This plugin for Tailwind CSS and Ionic provides several features:

• Variants which help you to target specific platforms and modes in an Ionic application.
• A part variant to target CSS parts in an Ionic component (or any other component that uses CSS parts).
• Ionic CSS theme variables are converted into Tailwind colors.
• An ion-checked variant to target the checked state of an Ionic checkbox or radio button.

• The non-abbreviated variants (prefixed with "ion-") in v1.x have been removed.
• The ios and md variants have been renamed to mode-ios and mode-md, and only apply to the mode attribute of the html element.

pnpm add @aparajita/tailwind-ionic

If you only want the default variants and no Ionic theme colors, add the plugin to your tailwind.config.js file:

module.exports = {
  plugins: [require('@aparajita/tailwind-ionic')]
}

If you want to configure the behavior, read on.

The platform/mode variants in the table below are supported. Variants lower in the list are more specific and are applied after variants higher in the list. This means that a less specific variant applied to a given class will be overridden by a more specific variant applied to the same class.

Note that you cannot combine variants directly, but you can combine the effect of separate variants.

<!-- BAD. Can't combine these variants with others directly. -->
<ion-label class="plt-native:plt-ios:text-ion-color-primary" />

<!-- 
  GOOD. Separate variants combine.
  On a real iOS device, bold blue color. 
  On a real Android device, bold yellow color. 
-->
<ion-label
  class="
  plt-native:font-bold
  plt-ios:text-blue-500
  plt-android:text-yellow-500
"
/>

<!-- GOOD. More specific variant overrides. On a real iOS device, red color. -->
<ion-label class="plt-native:text-blue-500 plt-ios:text-red-500" />

The part- variant allows you to target CSS parts in an Ionic component (or any other component that uses CSS parts). All of the currently defined component parts are provided as auto-complete suggestions in your editor. Part variants can be combined with other variants.

<!-- Make a button fully rounded -->
<ion-button class="part-native:rounded-full" />

<!-- Equivalent to: -->
<ion-button class="my-button" />

<style>
  .my-button::part(native) {
    @apply rounded-full;
  }
</style>

The ion-checked variant allows you to target the checked state of an ion-checkbox or ion-radio. It can be combined with other variants, in particular the part- variant, to accomplish complex styling of ion-checkbox and ion-radio components entirely with Tailwind.

Here is a radio group using images for the radio buttons. The checked state is indicated by a blue ring.

Here is the markup:

<ion-radio-group
  v-model="appearance"
  class="flex w-full justify-around pt-5 pb-3"
>
  <div
    v-for="info in kAppearanceInfo"
    :key="info.label"
    class="relative flex flex-col items-center"
  >
    <ion-radio
      :value="info.value"
      class="m-0 h-[80px] w-[72px] rounded-lg part-container:border-none part-mark:hidden ion-checked:ring ion-checked:ring-blue-500"
    />
    <img
      :src="info.src"
      :alt="info.label"
      class="absolute inset-0 h-[80px] w-[72px] rounded-lg border"
      :class="info.class"
    />
    <p class="mt-2 text-sm text-ion-color-dark">
      {{ info.label }}
    </p>
  </div>
</ion-radio-group>

Or, for example, if you want a checkbox to be yellow-500 in the unchecked state and indigo-500 with an indigo-400 border in the checked state, you would do this:

<ion-checkbox
  class="
    part-container:!bg-yellow-500 
    ion-checked:part-container:!bg-indigo-500 
    ion-checked:part-container:!border-indigo-400
  "
/>

Note that part-container is used to target the checkbox markup itself and ! is necessary to override the Ionic styles.

If you pass the plugin one or more valid paths to a CSS file containing Ionic theme variables, they are converted into Tailwind theme colors.

/** @type {import('tailwindcss/types').Config} */
/** @type {import('@aparajita/tailwind-ionic').plugin} */

const ionic = require('@aparajita/tailwind-ionic')

module.exports = {
  plugins: [ionic('src/theme/variables.css')]
}

You may also pass the path as a .theme property of an options object, or an array of strings or objects with a .theme property. This allows you to access the Ionic theme files along with your own customizations.

/** @type {import('tailwindcss/types').Config} */
/** @type {import('@aparajita/tailwind-ionic').plugin} */

const ionic = require('@aparajita/tailwind-ionic')

module.exports = {
  plugins: [ionic({
    theme: 'src/theme/variables.css',
  })]
}

/** @type {import('tailwindcss/types').Config} */
/** @type {import('@aparajita/tailwind-ionic').plugin} */

const ionic = require('@aparajita/tailwind-ionic')

module.exports = {
  plugins: [ionic([
    'src/theme/variables.css',
    'assets/css/theme.css',
    require.resolve('@ionic/vue/css/palettes/dark.class.css'),
  )]
}

If the file variables.css is this:

/** Ionic CSS Variables **/
:root {
  /** primary **/
  --ion-color-primary: #3880ff;
  --ion-color-primary-rgb: 56, 128, 255;
  --ion-color-primary-contrast: #ffffff;
  --ion-color-primary-contrast-rgb: 255, 255, 255;
  --ion-color-primary-shade: #3171e0;
  --ion-color-primary-tint: #4c8dff;

  /* ...lots more */
}

then your effective Tailwind config ends up being this:

module.exports = {
  theme: {
    extend: {
      colors: {
        // ...whatever colors you have in your tailwind.config.js
        
        'ion-color-primary': 'var(--ion-color-primary)',
        'ion-color-primary-rgb': 'var(--ion-color-primary-rgb)',
        'ion-color-primary-contrast': 'var(--ion-color-primary-contrast)',
        'ion-color-primary-contrast-rgb': 'var(--ion-color-primary-contrast-rgb)',
        'ion-color-primary-shade': 'var(--ion-color-primary-shade)',
        'ion-color-primary-tint': 'var(--ion-color-primary-tint)',
        // ...and so on
      }
    }
  }
}

Because the variables are part of the color palette, they are added into all of the Tailwind color utilities: text, bg, border, etc.

<ion-label class="text-ion-color-primary">My label</ion-label>
<span class="text-ion-color-success">Success!</span>
<div class="bg-ion-color-background">
  <!-- content -->
</div>
<div class="border-ion-color-tertiary-tint">
  <!-- content -->
</div>