Creating Color Palettes in CSS: Balancing Simplicity and Complexity

Light mode? Dark mode? Scott and Wes break down the best ways to implement theme switching in CSS, from prefers-color-scheme to manual overrides. Plus, tips on handling shadows, icons, and the dreaded flash of dark mode!

• 00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
• 01:05 Brought to you by Sentry.io.
• 02:06 Light and dark mode, things to consider.
• 02:31 Light and dark mode from scratch.
  • drop-in.css.
  • 04:41 Calculations vs assigned color.
  • 05:32 color-mix and relative color.
  • 08:15 Foreground and background variables.
    • –tint-or-shade: color-mix(in oklab, var(–fg), transparent 95%);
    • –tint-or-shade-harder: color-mix(in oklab, var(–fg), transparent 90%);
  • 09:13 Setting color scheme.
  • 12:38 light-dark function in CSS.
• 15:48 Manually setting dark mode.
  • 18:43 The challenges with shared caching.
  • 19:33 Tailwind CSS implementation.
    • Tailwind dark-mode.
• 19:52 Shoehorning in dark mode.
• 22:25 Other things to consider.
  • 22:28 Color contrast.
    • Lea Verou contrast-color.
  • 24:39 Logos.
  • 25:22 Icons and images.
  • 26:20 Accessibility.
    • Polypane.

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