Styling in Slidev

This skill covers all styling options in Slidev, including UnoCSS utilities, custom CSS, scoped styles, and advanced styling techniques.

When to Use This Skill

Customizing slide appearance
Adding custom colors and typography
Creating reusable style patterns
Implementing animations
Building responsive layouts

UnoCSS Basics

Slidev uses UnoCSS, an atomic CSS framework similar to Tailwind CSS.

Inline Classes

<div class="text-xl font-bold text-blue-500">
  Styled text
</div>

Common Utilities

Typography:

<span class="text-sm">Small</span>
<span class="text-base">Base</span>
<span class="text-lg">Large</span>
<span class="text-xl">Extra Large</span>
<span class="text-2xl">2XL</span>

<span class="font-bold">Bold</span>
<span class="font-semibold">Semibold</span>
<span class="italic">Italic</span>
<span class="underline">Underlined</span>

Colors:

<span class="text-red-500">Red text</span>
<span class="text-blue-600">Blue text</span>
<span class="bg-green-100">Green background</span>
<span class="bg-yellow-200 text-yellow-800">Yellow combo</span>

Spacing:

<div class="p-4">Padding 4</div>
<div class="m-2">Margin 2</div>
<div class="px-4 py-2">Horizontal/Vertical padding</div>
<div class="mt-8">Margin top 8</div>

Layout:

<div class="flex items-center justify-between">
  <span>Left</span>
  <span>Right</span>
</div>

<div class="grid grid-cols-2 gap-4">
  <div>Column 1</div>
  <div>Column 2</div>
</div>

Color System

Default Colors

<!-- Grays -->
<span class="text-gray-100">100</span>
<span class="text-gray-500">500</span>
<span class="text-gray-900">900</span>

<!-- Colors -->
<span class="text-red-500">Red</span>
<span class="text-orange-500">Orange</span>
<span class="text-yellow-500">Yellow</span>
<span class="text-green-500">Green</span>
<span class="text-blue-500">Blue</span>
<span class="text-purple-500">Purple</span>
<span class="text-pink-500">Pink</span>

Custom Colors

In uno.config.ts:

import { defineConfig } from 'unocss'

export default defineConfig({
  theme: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        DEFAULT: '#5d8392',
        light: '#8bb4c4',
        dark: '#3d5a65',
      },
      accent: '#f59e0b',
    },
  },
})

Usage:

<span class="text-brand">Brand color</span>
<span class="bg-brand-light">Light brand background</span>
<span class="text-accent">Accent color</span>

Typography

Font Sizes

<p class="text-xs">Extra small (12px)</p>
<p class="text-sm">Small (14px)</p>
<p class="text-base">Base (16px)</p>
<p class="text-lg">Large (18px)</p>
<p class="text-xl">XL (20px)</p>
<p class="text-2xl">2XL (24px)</p>
<p class="text-3xl">3XL (30px)</p>
<p class="text-4xl">4XL (36px)</p>
<p class="text-5xl">5XL (48px)</p>

Custom Fonts

In frontmatter:

---
fonts:
  sans: 'Inter'
  serif: 'Merriweather'
  mono: 'Fira Code'
---

In uno.config.ts:

export default defineConfig({
  theme: {
    fontFamily: {
      display: ['Inter', 'sans-serif'],
      body: ['Open Sans', 'sans-serif'],
    },
  },
})

Usage:

<h1 class="font-display">Display heading</h1>
<p class="font-body">Body text</p>

Google Fonts

---
fonts:
  sans: 'Roboto'
  serif: 'Playfair Display'
  mono: 'JetBrains Mono'
  provider: 'google'
---

Global Styles

styles/index.css

/* styles/index.css */

/* Root variables */
:root {
  --color-primary: #3b82f6;
  --color-secondary: #10b981;
  --font-size-base: 16px;
}

/* Global typography */
.slidev-layout h1 {
  font-size: 2.5rem;
  font-weight: 700;
  color: var(--color-primary);
}

.slidev-layout h2 {
  font-size: 1.75rem;
  font-weight: 600;
  color: var(--color-secondary);
}

/* Custom utility classes */
.highlight {
  background: linear-gradient(120deg, #84fab0 0%, #8fd3f4 100%);
  padding: 0 0.25em;
}

.shadow-brand {
  box-shadow: 0 4px 14px 0 rgba(93, 131, 146, 0.39);
}

/* Animation classes */
.fade-in {
  animation: fadeIn 0.5s ease-in;
}

@keyframes fadeIn {
  from { opacity: 0; }
  to { opacity: 1; }
}

Scoped Styles

Per-Slide Styles

Add <style> at the end of a slide:

# My Styled Slide

<div class="custom-box">
  Special content
</div>

<style>
.custom-box {
  padding: 2rem;
  background: linear-gradient(135deg, #667eea 0%, #764ba2 100%);
  border-radius: 1rem;
  color: white;
}

h1 {
  color: #667eea;
  text-shadow: 2px 2px 4px rgba(0,0,0,0.1);
}
</style>

Scoped vs Global

Styles in <style> are automatically scoped to the slide.

