.g. @config "./tailwind.config.js")
Apply class='light' anywhere in your app (the html or the body tag is a good spot for it)
See the options to customize the className
- <html>
+ <html class='light'>
...
<div class='bg-brand'>
<h1 class='text-primary'>...</h1>
<p class='text-secondary'>...</p>
</div>
...
</html>That's it, your site has a light theme!
tailwind.config.js
const { createThemes } = require('tw-colors');
module.exports = {
content: ['./src/**/*.{astro,html,js,jsx,md,mdx,svelte,ts,tsx,vue}'],
plugins: [
createThemes({
light: {
'primary': 'steelblue',
'secondary': 'darkblue',
'brand': '#F3F3F3',
},
+ dark: {
+ 'primary': 'turquoise',
+ 'secondary': 'tomato',
+ 'brand': '#4A4A4A',
+ },
+ forest: {
+ 'primary': '#2A9D8F',
+ 'secondary': '#E9C46A',
+ 'brand': '#264653',
+ },
+ winter: {
+ 'primary': 'hsl(45 39% 69%)',
+ 'secondary': 'rgb(120 210 50)',
+ 'brand': 'hsl(54 93% 96%)',
+ },
})
],
};You now have a light, a dark and a forest theme!
Simply switch the class attribute
- <html class='light'>
+ <html class='dark'>
...
</html>Based on the current theme, specific styles can be applied using variants.
Note: In the following example the variants would have no effect with the light theme
<!-- Use "serif" font for the dark theme only -->
<div class='dark font-sans dark:font-serif'>
...
<div>Serif font here</div>
<!-- this button is rounded when the theme is `dark` -->
<button class='dark:rounded'>Click Me</button>
</div>See the options to customize the variant name
Caveat: group-{modifier}
Always use the group variant before the theme variant. <html class='theme-dark'>
...
<div class='group'>
<div class='theme-dark:group-hover:bg-red-500'>
❌ the group variant does not work
</div>
<div class='group-hover:theme-dark:bg-red-500'>
✅ the group variant works properly
</div>
</div>
</html>For variants to work properly in nested themes, an empty data-theme attribute must be added alongside the nested theme class
<html class='dark'>
...
<div data-theme class='winter'>
...
</div>
<div data-theme class='forest'>
...
</div>
</html>Caveat: inherited properties
Inherited properties (e.g. "font-family") are inherited by all descendants, including nested themes. In order to stop the propagation the base styles should be re-declared on nested themes
❌ Unexpected behavior
<html class='theme-dark font-sans theme-dark:font-serif'>
...
<div>
✅ Serif is active
</div>
<div class="theme-light">
❌ Serif is still active, it got inherited from the parent theme
</div>
</html>✅ Works as expected
<html class='theme-dark font-sans theme-dark:font-serif'>
...
<div>
✅ Serif is active
</div>
<div class="theme-light font-sans theme-dark:font-serif">
✅ Sans is active
</div>
</html>createThemes also accepts a function that exposes the light and dark functions.
To apply the color-scheme CSS property, simply wrap a theme with light or dark."
See the MDN docs for more details on this feature.
tailwind.config.js
createThemes(({ light, dark }) => ({
'winter': light({
'primary': 'steelblue',
'base': 'darkblue',
'surface': '#F3F3F3',
}),
'forest': dark({
'primary': 'turquoise',
'base': 'tomato',
'surface': '#4A4A4A',
}),
}))tw-colors creates CSS variables using the format --twc-[color name] by default, they contain HSL values.
For example, with the following configuration, the variables --twc-primary, --twc-base, --twc-surface will be created.
tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
// ...your tailwind config
plugins: [
createThemes({
'winter': {
'primary': 'steelblue',
'base': 'darkblue',
'surface': '#F3F3F3',
},
'forest': {
'primary': 'turquoise',
'base': 'tomato',
'surface': '#4A4A4A',
},
})
],
};Example usage:
.my-class {
color: hsl(var(--twc-primary));
background: hsl(var(--twc-primary) / 0.5);
}See the options to customize the css variables
The options can be passed as the second argument to the plugin
createThemes({
// your colors config here...
}, {
produceCssVariable: (colorName) => `--twc-${colorName}`,
produceThemeClass: (themeName) => `theme-${themeName}`
produceThemeVariant: (themeName) => `theme-${themeName}`
strict: false
})The default theme to use, think of it as a fallback theme when no theme is declared.
Example: simple default theme
createThemes({
'winter': {
'primary': 'steelblue',
},
'halloween': {
'primary': 'crimson',
},
}, {
defaultTheme: 'winter' // 'winter' | 'halloween'
})The default theme can also be chosen according to the user light or dark preference (see MDN prefers-color-scheme)
Example: adapting to user preference
createThemes({
'winter': {
'primary': 'steelblue',
},
'halloween': {
'primary': 'crimson',
},
}, {
defaultTheme: {
/**
* when `@media (prefers-color-scheme: light)` is matched,
* the default theme is the "winter" theme
*/
light: 'winter',
/**
* when `@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark)` is matched,
* the default theme is the "halloween" theme
*/
dark: 'halloween',
}
})default: false
If false invalid colors are ignored.
If true invalid colors produce an error.
Example
createThemes({
'christmas': {
// invalid color
'primary': 'redish',
},
'darkula': {
'primary': 'crimson',
},
}, {
// an error will be thrown
strict: true
})default: (colorName) => `--twc-${colorName}`
Customize the css variables generated by the plugin.
With the below configuration, the following variables will be created:
--a-primary-z(instead of twc-primary)--a-secondary-z(instead of twc-secondary)--a-base-z(instead of twc-base)
createThemes({
'light': {
'primary': 'steelblue',
'secondary': 'darkblue',
'base': '#F3F3F3',
},
'dark': {
'primary': 'turquoise',
'secondary': 'tomato',
'base': '#4A4A4A',
},
}, {
produceCssVariable: (colorName) => `--a-${colorName}-z`
})default: (themeName) => themeName
Customize the classNames of the themes and variants
With the below configuration, the following theme classNames and variants will be created:
theme-light(instead of light)theme-dark(instead of dark)
createThemes({
'light': {
'primary': 'steelblue',
'secondary': 'darkblue',
'base': '#F3F3F3',
},
'dark': {
'primary': 'turquoise',
'secondary': 'tomato',
'base': '#4A4A4A',
},
}, {
produceThemeClass: (themeName) => `theme-${themeName}`
})<html class='theme-dark'>
...
<button class='theme-dark:rounded'>
Click Me
</button>
...
</html>default: same as produceThemeClass
Customize the variants
With the below configuration, the following variants will be created:
theme-light(instead of light)theme-dark(instead of dark)
createThemes({
'light': {
'primary': 'steelblue',
'secondary': 'darkblue',
'base': '#F3F3F3',
},
'dark': {
'primary': 'turquoise',
'secondary': 'tomato',
'base': '#4A4A4A',
},
}, {
produceThemeVariant: (themeName) => `theme-${themeName}`
})<html class='dark'>
...
<button class='theme-dark:rounded'>
Click Me
</button>
...
</html>up-fetch: Tiny 1kb configuration tool for the fetch API with sensible default
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