What is FlowBite?
FlowBite is an open-source collection of UI elements based on the utility-first CSS framework Tailwind designed and coded by Themesberg available in Figma and as web components.
Why use FlowBite?
One of the disadvantages of Tailwind CSS compared to other frameworks is that it doesn't have a base set of components. This makes it really hard to quickly prototype a user interface.
This is where FlowBite comes into play: it's basically Tailwind CSS, but you get all of the components that you would normally get with a classic CSS framework like Bootstrap or Bulma.
There are at least 15 types of components including buttons, alerts, breadcrumbs, pagination, and navbars. FlowBite also includes some custom JavaScript that enables interactive components, such as dropdowns, modals, tooltips, and many more.
How to get started?
Getting started with FlowBite is fairly easy: all you need to do is follow the quickstart guide or set up an advanced workflow by following the build tools guide.
Include via CDN
The quickest way to get started working with FlowBite is to simply include the CSS and JavaScript into your project via CDN.
Require the following minified stylesheet inside the head tag:
<link rel="stylesheet" href="unpkg.com/@themesberg/flowbite@latest/dist…" />
And include the following javascript file before the end of the body element:
<script src="unpkg.com/@themesberg/flowbite@latest/dist…"></script>
Important: This is not the recommended way of working with FlowBite because you won't be able to purge the unnecessary CSS. Check out the build tools to properly set up FlowBite for development and production code.
Require via NPM
You can also require FlowBite as a dependency using NPM by running the following command:
npm i @themesberg/flowbite
Installation
Follow these steps to configure, develop and build with FlowBite and Tailwind CSS:
- Make sure that you have Node.js and NPM installed on your machine
- Create a new folder with
mkdir flowbite-project - Move inside the newly created folder with
cd flowbite-project - Run
npm initto create apackage.jsonfile and follow the CLI instructions - Run the following code to install Tailwind CSS:
npm install -D tailwindcss@latest postcss@latest autoprefixer@latest @tailwindcss/forms@latest
- Create a new file with
touch postcss.config.jsand insert the following code:
// postcss.config.js
module.exports = {
plugins: {
tailwindcss: {},
autoprefixer: {},
}
}
- Create a Tailwind configuration file by running:
npx tailwindcss init
And then add the following code inside the tailwind.config.js file:
module.exports = {
purge: {
enabled: true,
content: ["./layouts/**/*.html", "./content/**/*.md", "./content/**/*.html"],
},
darkMode: false, // or 'media' or 'class'
theme: {
extend: {},
fontFamily: {
'sans': ['Inter', 'ui-sans-serif', 'system-ui', '-apple-system', 'system-ui', 'Segoe UI', 'Roboto', 'Helvetica Neue', 'Arial', 'Noto Sans', 'sans-serif', 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Noto Color Emoji'],
'body': ['Inter', 'ui-sans-serif', 'system-ui', '-apple-system', 'system-ui', 'Segoe UI', 'Roboto', 'Helvetica Neue', 'Arial', 'Noto Sans', 'sans-serif', 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Noto Color Emoji'],
'mono': ['ui-monospace', 'SFMono-Regular', 'Menlo', 'Monaco', 'Consolas', 'Liberation Mono', 'Courier New', 'monospace']
},
colors: {
white: "#ffffff",
black: "#000000",
gray: {
50: '#F9FAFB',
100: '#F3F4F6',
200: '#E5E7EB',
300: '#D1D5DB',
400: '#9CA3AF',
500: '#6B7280',
600: '#4B5563',
700: '#374151',
800: '#1F2937',
900: '#111827'
},
red: {
50: '#FDF2F2',
100: '#FDE8E8',
200: '#FBD5D5',
300: '#F8B4B4',
400: '#F98080',
500: '#F05252',
600: '#E02424',
700: '#C81E1E',
800: '#9B1C1C',
900: '#771D1D'
},
orange: {
50: '#FFF8F1',
100: '#FEECDC',
200: '#FCD9BD',
300: '#FDBA8C',
400: '#FF8A4C',
500: '#FF5A1F',
600: '#D03801',
700: '#B43403',
800: '#8A2C0D',
900: '#771D1D'
},
yellow: {
50: '#FDFDEA',
100: '#FDF6B2',
200: '#FCE96A',
300: '#FACA15',
400: '#E3A008',
