Tailwind CSS variables

Transform Tailwind config file to CSS variables.

⚠️ This version is working only with Tailwind v2 and above, if you still using the old version of tailwind please use version v2.0.0.

Installation

Add the plugin to you Project

# Install via npm
npm install --save-dev tailwind-css-variables

Configure

The CSS variables plugin exposes options for you to use. Here is an example for adding it to your projects Tailwind plugins.

In tailwind.js or tailwind.config.js search for the plugins section and add these lines.

By default, you don't need any configuration.

plugins: [
  require('tailwind-css-variables')(
    {
      // modules
    },
    {
      // options
    }
  );
]

Settings

By default, this is the current setting where object key is the module and object value is the variable name

{
  colors: 'color',
  screens: 'screen',
  fontFamily: 'font',
  fontSize: 'text',
  fontWeight: 'font',
  lineHeight: 'leading',
  letterSpacing: 'tracking',
  backgroundSize: 'bg',
  borderWidth: 'border',
  borderRadius: 'rounded',
  width: 'w',
  height: 'h',
  minWidth: 'min-w',
  minHeight: 'min-h',
  maxWidth: 'max-w',
  maxHeight: 'max-h',
  padding: 'p',
  margin: 'm',
  boxShadow: 'shadows',
  zIndex: 'z',
  opacity: 'opacity',
}

add Module

You can easily add the module by adding it to settings and specify a variable name

{
  borderColors: 'rounded',
}

Disable Module

You can easily disable the module by giving it a value of false

{
  opacity: false,
}

Options

{
  postcssEachVariables: true; // default: false
}

postcssEachVariables

this option will let the plugin generate CSS variables as an array of colors, screens, fonts and text sizes as this example

:root {
  --colors: transparent, black, grey-darkest, grey-darker, grey-dark;
  --screens: sm, md, lg;
  --fonts: sans, serif, mono;
  --text-sizes: xs, sm, base, lg, xl, 2xl, 3xl, 4xl, 5xl;
}

this will allow you to use postcss-each plugin to loop colors and generate a button with background color for example

looping

Let's assume you would like to generate buttons from your colors.

first of all, install this postcss plugin

# Install via npm
npm install --save-dev postcss-each postcss-at-rules-variables

add the plugins to your postcss config file and respect the order.

module.exports = {
  plugins: {
    tailwindcss: "./tailwind-config.js",
    "postcss-at-rules-variables": {},
    "postcss-each": {},
  },
};

now in your CSS file start looping you color for Example

@each $key in var(--colors) {
  .btn-$key {
    color: var(--color-$(key));
  }
}

this will output this CSS file

.btn-transparent {
  background-color: var(--color-transparent);
}

.btn-black {
  background-color: var(--color-black);
}

.btn-grey {
  background-color: var(--color-grey);
}

.btn-white {
  background-color: var(--color-white);
}

Output & Name pattern

generated css variables are in this pattern --{variable name}{size|type|color}

for Example, generated border width will be --{}{border}-{2} and the default value will be --border-default.

Values like w-0.5 which have comma are not allowed in css variables therefore they are going to be --w-0_5.

The result of this plugin is a :root with CSS variables.

:root {
  --color-transparent: transparent;
  --color-black: #22292f;
  --color-grey: #b8c2cc;
  --color-white: #fff;
  --sm: 576px;
  --md: 768px;
  --lg: 992px;
  --xl: 1200px;
  --border-0: 0;
  --border-2: 2px;
  --border-4: 4px;
  --border-8: 8px;
  --border: 1px;
}

Release History

Checkout CHANGELOG.md file for release history.

Meta

Checkout LICENSE for license information.