Utilize SASS to maintain empowering Design Systems and Utilities

February 04, 2024

By: James A. Hernandez

When it comes to SASS and CSS styling, a lot of early planning can keep a Design System simple and productive for development teams. Adoption of BEM can also keep conflicts between components to a minimum, as long as there is a good foundation of custom stylized variables. And keep your team up-to-date by adopting a gatekeeper to modify or adjust universal styles.

§ Utilizing SASS variables

// previously fonts-and-colors.scss

// ##############################
// From bootstrap (manual entry)
// https://getbootstrap.com/docs/5.0/utilities/colors/

$blue: #0d6efd;
$indigo: #6610f2;
$purple: #6f42c1;
$pink: #d63384;
$red: #dc3545;
$orange: #fd7e14;
$yellow: #ffc107;
$green: #198754;
$teal: #20c997;
$cyan: #0dcaf0;

// greys
$white: #fff;
$gray-100: #f8f9fa;
$gray-200: #e9ecef;
$gray-300: #dee2e6;
$gray-400: #ced4da;
$gray-500: #adb5bd;
$gray-600: #6c757d;
$gray-700: #495057;
$gray-800: #343a40;
$gray-900: #212529;
$black: #000;

// functional-color-coding
$primary: $blue;
$secondary: $gray-600;
$success: $green;
$info: $cyan;
$warning: $yellow;
$danger: $red;
$light: $gray-100;
$dark: $gray-900;

// ##############################
// END From bootstrap
// https://getbootstrap.com/docs/5.0/utilities/colors/

§ Utilizing Bootstrap built-in Dark Mode settings

The following variables come standard with my Gatbsy template.

@import 'styles/variables/main-colors.scss';

$default-font: 'DM Sans', 'Trebuchet MS', Sans-serif, 'Bebas Neue';

$original-light-blue: #b0e1f7; // nav
$original-orange: #f15a54;
// DEFAULT CUSTOM COLORS

$default-lightMode-blue-links: $blue;
$default-darkMode-blue-links: #7ab6ff;

// LIGHT MODE

// contrasts: (dark tones)

$lightMode-primary-contrast: $gray-900;
$lightMode-secondary-contrast: $gray-500;
$lightMode-tertiary-contrast: $gray-400;

$lightMode-link-color: $default-lightMode-blue-links;

// backgrounds
$lightMode-primary-bckg: $gray-100;
$lightMode-secondary-bckg: $gray-200;
$lightMode-tertiary-bckg: $gray-300;

// DARK MODE

//  contrasts: (light tones)
$darkMode-primary-contrast: $gray-400;
$darkMode-secondary-contrast: $gray-600;
$darkMode-tertiary-contrast: $gray-500;

$darkMode-link-color: $default-darkMode-blue-links;

// backgrounds

$darkMode-primary-bckg: $gray-900;
$darkMode-secondary-bckg: $gray-800;
$darkMode-tertiary-bckg: $gray-700;

// navigation

$default-nvg-bckg: $original-orange;
//$default-nvg-text: $gray-100;
$default-nvg-text: $gray-900;

$x24hr-nvg-text: $white;

There are several files which hold a variety of different style categories

dominant
- best practices
- breakpoints
- utilities
- helpers
site-specific
- general
- icons
- remark
variables
- gatsby-template
- instance-additions
- main-color
index

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