Optimizing Tailwind CSS with PurgeCSS

1. Introduction

In this tutorial, we aim to optimize your Tailwind CSS with PurgeCSS. PurgeCSS is a tool used to remove unused CSS, which can greatly reduce file size and therefore increase loading speed, especially important on mobile devices.

By the end of this tutorial, you will know how to integrate PurgeCSS with your Tailwind CSS projects to remove unwanted CSS classes, thereby optimizing your project's performance.

Prerequisites:
- A basic understanding of CSS and JavaScript
- Node.js and npm installed on your machine
- Familiarity with Tailwind CSS is beneficial

2. Step-by-Step Guide

Installing the Required Packages

Start by installing Tailwind CSS and PurgeCSS:

npm install tailwindcss @fullhuman/postcss-purgecss

Setting up postcss.config.js

Create a postcss.config.js file in your project root and configure it as follows:

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    require('tailwindcss'),
    require('autoprefixer'),
    process.env.NODE_ENV === 'production'
      ? require('@fullhuman/postcss-purgecss')({
          content: ['./src/**/*.html', './src/**/*.vue', './src/**/*.jsx'],
          defaultExtractor: (content) => content.match(/[A-Za-z0-9-_:/]+/g) || [],
        })
      : '',
  ],
};

In the above configuration, PurgeCSS is only used in the production environment. The content option is used to specify the files to scan for class names.

Building for Production

When you build for production, make sure to set the NODE_ENV to production:

NODE_ENV=production npm run build

This will initiate PurgeCSS and it will remove unused CSS from your final bundle.

3. Code Examples

Example 1

Here's an example of a postcss.config.js file for a project that uses Tailwind CSS and Vue.js:

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    require('tailwindcss'),
    require('autoprefixer'),
    process.env.NODE_ENV === 'production'
      ? require('@fullhuman/postcss-purgecss')({
          content: ['./src/**/*.html', './src/**/*.vue'],
          defaultExtractor: (content) => content.match(/[A-Za-z0-9-_:/]+/g) || [],
        })
      : '',
  ],
};

In this configuration, PurgeCSS will scan all .html and .vue files in the src directory.

Example 2

Here's an example of how to build for production using npm scripts in package.json:

{
  "scripts": {
    "build": "NODE_ENV=production webpack"
  }
}

In this configuration, the NODE_ENV variable is set to production when npm run build is executed.

4. Summary

In this tutorial, we've covered how to optimize Tailwind CSS with PurgeCSS. We've learned how to install the necessary packages, configure postcss.config.js, and build for production.

For further learning, consider exploring more about PostCSS and other optimization techniques.

5. Practice Exercises

Exercise 1: Setup a simple project that uses Tailwind CSS and PurgeCSS.

Solution: You should follow the steps detailed earlier in this tutorial. Make sure to create a few .html or .vue files with different Tailwind CSS classes, then build for production and check the output CSS file.

Exercise 2: Add more file types to the PurgeCSS content option.

Solution: Modify the postcss.config.js file and add more file types such as .jsx or .ts files. For example:

content: ['./src/**/*.html', './src/**/*.vue', './src/**/*.jsx', './src/**/*.ts'],

Exercise 3: Create a project that uses Tailwind CSS, Vue.js, and PurgeCSS.

Solution: Follow the steps in this tutorial but use Vue.js to create your components. Remember to add .vue files to the content option in postcss.config.js.