Lip Gloss v2 Styling Patterns

Import: charm.land/lipgloss/v2

Creating Styles

Styles are value types (assignment copies). Copy() is deprecated.

style := lipgloss.NewStyle().
    Bold(true).
    Foreground(lipgloss.Color("#FAFAFA")).
    Background(lipgloss.Color("#7D56F4")).
    Padding(1, 2).
    Width(40)

output := style.Render("Hello")

Every setter returns a new Style. Chain freely.

Colors (v2 Change)

Colors must use lipgloss.Color() — bare strings no longer work:

lipgloss.Color("#FF00FF")     // hex -> TrueColor
lipgloss.Color("205")         // ANSI 256
lipgloss.Color("1")           // ANSI 16
lipgloss.NoColor{}            // transparent

Named constants: lipgloss.Red, lipgloss.Green, lipgloss.BrightCyan, etc.

Dark/Light Background (v2 Change)

AdaptiveColor is removed. Use LightDark:

hasDark := lipgloss.HasDarkBackground(os.Stdin, os.Stdout)
lightDark := lipgloss.LightDark(hasDark)
fg := lightDark(lipgloss.Color("#333"), lipgloss.Color("#ccc"))

In BubbleTea: handle tea.BackgroundColorMsg on startup for detection.

Printing (v2 Change — Critical)

v2 does NOT auto-downsample colors. Outside BubbleTea, use lipgloss print functions:

lipgloss.Println(style.Render("text"))   // auto-downsamples
lipgloss.Printf("Status: %s\n", styled)
lipgloss.Sprint(styled)                   // returns downsampled string

Inside BubbleTea, rendering handles downsampling automatically.

Layout

// Side by side
lipgloss.JoinHorizontal(lipgloss.Top, left, right)
lipgloss.JoinHorizontal(lipgloss.Center, col1, col2, col3)

// Stacked
lipgloss.JoinVertical(lipgloss.Left, header, body, footer)
lipgloss.JoinVertical(lipgloss.Center, title, content)

// Place in a box
lipgloss.Place(80, 24, lipgloss.Center, lipgloss.Center, content)
lipgloss.PlaceHorizontal(80, lipgloss.Right, text)
lipgloss.PlaceVertical(24, lipgloss.Bottom, text)

Position values: lipgloss.Top, lipgloss.Bottom, lipgloss.Left, lipgloss.Right, lipgloss.Center.

Borders

style := lipgloss.NewStyle().
    Border(lipgloss.RoundedBorder()).
    BorderForeground(lipgloss.Color("#874BFD")).
    Padding(1, 2)

Built-in borders: NormalBorder(), RoundedBorder(), ThickBorder(), DoubleBorder(), BlockBorder(), HiddenBorder(), ASCIIBorder().

Per-side control:

.BorderTop(true).BorderBottom(true).BorderLeft(false).BorderRight(false)
.BorderTopForeground(lipgloss.Color("#F00"))

Dimensions

.Width(40)        // min width (pads with spaces)
.Height(10)       // min height (pads with newlines)
.MaxWidth(80)     // truncates/wraps
.MaxHeight(20)    // truncates

Padding and Margin (CSS-like)

.Padding(1)          // all sides
.Padding(1, 2)       // top/bottom, left/right
.Padding(1, 2, 3, 4) // top, right, bottom, left (clockwise)
.PaddingLeft(4)       // individual side

.Margin(1, 2)
.MarginBackground(lipgloss.Color("#333"))

Frame Size Helpers

hFrame := style.GetHorizontalFrameSize()  // border + padding + margin
vFrame := style.GetVerticalFrameSize()

// Responsive content width:
contentWidth := windowWidth - hFrame

Text Measurement

w := lipgloss.Width(rendered)     // ANSI-aware cell width
h := lipgloss.Height(rendered)
w, h := lipgloss.Size(rendered)

New v2 Features

Hyperlinks:

.Hyperlink("https://example.com")

Underline styles:

.UnderlineStyle(lipgloss.UnderlineCurly)
.UnderlineColor(lipgloss.Color("#FF0000"))

Color manipulation:

lipgloss.Darken(c, 0.2)
lipgloss.Lighten(c, 0.3)
lipgloss.Complementary(c)

Gradients:

lipgloss.Blend1D(steps, color1, color2, color3)

Style ranges:

lipgloss.StyleRanges(text,
    lipgloss.NewRange(0, 5, boldStyle),
    lipgloss.NewRange(6, 11, dimStyle),
)

Table, List, Tree

import "charm.land/lipgloss/v2/table"
import "charm.land/lipgloss/v2/list"
import "charm.land/lipgloss/v2/tree"

Table:

t := table.New().
    Headers("Name", "Status").
    Row("prod-01", "running").
    Row("prod-02", "stopped").
    Border(lipgloss.RoundedBorder()).
    Width(60).
    StyleFunc(func(row, col int) lipgloss.Style {
        if row == table.HeaderRow {
            return lipgloss.NewStyle().Bold(true)
        }
        return lipgloss.NewStyle()
    })
fmt.Println(t.Render())

List:

l := list.New("Item 1", "Item 2", "Item 3").
    Enumerator(list.Bullet)

Tree:

t := tree.Root("Root").
    Child("Foo", tree.Root("Bar").Child("Baz"))

Style Organization Pattern

Keep styles in a dedicated file (e.g., styles.go):

package tui

var (
    titleStyle = lipgloss.NewStyle().
        Bold(true).
        Foreground(lipgloss.Color("#FAFAFA")).
        MarginBottom(1)

    errorStyle = lipgloss.NewStyle().
        Foreground(lipgloss.Color("#FF0000"))

    subtleStyle = lipgloss.NewStyle().
        Foreground(lipgloss.Color("#666666"))
)

Do NOT scatter style definitions across View functions. Centralize them for consistency.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Do NOT use bare color strings — lipgloss.Color("#fff") not "#fff"
• Do NOT use fmt.Println with styled output outside BubbleTea — use lipgloss.Println
• Do NOT use style.Copy() — just assign: newStyle := style.Bold(true)
• Do NOT use AdaptiveColor — it's removed in v2, use LightDark
• Do NOT hardcode widths — use WindowSizeMsg and compute responsive sizes