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CSS

Next.js supports multiple ways of handling CSS, including:

CSS Modules​

Next.js has built-in support for CSS Modules using the .module.css extension.

CSS Modules locally scope CSS by automatically creating a unique class name. This allows you to use the same class name in different files without worrying about collisions. This behavior makes CSS Modules the ideal way to include component-level CSS.

Example​

CSS Modules can be imported into any file inside the app directory:

import styles from './styles.module.css'

export default function DashboardLayout({
  children,
}: {
  children: React.ReactNode
}) {
  return <section className={styles.dashboard}>{children}</section>
}
import styles from './styles.module.css'

export default function DashboardLayout({ children }) {
  return <section className={styles.dashboard}>{children}</section>
}
.dashboard {
  padding: 24px;
}

For example, consider a reusable Button component in the components/ folder:

First, create components/Button.module.css with the following content:

/*
You do not need to worry about .error {} colliding with any other `.css` or
`.module.css` files!
*/
.error {
  color: white;
  background-color: red;
}

Then, create components/Button.js, importing and using the above CSS file:

import styles from './Button.module.css'

export function Button() {
  return (
    <button
      type="button"
      // Note how the "error" class is accessed as a property on the imported
      // `styles` object.
      className={styles.error}
    >
      Destroy
    </button>
  )
}

CSS Modules are only enabled for files with the .module.css and .module.sass extensions.

In production, all CSS Module files will be automatically concatenated into many minified and code-split .css files. These .css files represent hot execution paths in your application, ensuring the minimal amount of CSS is loaded for your application to paint.

Global Styles​

Global styles can be imported into any layout, page, or component inside the app directory.

Good to know:

  • This is different from the pages directory, where you can only import global styles inside the _app.js file.
  • Next.js does not support usage of global styles unless they are actually global, meaning they can apply to all pages and can live for the lifetime of the application. This is because Next.js uses React's built-in support for stylesheets to integrate with Suspense. This built-in support currently does not remove stylesheets as you navigate between routes. Because of this, we recommend using CSS Modules over global styles.

For example, consider a stylesheet named app/global.css:

body {
  padding: 20px 20px 60px;
  max-width: 680px;
  margin: 0 auto;
}

Inside the root layout (app/layout.js), import the global.css stylesheet to apply the styles to every route in your application:

// These styles apply to every route in the application
import './global.css'

export default function RootLayout({
  children,
}: {
  children: React.ReactNode
}) {
  return (
    <html lang="en">
      <body>{children}</body>
    </html>
  )
}
// These styles apply to every route in the application
import './global.css'

export default function RootLayout({ children }) {
  return (
    <html lang="en">
      <body>{children}</body>
    </html>
  )
}

To add a stylesheet to your application, import the CSS file within pages/_app.js.

For example, consider the following stylesheet named styles.css:

body {
  font-family: 'SF Pro Text', 'SF Pro Icons', 'Helvetica Neue', 'Helvetica',
    'Arial', sans-serif;
  padding: 20px 20px 60px;
  max-width: 680px;
  margin: 0 auto;
}

Create a pages/_app.js file if not already present. Then, import the styles.css file.

import '../styles.css'

// This default export is required in a new `pages/_app.js` file.
export default function MyApp({ Component, pageProps }) {
  return <Component {...pageProps} />
}

These styles (styles.css) will apply to all pages and components in your application. Due to the global nature of stylesheets, and to avoid conflicts, you may only import them inside pages/_app.js.

In development, expressing stylesheets this way allows your styles to be hot reloaded as you edit them—meaning you can keep application state.

