thoughtbot / Bitters

Scaffold styles, variables and structure for web projects.

Bitters helps designers start projects faster by defining a basic set of CSS and Sass variables, default element style and project structure. It’s been specifically designed for use within web applications. Bitters should live in your project’s root Sass directory and we encourage you to modify and extend it to meet your project's needs.

Bitters is made to work alongside a CSS reset or style-normalizer; not replace one. We like to use Normalize.

Helpful Links

• Change log
• Twitter
• Stack Overflow

Table of Contents

• Requirements
• Installation
• Using Bitters
• Command Line Interface
• Contributing
• License
• About

Requirements

• Sass 3.4+ or LibSass 3.3+
• Ruby 1.9.3+ (required to install Bitters from the command line)

Installation

1. Install the Bitters gem using the RubyGems package manager:

   gem install bitters

2. Install the Bitters library into the current directory by running the following command at the command-line. If you’re using Ruby on Rails, run the command in app/assets/stylesheets:

   bitters install

   A base directory will be generated which contains all of the Bitters files.

3. Import Bitters in your application.css.scss or main manifest file. All additional stylesheets should be imported below Bitters.

   @import "base/base";

4. Once Bitters is set up, you can begin to import your styles below them.

   @import "base/base";
   @import "my-project-styles";
   …

Using Bitters

Sass structure & default style

The Bitters directory (base/) should contain styles for all the basic elements used throughout the project. Add code to the existing files or add new files. Customize Bitters for your site as you see fit.

Variables

This houses all variables that are used, or will be used, in more than one file in your site.

Typography

All type is based on a font-size of 100%, set on the html element.

Lists

All lists have stripped out styles. No bullets, no left padding.

Forms

Adds basic styles all form elements. The variables at the top of the file all inherit from the variables file but make it really easy to be overridden.

Buttons

Basic style for button and input[type="submit"]. Base button styles can be changed by modifying the styles applied to button as well as [type='button'], [type='reset'], and [type='submit'] in the base/_buttons.scss file.

Command Line Interface

bitters [options]

Options

Commands

Contributing

See the contributing document. Thank you, contributors!

License

Bitters is copyright © 2013-2019 thoughtbot, inc. It is free software, and may be redistributed under the terms specified in the license.

About

Bitters is maintained by the thoughtbot design team. It is funded by thoughtbot, inc. and the names and logos for thoughtbot are trademarks of thoughtbot, inc.

We love open-source software! See our other projects or hire us to design, develop, and grow your product.