MONO - monotone css framework for semantic html

February 26, 2026 ยท View on GitHub

Motivation and goals

The main purpose of this design is document or blog sites, the classic web.

  • communicate with a user through forms rather than colors, which is more obvious and accessible
  • get a unique design, away from boring standards
  • possibility to apply any color you need for branding
  • use only semantic selectors, no component classes to force a native platform and a11y

Instalation

npm i @artalar/mono

Or

<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@artalar/mono/mono.css">

Usage

Setup docs site

There are two options (first the simple one).

  1. Add mono-all class to the root (body) of your site and write semantic html
  2. Add mono class to needed semantic elements

Template

Create html file and fill it like this, then paste all you content (.md generator output) to the main tag. Change navigation and footer as you need.

Change colors

Use --mono-main and --mono-back css variables. You could use our sandbox to try different colors and get the contrast (with sync checkbox enabled).

Development

  • npm run build:css rebuilds mono.css from the component styles.
  • npm run test runs the screenshot suite.
  • npm run test:update records new baselines.
  • After each task: run tests, update screenshots when needed, and commit the new screenshot files.

Roadmap

  • add styles to input elements and it variations
  • add styles to the rest html elements
  • fix design consistance
  • use consistent sizings by css variables
  • fix cross-browser issues

PR welcome!

Inspiration