get started
with rené

rené is a straightforward yet powerful toolkit for your design and development tasks. this guide will take you through everything you need to get started, including easy steps to install, customize, and create themes. let's dive in and explore its capabilities together.

installation

install with NPM

to install NPM (Node Package Manager), you will first need to install Node.js, which includes NPM.

install Node.js
  1. go to the Node.js website and download the latest version of Node.js for your operating system.

  2. install Node.js using the downloaded installer.

  3. verify the installation by opening a terminal or command prompt and typing:

    node -v

    you should see the installed version number of Node.js.

npm install renecss
or use the CDN link

in this example, the <link> tag is placed within the <head> element to load the stylesheet from the specified URL. this will apply the styles from the stylesheet to the elements on the page, allowing you to control their appearance and layout.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>My Website</title>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://unpkg.com/renecss/dist/rene.min.css" />
  </head>
  <body>
    ...
  </body>
</html>

customization

to create your own theme, copy the following code to a new theme.css file and override it with the following guidelines.

one of the cool things about rené is it already has light and dark modes. this means you can easily create designs that suit any user preference. the best part? any changes you make will reflect in both modes. so, you can focus on crafting great designs, knowing they'll shine in both light and dark settings.

:root {
  --size-base: 4px;
  --font-primary:"HelveticaNeue", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif;

}

[data-theme="theme-name"] {
  --color-primary: #8080ff;
  --color-secondary: #a640ff;
  --color-primary-background: #000000;
  --color-secondary-background: #0b0b0b;
  --color-primary-foreground: #ffffff;
  --color-secondary-foreground: #f3f3f3;
  --color-positive: green;
  --color-critical: orange;
  --color-negative: red;
}

base size

rené is built with the theory of relativity in mind - the base size is used as a reference point for other font sizes on the page. the entire layout system is applied relatively across everything and everywhere from one fundamental base size.

by changing this custom property, you're relatively increasing/decreasing the sizing of your entire design system.

  --size-base: 4px;

typography

rené supports one primary font that is applied across. yet you can easily add a secondary font and use it natively as you wish.

  --font-primary:"HelveticaNeue", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif;

colors

start by giving a name to your theme.

rené is built with four color groups in mind - brand colors, backgrounds/foregrounds colors, and semantic colors.

[data theme="light"] {
    --color-primary: #0000cd;
    --color-secondary: #800080;
    --color-primary-background: #ffffff;
    --color-secondary-background: #eeeeee;
    --color-tertiary-background: #dddddd;
    --color-primary-foreground: #111111;
    --color-secondary-foreground: #222222;
    --color-tertiary-foreground: #333333;
    --color-positive: darkgreen;
    --color-critical: gold;
    --color-negative: orangered;
}