Tailwind CSS handles most styling needs well, but it doesn't cover everything. Fluid typography, CSS container queries, golden ratio layouts, and full 12-column grid control fall outside its scope. I built scss-helper to fill exactly those gaps — a modular toolkit that complements Tailwind without competing with it.
What's Included
- 30+ CSS custom property tokens — colors, spacing, typography
- 12-column CSS grid with responsive breakpoints and auto-fit layouts
- Fluid
clamp()typography — continuous scaling, no breakpoints needed - Dark mode — dual strategy:
data-themeattribute +prefers-color-scheme - CSS container queries for component-level responsiveness
- Golden ratio typography, spacing, and grid layouts (φ = 1.618)
- 12 animations + 5 transition presets, all
prefers-reduced-motionaware - Tailwind CSS v3/v4 plugin to use tokens alongside Tailwind
All classes use the sh- prefix (configurable). Full bundle is 5.1 KB gzipped.
Installation
bash
pnpm add scss-helper
pnpm add -D sass # Dart Sass >= 1.60 requiredQuick Start
SCSS (recommended)
scss
@use 'scss-helper';
// Or cherry-pick modules
@use 'scss-helper/src/tokens/index';
@use 'scss-helper/src/typography/fluid';
@use 'scss-helper/src/golden/golden-ratio';Pre-compiled CSS
css
@import 'scss-helper/css'; /* Full bundle — 5.1 KB gzipped */
@import 'scss-helper/css/grid'; /* Grid only — 1.7 KB gzipped */
@import 'scss-helper/css/tokens'; /* Tokens only — 583 B gzipped */CDN
html
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://unpkg.com/scss-helper@5/dist/style.css">Design Tokens
css
:root {
--color-primary: #0d6efd;
--spacing-1: 0.25rem;
--spacing-4: 1rem;
--font-size-base: 1rem;
--line-height-base: 1.5;
}30+ CSS custom properties generated from Sass variables. Compatible with Tailwind v4 @theme.
CSS Grid System
html
<!-- Basic 12-column grid -->
<div class="sh-grid sh-gap-4">
<div class="sh-col-8">Main</div>
<div class="sh-col-4">Sidebar</div>
</div>
<!-- Responsive — stacks on mobile, splits on desktop -->
<div class="sh-grid sh-gap-4">
<div class="sh-col-12 sh-col-6-md sh-col-4-lg">Card</div>
<div class="sh-col-12 sh-col-6-md sh-col-4-lg">Card</div>
<div class="sh-col-12 sh-col-12-md sh-col-4-lg">Card</div>
</div>
<!-- Auto-fit: fills available space -->
<div class="sh-grid-auto-md sh-gap-4">
<div>Card</div>
<div>Card</div>
<div>Card</div>
</div>Breakpoint suffixes: -xs (32rem) · -sm (48rem) · -md (64rem) · -lg (80rem) · -xl (90rem)
Fluid Typography
Continuous font scaling using CSS clamp() — no media queries:
html
<h1 class="sh-text-fluid-4xl">Headline</h1>
<p class="sh-text-fluid-base">Body text</p>| Class | Scale |
|---|---|
sh-text-fluid-xs | 12px → 14px |
sh-text-fluid-sm | 14px → 16px |
sh-text-fluid-base | 16px → 18px |
sh-text-fluid-lg | 18px → 22px |
sh-text-fluid-xl | 20px → 28px |
sh-text-fluid-2xl | 24px → 36px |
sh-text-fluid-3xl | 30px → 48px |
sh-text-fluid-4xl | 36px → 64px |
Or call the SCSS function for arbitrary ranges:
scss
@use 'scss-helper/src/typography/fluid' as fluid;
h1 { font-size: fluid.fluid-type(1.5rem, 3rem); }
h2 { font-size: fluid.fluid-type(1rem, 2rem, 30rem, 90rem); }Golden Ratio Layouts
A full design system derived from phi (1.618):
html
<h1 class="gs-text-3">Display — 4.236rem</h1>
<h2 class="gs-text-2">Section — 2.618rem</h2>
<p class="gs-text-0">Body — 1rem</p>
<!-- 61.8% / 38.2% layout -->
<div class="gs-grid-golden">
<main>Content</main>
<aside>Sidebar</aside>
</div>scss
@use 'scss-helper/src/golden/golden-ratio' as golden;
h1 {
font-size: golden.golden-step(2); // 2.618rem
margin-bottom: golden.golden-step(1); // 1.618rem
}Dark Mode
Dual strategy — works with JS toggles and prefers-color-scheme simultaneously:
html
<p class="sh-dark-text-white">White in dark mode</p>scss
@use 'scss-helper/src/dark/dark-mode' as dark;
.card {
background: white;
@include dark.dark-mode {
background: #1a1a1a;
color: white;
}
}javascript
document.documentElement.dataset.theme =
document.documentElement.dataset.theme === 'dark' ? 'light' : 'dark';Container Queries
html
<div class="sh-cq">
<div class="sh-c-col-12 sh-c-col-6-sm sh-c-col-4-md">
Responds to container width, not viewport
</div>
</div>Animations
html
<div class="sh-animate-fade-in">Fades in</div>
<div class="sh-animate-slide-up sh-delay-200">Slides up after 200ms</div>
<button class="sh-transition-colors sh-duration-fast">Smooth color</button>All 12 animation classes respect prefers-reduced-motion.
Tailwind CSS Plugin
javascript
const scssHelper = require('scss-helper/plugin');
module.exports = { plugins: [scssHelper({ injectTokens: true })] };Customization
scss
@use 'scss-helper' with ($prefix: 'my-');
// -> .my-grid, .my-col-6, .my-animate-spin
@use 'scss-helper/src/variables' with (
$primary: #8b5cf6,
$grid-columns: 16,
);
@use 'scss-helper';v5 Migration from v4
| v4 | v5 |
|---|---|
.grid | .sh-grid |
.col-6 | .sh-col-6 |
.text-fluid-lg | .sh-text-fluid-lg |
.animate-spin | .sh-animate-spin |
.transition-colors | .sh-transition-colors |
@import "scss-helper" | @use "scss-helper" |
-large suffix | -lg suffix |