Tailwing Smart Fluid

Tailwind plugin that provides smart fluid spacing and typography using CSS clamp and viewport units.

This is currently experimental, and hasn't been fully tested. Use at your own risk

Installation

Install the plugin from npm:

npm install -D tailwind-smart-fluid

Then add the plugin to your tailwind.config.js file:

// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
  theme: {
    // ...
  },
  plugins: [
    require('tailwind-smart-fluid'),
    // ...
  ],
}

Usage

This plugin uses Just In Time (JIT) to generate fluid version values for all spacing utilities.

In its simplest form, add the class fl-px-[20px,64px], where in this case 20px is the size at the minimum configured viewport (theme.fluid.min) and 64px is the size at the maximum configured viewport (theme.fluid.max).

<div class="fl-py-[20px,64px]"></div>
<!-- generates css like this: -->
<style>
  .fl-py-\[20px\2c 64px\] {
    padding-bottom: clamp(1.25rem,calc(4.13vw + 0.28rem),4rem);
    padding-top: clamp(1.25rem,calc(4.13vw + 0.28rem),4rem);
  }
</style>

You can also specify custom viewports, with fl-px-[20px@400px,64px@1440px]. In this example, when the screen is smaller than 400px the padding is 20px, when the screen is above 1440px it's 64px. Between these it will scale with the viewport width.

Notes:

• Values have to be provided with the same CSS unit;
• If a unit is not specified, it will use px;
• Breakpoints have to be provided with the same CSS unit;
• Mixing units between values and breakpoints can produce unexpected results, especially mixing relative and absolute units. For this technique to work the plugin converts breakpoints to match the value unit which may not match what you'd expect.

Configuration

You can configure the default min and max viewport and whether the plugin should convert breakpoint units under the fluid key in your tailwind.config.js file:

// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
  theme: {
    fluid: {
      min: '400px',
      max: '1440px',
      convertUnit: true,
       // change if you use rem and the equivalent font-size on your html element is not 16px
      rootFontSize: '16px'
    }
  }
}

Default config

| Property | Default | Notes | | -------------- | -------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | min | 576px | Minimum viewport when not specified | | max | 1024px | Maximum viewport when not specified | | convertUnits | true | Should the plugin try to convert breakpoint units | | rootFontSize | 16px | Base font-size for converting between rem and px | | custom | [] | Custom utilities to add in name: [properties] format |

Custom utilities

By default Tailwind Smart Fluid generates fluid versions of all default Tailwind spacing utilities.

It also adds a custom property that can be used for more complex situations—used with fl-var-[] and the --fluid-val property. This could be used within other property values or extended to other CSS functions.

If this doesn't meet your needs, you can also specify your own utilities in theme.fluid.extend:

// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
  theme: {
    fluid: {
      custom: {
        // specify properties to assign in an array, this will add the 'fl-flow-[]' utility
        'flow': ['--flow-space'],

        // for advanced use, provide a function to format your own properties
        'min-padding-x': value => ({
          'padding-left': `min(var(--min), ${value})`,
          'padding-right': `min(var(--min), ${value})`
        })
      }
    }
  }
}

Changelog

• 0.3.0 — 29/06/22 — Added default --fluid-val custom property, ability to extend utilities and functional utilities
• 0.2.3 — 17/06/22 — Fixed clamp output when second parameter is lower than first
• 0.2.2 — 16/06/22 — Removed redundant console.log
• 0.2.1 — 16/06/22 — Fixed default config not loading and some utilities not generating properly
• 0.2.0 — 16/06/22 — Changed prefix to fl-
• 0.1.0 — 10/06/22 — Initial release

License and Credits

This project is licensed under the Apache-2.0 license.

Copyright © 2022 Alistair Shepherd.