For global styles within a slide:

<style>
:global(.slidev-layout) {
  /* Affects all slides */
}
</style>

Layout Utilities

Flexbox

<div class="flex flex-col gap-4">
  <div>Item 1</div>
  <div>Item 2</div>
</div>

<div class="flex items-center justify-center h-full">
  <p>Centered content</p>
</div>

<div class="flex flex-wrap gap-2">
  <span class="badge">Tag 1</span>
  <span class="badge">Tag 2</span>
</div>

Grid

<div class="grid grid-cols-3 gap-4">
  <div>1</div>
  <div>2</div>
  <div>3</div>
</div>

<div class="grid grid-cols-2 md:grid-cols-4 gap-4">
  <!-- Responsive grid -->
</div>

Positioning

<div class="relative">
  <div class="absolute top-0 right-0">
    Top right corner
  </div>
</div>

<div class="fixed bottom-4 right-4">
  Fixed position
</div>

Custom Shortcuts

In uno.config.ts

import { defineConfig } from 'unocss'

export default defineConfig({
  shortcuts: {
    'btn': 'px-4 py-2 rounded bg-blue-500 text-white hover:bg-blue-600',
    'btn-outline': 'px-4 py-2 rounded border border-blue-500 text-blue-500 hover:bg-blue-50',
    'card': 'p-4 rounded-lg shadow-md bg-white dark:bg-gray-800',
    'section-title': 'text-2xl font-bold text-gray-800 dark:text-gray-100 mb-4',
    'badge': 'px-2 py-1 text-xs rounded-full bg-blue-100 text-blue-800',
  },
})

Usage:

<button class="btn">Click me</button>
<div class="card">Card content</div>
<h2 class="section-title">Section</h2>

Dark Mode Styling

Dark Mode Classes

<div class="bg-white dark:bg-gray-800 text-gray-900 dark:text-white">
  Adapts to dark mode
</div>

In Custom CSS

.my-component {
  background: #ffffff;
  color: #1a1a1a;
}

.dark .my-component {
  background: #1a1a1a;
  color: #ffffff;
}

Animations

Transition Utilities

<div class="transition-all duration-300 hover:scale-110">
  Scales on hover
</div>

<div class="transition-colors duration-200 hover:bg-blue-500">
  Color transition
</div>

Custom Animations

/* styles/index.css */
@keyframes slideInLeft {
  from {
    transform: translateX(-100%);
    opacity: 0;
  }
  to {
    transform: translateX(0);
    opacity: 1;
  }
}

.animate-slide-in-left {
  animation: slideInLeft 0.5s ease-out;
}

Animation with v-motion

<div
  v-motion
  :initial="{ opacity: 0, y: 50 }"
  :enter="{ opacity: 1, y: 0, transition: { duration: 500 } }"
>
  Animated content
</div>

Responsive Design

Breakpoints

<div class="text-sm md:text-base lg:text-lg">
  Responsive text size
</div>

<div class="grid grid-cols-1 md:grid-cols-2 lg:grid-cols-3 gap-4">
  Responsive grid
</div>

<div class="hidden lg:block">
  Only visible on large screens
</div>

Default Breakpoints

Prefix	Width
`sm`	640px
`md`	768px
`lg`	1024px
`xl`	1280px
`2xl`	1536px

Common Patterns

Card Component

<div class="p-6 rounded-xl bg-white dark:bg-gray-800 shadow-lg">
  <h3 class="text-lg font-semibold mb-2">Card Title</h3>
  <p class="text-gray-600 dark:text-gray-300">Card content</p>
</div>

Badge

<span class="px-2 py-1 text-xs font-medium rounded-full bg-green-100 text-green-800">
  Active
</span>

Alert Box

<div class="p-4 rounded-lg bg-yellow-50 border-l-4 border-yellow-400">
  <p class="text-yellow-700">Warning message</p>
</div>

Code Annotation

<div class="relative">

```js
const x = 1 // [!code highlight]

Best Practices

1. Use Utilities First

<!-- Prefer utilities -->
<div class="p-4 bg-blue-500 text-white rounded">
  Good
</div>

<!-- Custom CSS only when necessary -->

2. Create Shortcuts for Repeated Patterns

shortcuts: {
  'btn-primary': 'px-4 py-2 bg-blue-500 text-white rounded hover:bg-blue-600',
}

3. Maintain Consistency

Use the same spacing scale:

gap-4 everywhere, not mixing gap-3 and gap-5

4. Support Dark Mode

Always provide dark mode variants for custom styles.

5. Test Export

Some CSS features don't export well to PDF:

Complex gradients
Some filters
Animations (become static)

Output Format

When styling slides:

# [Slide Title]

<div class="[utility classes]">
  Content
</div>

<style>
/* Scoped styles if needed */
.custom-class {
  property: value;
}
</style>

STYLE DECISIONS:

Colors: [primary, secondary]
Typography: [font choices]
Spacing: [consistent scale]
Custom shortcuts: [list]

FILES MODIFIED:

uno.config.ts (shortcuts, theme)
styles/index.css (global styles)

slidev-styling

Styling in Slidev

When to Use This Skill

UnoCSS Basics

Inline Classes

Common Utilities

Color System

Default Colors

Custom Colors

Typography

Font Sizes

Custom Fonts

Google Fonts

Global Styles

styles/index.css

Scoped Styles

Per-Slide Styles

Scoped vs Global

Layout Utilities

Flexbox

Grid

Positioning

Custom Shortcuts

In uno.config.ts

Dark Mode Styling

Dark Mode Classes

In Custom CSS

Animations

Transition Utilities

Custom Animations

Animation with v-motion

Responsive Design

Breakpoints

Default Breakpoints

Common Patterns

Card Component

Badge

Alert Box

Code Annotation

Best Practices

1. Use Utilities First

2. Create Shortcuts for Repeated Patterns

3. Maintain Consistency

4. Support Dark Mode

5. Test Export

Output Format