---
title: Styling
description: Get started with styling your app.
url: /docs/web/customization/styling
---

# Styling

To build the web user interface, TurboStarter comes with [Tailwind CSS](https://tailwindcss.com/) and [Radix UI](https://www.radix-ui.com/) pre-configured.

<Callout title="Why Tailwind CSS and Radix UI?" type="info">
  The combination of Tailwind CSS and Radix UI gives ready-to-use, accessible UI components that can be fully customized to match your brand's design.
</Callout>

## Tailwind configuration

In the `packages/ui/shared/src/styles` directory, you will find shared CSS files with Tailwind CSS configuration. To change global styles, you can edit the files in this folder.

Here is an example of a shared CSS file that includes the Tailwind CSS configuration:

```css title="packages/ui/shared/src/styles/globals.css"
@import "tailwindcss";
@import "./themes.css";

@custom-variant dark (&:is(.dark *));

:root {
  --radius: 0.65rem;
}

@theme inline {
  --color-background: var(--background);
  --color-foreground: var(--foreground);
  --color-card: var(--card);
  --color-card-foreground: var(--card-foreground);
  --color-popover: var(--popover);
  --color-popover-foreground: var(--popover-foreground);
  --color-primary: var(--primary);
  --color-primary-foreground: var(--primary-foreground);
  --color-secondary: var(--secondary);
  --color-secondary-foreground: var(--secondary-foreground);
  --color-muted: var(--muted);
  --color-muted-foreground: var(--muted-foreground);

  ...
}
```

For colors, we rely strictly on [CSS Variables](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Using_CSS_custom_properties) in [OKLCH](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/color_value/oklch) format to allow for easy theme management without the need for any JavaScript.

Also, each app has its own `globals.css` file, which extends the shared config and allows you to override the global styles.

Here is an example of an app's `globals.css` file:

```css title="apps/web/src/assets/styles/globals.css"
@import "@turbostarter/ui/globals.css";
@import "@turbostarter/ui-web/globals.css";

@theme inline {
  /* Overridden theme variables for the app */
  --background: oklch(0.98 0.01 80);
  --foreground: oklch(0.22 0.03 120);
  --card: oklch(0.97 0.02 50);
  --card-foreground: oklch(0.18 0.01 280);
  ...
}
```

This way, we maintain a separation of concerns and a clear structure for the Tailwind CSS configuration.

## Themes

TurboStarter comes with **9+** predefined themes, which you can use to quickly change the look and feel of your app.

They're defined in the `packages/ui/shared/src/styles/themes` directory. Each theme is a set of variables that can be overridden:

```ts title="packages/ui/shared/src/styles/themes/colors/orange.ts"
export const orange = {
  light: {
    background: [1, 0, 0],
    foreground: [0.141, 0.005, 285.823],
    card: [1, 0, 0],
    "card-foreground": [0.141, 0.005, 285.823],
    ...
  }
} satisfies ThemeColors;
```

Each variable is stored as a [OKLCH](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/color_value/oklch) array, which is then converted to a CSS variable at build time (by our custom build script). That way we can ensure full type-safety and reuse themes across different parts of our apps (e.g. use the same theme in emails).

Feel free to add your own themes or override the existing ones to match your brand's identity.

To apply a theme to your app, you can use the `data-theme` attribute on the `html` element:

```tsx title="apps/web/src/app/layout.tsx"
export default function RootLayout({
  children,
}: {
  children: React.ReactNode;
}) {
  return (
    <html>
      <body data-theme="orange">{children}</body>
    </html>
  );
}
```

## Dark mode

TurboStarter comes with built-in dark mode support.

Each theme has a corresponding set of dark mode variables, which are used to switch the theme to its dark mode counterpart.

```ts title="packages/ui/shared/src/styles/themes/colors/orange.ts"
export const orange = {
  light: {},
  dark: {
    background: [0.141, 0.005, 285.823],
    foreground: [0.985, 0, 0],
    card: [0.21, 0.006, 285.885],
    "card-foreground": [0.985, 0, 0],
    ...
  }
} satisfies ThemeColors;
```

Because the dark variant is defined to use a class (`@custom-variant dark (&:is(.dark *))`) in the shared Tailwind configuration, we need to add the `dark` class to the `html` element to apply dark mode styles.

For this purpose, we're using the [next-themes](https://github.com/pacocoursey/next-themes) package under the hood to handle user preference management.

```tsx title="apps/web/src/providers/theme.tsx"
export const ThemeProvider = memo<ThemeProviderProps>(({ children }) => {
  return (
    <NextThemeProvider
      attribute="class"
      defaultTheme={appConfig.theme.mode}
      enableSystem
    >
      {children}
      <ThemeConfigProvider />
    </NextThemeProvider>
  );
});
```

You can also define the default theme mode and color in the [app configuration](/docs/web/configuration/app).

<Cards>
  <Card title="Tailwind CSS" description="tailwindcss.com" href="https://tailwindcss.com/" />

  <Card title="Radix UI" description="radix-ui.com" href="https://www.radix-ui.com/" />
</Cards>