500: '#C27803',
600: '#9F580A',
700: '#8E4B10',
800: '#723B13',
900: '#633112'
},
green: {
50: '#F3FAF7',
100: '#DEF7EC',
200: '#BCF0DA',
300: '#84E1BC',
400: '#31C48D',
500: '#0E9F6E',
600: '#057A55',
700: '#046C4E',
800: '#03543F',
900: '#014737'
},
teal: {
50: '#EDFAFA',
100: '#D5F5F6',
200: '#AFECEF',
300: '#7EDCE2',
400: '#16BDCA',
500: '#0694A2',
600: '#047481',
700: '#036672',
800: '#05505C',
900: '#014451'
},
blue: {
50: '#EBF5FF',
100: '#E1EFFE',
200: '#C3DDFD',
300: '#A4CAFE',
400: '#76A9FA',
500: '#3F83F8',
600: '#1C64F2',
700: '#1A56DB',
800: '#1E429F',
900: '#233876'
},
indigo: {
50: '#F0F5FF',
100: '#E5EDFF',
200: '#CDDBFE',
300: '#B4C6FC',
400: '#8DA2FB',
500: '#6875F5',
600: '#5850EC',
700: '#5145CD',
800: '#42389D',
900: '#362F78'
},
purple: {
50: '#F6F5FF',
100: '#EDEBFE',
200: '#DCD7FE',
300: '#CABFFD',
400: '#AC94FA',
500: '#9061F9',
600: '#7E3AF2',
700: '#6C2BD9',
800: '#5521B5',
900: '#4A1D96'
},
pink: {
50: '#FDF2F8',
100: '#FCE8F3',
200: '#FAD1E8',
300: '#F8B4D9',
400: '#F17EB8',
500: '#E74694',
600: '#D61F69',
700: '#BF125D',
800: '#99154B',
900: '#751A3D'
}
}
},
variants: {
extend: {
fill: ['hover', 'focus'],
zIndex: ['hover', 'active'],
},
},
plugins: [
require('@tailwindcss/forms'),
],
}
- Include Tailwind in your CSS by creating a new CSS file and use the
@directiveto inject the main styles:
/* ./styles.css */
@tailwind base;
@tailwind components;
@tailwind utilities;
- Compile the CSS using the Tailwind CLI tool by running:
npx tailwindcss -o flowbite.css
- Include the newly created
flowbite.cssfile into your HTML template and start developing with FlowBite and Tailwind CSS. - Using ES6: make sure that you also create a JavaScript file called
flowbite.jsto make elements such as dropdowns and modals work and add the following code:
import tippy from 'tippy.js';
import 'tippy.js/dist/tippy.css'; // optional for styling
import 'tippy.js/animations/scale.css';
import { createPopper } from '@popperjs/core';
function toggleCollapse(collapseId) {
const menu = document.getElementById(collapseId);
if (menu.classList.contains("hidden")) {
menu.classList.remove("hidden");
} else {
menu.classList.add("hidden");
}
}
window.toggleCollapse = toggleCollapse;
function toggleDropdown(event, dropdownID) {
let element = event.target;
while (element.nodeName !== "BUTTON") {
element = element.parentNode;
}
createPopper(element, document.getElementById(dropdownID), {
placement: 'bottom-start',
modifiers: [
{
name: 'offset',
options: {
offset: [0, 10],
},
},
]
});
document.getElementById(dropdownID).classList.toggle("hidden");
document.getElementById(dropdownID).classList.toggle("block");
}
window.toggleDropdown = toggleDropdown;
function toggleModal(modalID) {
document.getElementById(modalID).classList.toggle("hidden");
document.getElementById(modalID + "-backdrop").classList.toggle("hidden");
document.getElementById(modalID).classList.toggle("flex");
document.getElementById(modalID + "-backdrop").classList.toggle("flex");
}
window.toggleModal = toggleModal;
document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function () {
tippy('[data-tippy-content]');
});
Alternatively, you can also just use a CDN link with the compiled JS:
<script src="unpkg.com/@themesberg/flowbite@latest/dist…"></script>
Building for production
If you want to build for production use the following command and remove any unused CSS:
NODE_ENV=production npx tailwindcss -o flowbite.css
Figma design files
If you'd like to work with a Figma design file you can either duplicate the free version on Figma Community or upgrade for additional application UI, marketing UI, and e-commerce sections and pages with FlowBite Pro.
Licensing
The components library of FlowBite is open-source under the MIT License.
However, please take into account that the pro version of FlowBite is subject to the EULA (End User License Agreement) from FlowBite.
Authors
The authors of FlowBite are Zoltán Szőgyényi (development) and Robert Tanislav (designer) as the co-founders of Themesberg.