---
layout: docs
title: Colors
description: Convey meaning through `color` with a handful of color utility classes. Includes support for styling links with hover states, too.
group: utilities
toc: true
---

## Colors

Colorize text with color utilities. If you want to colorize links, you can use the [`.link-*` helper classes]({{< docsref "/helpers/colored-links" >}}) which have `:hover` and `:focus` states.

{{< example >}}
{{< colors.inline >}}
{{- range (index $.Site.Data "theme-colors") }}
<p class="text-{{ .name }}{{ with .contrast_color }} bg-{{ . }}{{ end }}">.text-{{ .name }}</p>
{{- end -}}
{{< /colors.inline >}}
<p class="text-body">.text-body</p>
<p class="text-muted">.text-muted</p>
<p class="text-white bg-dark">.text-white</p>
<p class="text-black-50">.text-black-50</p>
<p class="text-white-50 bg-dark">.text-white-50</p>
{{< /example >}}

{{< callout warning >}}
**Deprecation:** With the addition of `.text-opacity-*` utilities and CSS variables for text utilities, `.text-black-50` and `.text-white-50` are deprecated as of v5.1.0. They'll be removed in v6.0.0.
{{< /callout >}}

{{< callout info >}}
{{< partial "callout-warning-color-assistive-technologies.md" >}}
{{< /callout >}}

## Opacity

<small class="d-inline-flex px-2 py-1 font-monospace text-muted border rounded-3">Added in v5.1.0</small>

As of v5.1.0, text color utilities are generated with Sass using CSS variables. This allows for real-time color changes without compilation and dynamic alpha transparency changes.

### How it works

Consider our default `.text-primary` utility.

```css
.text-primary {
  --cui-text-opacity: 1;
  color: rgba(var(--cui-primary-rgb), var(--cui-text-opacity)) !important;
}
```

We use an RGB version of our `--cui-primary` (with the value of `13, 110, 253`) CSS variable and attached a second CSS variable, `--cui-text-opacity`, for the alpha transparency (with a default value `1` thanks to a local CSS variable). That means anytime you use `.text-primary` now, your computed `color` value is `rgba(13, 110, 253, 1)`. The local CSS variable inside each `.text-*` class avoids inheritance issues so nested instances of the utilities don't automatically have a modified alpha transparency.

### Example

To change that opacity, override `--cui-text-opacity` via custom styles or inline styles.

{{< example >}}
<div class="text-primary">This is default primary text</div>
<div class="text-primary" style="--cui-text-opacity: .5;">This is 50% opacity primary text</div>
{{< /example >}}

Or, choose from any of the `.text-opacity` utilities:

{{< example >}}
<div class="text-primary">This is default primary text</div>
<div class="text-primary text-opacity-75">This is 75% opacity primary text</div>
<div class="text-primary text-opacity-50">This is 50% opacity primary text</div>
<div class="text-primary text-opacity-25">This is 25% opacity primary text</div>
{{< /example >}}

## Specificity

Sometimes contextual classes cannot be applied due to the specificity of another selector. In some cases, a sufficient workaround is to wrap your element's content in a `<div>` or more semantic element with the desired class.

## Sass

In addition to the following Sass functionality, consider reading about our included [CSS custom properties]({{< docsref "/customize/css-variables" >}}) (aka CSS variables) for colors and more.

Do you need a gradient in your custom CSS? Just add `background-image: var(--cui-gradient);`.
### Variables

Most `color` utilities are generated by our theme colors, reassigned from our generic color palette variables.

{{< scss-docs name="color-variables" file="scss/_variables.scss" >}}

{{< scss-docs name="theme-color-variables" file="scss/_variables.scss" >}}

Grayscale colors are also available, but only a subset are used to generate any utilities.

{{< scss-docs name="gray-color-variables" file="scss/_variables.scss" >}}

### Map

Theme colors are then put into a Sass map so we can loop over them to generate our utilities, component modifiers, and more.

{{< scss-docs name="theme-colors-map" file="scss/_variables.scss" >}}

Grayscale colors are also available as a Sass map. **This map is not used to generate any utilities.**

{{< scss-docs name="gray-colors-map" file="scss/_variables.scss" >}}

RGB colors are generated from a separate Sass map:

{{< scss-docs name="theme-colors-rgb" file="scss/_variables.scss" >}}

And color opacities build on that with their own map that's consumed by the utilities API:

{{< scss-docs name="utilities-text-colors" file="scss/_variables.scss" >}}

### Utilities API

Color utilities are declared in our utilities API in `scss/_utilities.scss`. [Learn how to use the utilities API.]({{< docsref "/utilities/api#using-the-api" >}})

{{< scss-docs name="utils-color" file="scss/_utilities.scss" >}}
