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Tutorial

Using Tailwind CSS with HTML Only

· siimplelab
Tailwind CSS with HTML
Photo by Nubelson Fernandes on Unsplash

If you want to use Tailwind CSS in a static website or simple HTML project, the Tailwind CLI is all you need—no complex build tools required.

Project Setup

Create a project folder and initialize it.

mkdir my-project
cd my-project
npm init -y

Install Tailwind CSS.

npm install -D tailwindcss
npx tailwindcss init

Configuration

Specify your HTML file paths in tailwind.config.js.

/** @type {import('tailwindcss').Config} */
module.exports = {
  content: ["./**/*.html"],
  theme: {
    extend: {},
  },
  plugins: [],
}

CSS File

Create src/input.css.

@tailwind base;
@tailwind components;
@tailwind utilities;

HTML

Create index.html.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
  <link href="dist/output.css" rel="stylesheet">
  <title>Tailwind CSS</title>
</head>
<body class="min-h-screen bg-gray-100">
  <main class="max-w-2xl mx-auto p-8">
    <h1 class="text-3xl font-bold text-gray-900">
      Hello, Tailwind!
    </h1>
    <p class="mt-4 text-gray-600">
      Using Tailwind CSS with pure HTML.
    </p>
  </main>
</body>
</html>

Build

Build the CSS.

npx tailwindcss -i ./src/input.css -o ./dist/output.css

During development, add --watch to rebuild on file changes.

npx tailwindcss -i ./src/input.css -o ./dist/output.css --watch

Package Scripts

Add scripts to package.json for convenience.

{
  "scripts": {
    "dev": "tailwindcss -i ./src/input.css -o ./dist/output.css --watch",
    "build": "tailwindcss -i ./src/input.css -o ./dist/output.css --minify"
  }
}

Now use npm run dev for development and npm run build for production CSS.

Final Structure

my-project/
├── dist/
│   └── output.css
├── src/
│   └── input.css
├── index.html
├── package.json
└── tailwind.config.js

All Tailwind features work without any framework.