CSS variables and color theme for the site in several lines

One way to use CSS variables today

Create a site that dynamically supports light, dark and color themes.

Interactive demo

Create a base color that will change. Bind it to data-theme in html.

code examples use & from less / scss syntax

html[data-theme='green'] { --theme-color: 110; }
      
      

        
        
        
      

    
        
        
        
      
      

        
        
        
      

    
     

Now we need the colors themselves. Or rather their brightness and saturation. To do this, we will use the hsl scheme. We put all the variables in: root.

 :root { --color: ~'hsl(var(--theme-color), 15%, 44%)'; --background-color: ~'hsl(var(--theme-color), 30%, 10%)'; }
      
      

        
        
        
      

    
        
        
        
      
      

        
        
        
      

    
     

Here you go. Case for small. Grab the desired element and apply our variable to it.

 .class-name { color: var(--color); background-color: var(--background-color); }
      
      

        
        
        
      

    
        
        
        
      
      

        
        
        
      

    
     

Now we will change the contrast. Replace: root with html [with attribute].

 // :root = html html { &[data-theme-style='normal'] { } &[data-theme-style='dark'] { } }
      
      

        
        
        
      

    
        
        
        
      
      

        
        
        
      

    
     

Now for each topic we take our s, l values.

 html { &[data-theme-style='normal'] { --color: ~'hsl(var(--theme-color), 15%, 44%)'; --background-color: ~'hsl(var(--theme-color), 30%, 10%)'; } &[data-theme-style='dark'] { --color: ~'hsl(var(--theme-color), 70%, 31%)'; --background-color: ~'hsl(var(--theme-color), 3%, 3%)'; } }
      
      

        
        
        
      

    
        
        
        
      
      

        
        
        
      

    
     

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Links:

Interactive demo

Thank you Marcin Wichary for the idea.