withAlpha utility in Tailwind CSS source code.

thinkthroo

thinkThroo

Posted on October 10, 2024

withAlpha utility in Tailwind CSS source code.

In this article, we analyse withAlpha utitlity function in Tailwind CSS source code.

/**
 * Apply opacity to a color using `color-mix`.
 */
export function withAlpha(value: string, alpha: string): string {
  if (alpha === null) return value

  // Convert numeric values (like `0.5`) to percentages (like `50%`) so they
  // work properly with `color-mix`. Assume anything that isn't a number is
  // safe to pass through as-is, like `var(--my-opacity)`.
  let alphaAsNumber = Number(alpha)
  if (!Number.isNaN(alphaAsNumber)) {
    alpha = `${alphaAsNumber * 100}%`
  }

  // If the alpha value is a percentage, we can pass it directly to
  // `color-mix()`. In any other case, e.g.: `var(…)`, `round(…)`, … we need to
  // make sure it's a percentage.
  else if (alpha[alpha.length - 1] !== '%') {
    alpha = `calc(${alpha} * 100%)`
  }

  return `color-mix(in srgb, ${value} ${alpha}, transparent)`
}
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The beauty about this utility function is that it comes with comments explaining what the code does.

// Convert numeric values (like `0.5`) to percentages (like `50%`) so they
// work properly with `color-mix`. Assume anything that isn't a number is
// safe to pass through as-is, like `var(--my-opacity)`.
let alphaAsNumber = Number(alpha)
if (!Number.isNaN(alphaAsNumber)) {
  alpha = `${alphaAsNumber * 100}%`
}
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First the alpha is converted to Number, withAlpha accepts alpha as a string and is assigned to a variable named alphaAsNumber

if alphaAsNumber is not a number, then this is converted to % by multiplying it with * 100.

// If the alpha value is a percentage, we can pass it directly to
// `color-mix()`. In any other case, e.g.: `var(…)`, `round(…)`, … we need to
// make sure it's a percentage.
else if (alpha[alpha.length - 1] !== '%') {
  alpha = `calc(${alpha} * 100%)`
}
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The way this above code snippet ensures that alpha value is a percentage is by checking if the item at last index is ‘%’, otherwise, it is multiplied with *100%.

and finally color-mix is returned.

return `color-mix(in srgb, ${value} ${alpha}, transparent)`
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but you might be wondering what a color-mix is.

color-mix

The color-mix() functional notation takes two <color> values and returns the result of mixing them in a given colorspace by a given amount. — MDN documentation.

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References:

  1. https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/blob/next/packages/tailwindcss/src/utilities.ts#L108-L123

  2. https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/blob/c01b8254e822d4f328674357347ca0532f1283a0/packages/tailwindcss/src/design-system.ts#L136

  3. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/color_value/color-mix



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thinkthroo
thinkThroo

Posted on October 10, 2024

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