In production, all CSS files will be automatically concatenated into a single minified .css file. The order that the CSS is concatenated will match the order the CSS is imported into the _app.js file. Pay special attention to imported JS modules that include their own CSS; the JS module's CSS will be concatenated following the same ordering rules as imported CSS files. For example:

import '../styles.css'
// The CSS in ErrorBoundary depends on the global CSS in styles.css,
// so we import it after styles.css.
import ErrorBoundary from '../components/ErrorBoundary'

export default function MyApp({ Component, pageProps }) {
  return (
    <ErrorBoundary>
      <Component {...pageProps} />
    </ErrorBoundary>
  )
}

External Stylesheets​

Stylesheets published by external packages can be imported anywhere in the app directory, including colocated components:

import 'bootstrap/dist/css/bootstrap.css'

export default function RootLayout({
  children,
}: {
  children: React.ReactNode
}) {
  return (
    <html lang="en">
      <body className="container">{children}</body>
    </html>
  )
}
import 'bootstrap/dist/css/bootstrap.css'

export default function RootLayout({ children }) {
  return (
    <html lang="en">
      <body className="container">{children}</body>
    </html>
  )
}

Good to know: External stylesheets must be directly imported from an npm package or downloaded and colocated with your codebase. You cannot use <link rel="stylesheet" />.

Next.js allows you to import CSS files from a JavaScript file. This is possible because Next.js extends the concept of import beyond JavaScript.

Import styles from node_modules​

Since Next.js 9.5.4, importing a CSS file from node_modules is permitted anywhere in your application.

For global stylesheets, like bootstrap or nprogress, you should import the file inside pages/_app.js. For example:

import 'bootstrap/dist/css/bootstrap.css'

export default function MyApp({ Component, pageProps }) {
  return <Component {...pageProps} />
}

For importing CSS required by a third-party component, you can do so in your component. For example:

import { useState } from 'react'
import { Dialog } from '@reach/dialog'
import VisuallyHidden from '@reach/visually-hidden'
import '@reach/dialog/styles.css'

function ExampleDialog(props) {
  const [showDialog, setShowDialog] = useState(false)
  const open = () => setShowDialog(true)
  const close = () => setShowDialog(false)

  return (
    <div>
      <button onClick={open}>Open Dialog</button>
      <Dialog isOpen={showDialog} onDismiss={close}>
        <button className="close-button" onClick={close}>
          <VisuallyHidden>Close</VisuallyHidden>
          <span aria-hidden>×</span>
        </button>
        <p>Hello there. I am a dialog</p>
      </Dialog>
    </div>
  )
}

Ordering and Merging​

Next.js optimizes CSS during production builds by automatically chunking (merging) stylesheets. The CSS order is determined by the order in which you import the stylesheets into your application code.

For example, base-button.module.css will be ordered before page.module.css since <BaseButton> is imported first in <Page>:

import styles from './base-button.module.css'

export function BaseButton() {
  return <button className={styles.primary} />
}
import styles from './base-button.module.css'

export function BaseButton() {
  return <button className={styles.primary} />
}
import { BaseButton } from './base-button'
import styles from './page.module.css'

export function Page() {
  return <BaseButton className={styles.primary} />
}
import { BaseButton } from './base-button'
import styles from './page.module.css'

export function Page() {
  return <BaseButton className={styles.primary} />
}

To maintain a predictable order, we recommend the following:

  • Only import a CSS file in a single JS/TS file.
    • If using global class names, import the global styles in the same file in the order you want them to be applied.
  • Prefer CSS Modules over global styles.
    • Use a consistent naming convention for your CSS modules. For example, using <name>.module.css over <name>.tsx.
  • Extract shared styles into a separate shared component.
  • If using Tailwind, import the stylesheet at the top of the file, preferably in the Root Layout.
  • Turn off any linters/formatters (e.g., ESLint's sort-import) that automatically sort your imports. This can inadvertently affect your CSS since CSS import order matters.

Good to know:

  • CSS ordering can behave differently in development mode, always ensure to check the build (next build) to verify the final CSS order.
  • You can use the cssChunking option in next.config.js to control how CSS is chunked.

Additional Features​

Next.js includes additional features to improve the authoring experience of adding styles:

  • When running locally with next dev, local stylesheets (either global or CSS modules) will take advantage of Fast Refresh to instantly reflect changes as edits are saved.
  • When building for production with next build, CSS files will be bundled into fewer minified .css files to reduce the number of network requests needed to retrieve styles.
  • If you disable JavaScript, styles will still be loaded in the production build (next start). However, JavaScript is still required for next dev to enable Fast Refresh.