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Color


These guidelines are the framework upon which we have built our system for how color is used in Vanilla, we use a fairly neutral color palette along with a traffic light palette.

$color-x-light
#fff

$color-light
#f7f7f7

$color-mid-x-light
#e5e5e5

$color-mid-light
#d9d9d9

$color-mid-dark
#666

$color-dark
#111

$color-x-dark
#000

$color-brand
#e95420

$color-negative
#c7162b

$color-caution
#f99b11

$color-positive
#0e8420

$color-information
#24598f

$color-link
#06c

$color-accent
#0f95a1

Accessibility

It’s important for us to meet all web accessibility standards. Vanilla encourages meeting the minimum contrast ratios specified by WCAG 2.2 Level AA for text, icons and background colors.

Do:
Use a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5 for normal text and UI components.
text-color-do button-color-do
Don't:
Use low-contrast text and background combinations.
text-color-don't button-color-don't

Color theming

Starting with the 2.3.0 release, Vanilla framework introduces a theming mechanism. The current default for all components is referred to as the light theme. A subset of elements and components now offer a dark theme:

Setting the default color theme per element / component

Deprecated
Setting default theme via SCSS variables is now deprecated. Use is-dark or is-light class names in HTML instead.
Element / Component Variable Default value
checkbox $theme-default-forms light
radio $theme-default-forms light
hr $theme-default-hr light
Contextual menu $theme-default-p-contextual-menu light
Lists / Divider $theme-default-p-divider light
Lists / Middot $theme-default-p-inline-list--middot light
Navigation $theme-default-nav light
Side navigation $theme-default-p-side-navigation light
Search box $theme-default-p-search-box light

The _settings_themes.scss file contains a list of variables that used to define the default theme for a subset of elements and components. Starting with Vanilla 4.8.0 this type of theming is deprecated.

With new theming mechanism based on CSS custom properties, the default theme for all components remains light. To change the theme of given element and all its children, add is-dark or is-light class to it.

Future releases will expand this list to include all elements and components.