Color Settings

Customizing almost all the colors is easy…assuming you’re familiar with how colors work in TailwindCSS.

Check out the /src/_data/colors.js file for instructions and examples of how to customize the colors around the system.

It should be easy to add your own customizations and settings given the comments and the code in the layouts.

NOTE: Technically you could include any additional TailwindCSS classes with the color settings. Check out the excerptCustom setting below for an example of what I included to manage the display of the excerpts on the blog listing page.
But it’s not always practical due to display variations required on different views.

/**
 * ===== Excerpts on Post Lists
 */
excerptDefault: 'text-gray-600',
excerptCustom: 'text-sm leading-relaxed italic text-gray-600',

Here’s a sample snippet from the /src/_data/colors.js file showing how to completely customize the main navbar above:

NOTE: I’d love to have more color variants…for exmaple lighter text colors for some elements. But you’ll find you get dinged in Lighthouse reports if you don’t have sufficient color contrast ratio.

/**
 * Reason for both 'xxxDefault' and 'xxxCustom'
 *  I could have only provided ONE set of settings. But knowing how users
 *  actually use a system, at some point they'll want to revert to the
 *  original color set...or at least reference it.
 *  Providing a 'Default' and 'Custom' set allows you to keep the original
 *  colors for future reference while setting 'Custom' overrides for entire
 *  sets or individual elements.
 *
 *    If you don't care about keeping them as reference, you can just
 *      change the "xxxDefault" key values.
 *
 *    "xxxCustom" values will always override "xxxDefault" values.
 *
 * ~~~~~ Cusomization tip ~~~~~
 *    To quickly create a full set of custom colors,
 *    simply select and copy the set of "Default" elements
 *    and 'replace paste' them in the "Custom" area.
 *    Then just change the "color" value in the middle.
 *    This will help keep the customization values looking correct
 *    and wil ensure no errors in "text", "bg", and "border" values.
 */
navDefault: {
  barBg: 'bg-white',
  text: 'text-teal-500',
  textActive: 'text-teal-600',
  textHover: 'text-teal-600',
  textActiveBg: 'bg-teal-100',
  textFocus: 'text-teal-500',
  mobileBg: '',
  mobileBgActive: 'bg-teal-700',
  mobileBgHover: 'bg-teal-100',
  mobileBgFocus: 'bg-teal-300',
  mobileText: 'text-teal-500',
  mobileTextActive: 'text-teal-300',
  mobileTextHover: 'text-teal-600',
  mobileTextFocus: 'text-teal-700',
  mobileButton: 'text-teal-500',
  mobileButtonHover: 'text-teal-600',
  mobileButtonBgHover: 'bg-teal-100',
},
/**
 *  NOTE: You MUST keep all Custom variable keys, even if their values
 *  are empty and you don't intend to use them.
 *  If you delete any variable keys, 11ty won't work.
 */
navCustom: {
   barBg: '',
   text: 'text-gray-700',
   textActive: 'text-gray-800',
   textHover: 'text-gray-800',
   textActiveBg: 'bg-gray-100',
   textFocus: 'text-gray-500',
   mobileBg: '',
   mobileBgActive: 'bg-gray-700',
   mobileBgHover: 'bg-gray-100',
   mobileBgFocus: 'bg-gray-300',
   mobileText: 'text-gray-500',
   mobileTextActive: 'text-gray-300',
   mobileTextHover: 'text-gray-600',
   mobileTextFocus: 'text-gray-700',
   mobileButton: 'text-gray-500',
   mobileButtonHover: 'text-gray-600',
   mobileButtonBgHover: 'bg-gray-100',
},

Here’s how to manage buttons farther down in the /src/_data/colors.js file:

/**
 * ===== Buttons =====
 */
buttonDefault: {
  text: 'text-white',
  textHover: 'text-white',
  bg: 'bg-teal-700',
  bgHover: 'bg-teal-700',
  border: 'border-teal-900',
},
buttonCustom: {
  text: '',
  textHover: '',
  bg: '',
  bgHover: '',
  border: '',
},