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Dark mode

Learn about the different methods for applying dark mode to a Joy UI app.

Set as default

To set dark mode as the default for your app, add defaultMode: 'dark' to your <CssVarsProvider> wrapper component:

Dark mode
Default

For server-side applications, check out the framework setup in the section below and provide the same value to the getInitColorSchemeScript function:

getInitColorSchemeScript({ defaultMode: 'dark' });

Matching device's preference

Use defaultMode: 'system' to set your app's default mode to match the user's chosen preference on their device.

import { CssVarsProvider } from '@mui/joy/styles';

<CssVarsProvider defaultMode="system">...</CssVarsProvider>;

For server-side applications, check out the framework setup in the section below and provide the same value to the getInitColorSchemeScript function:

getInitColorSchemeScript({ defaultMode: 'system' });

Identify the system mode

Use the useColorScheme React hook to check if the user's preference is in light or dark mode:

import { useColorScheme } from '@mui/joy/styles';

function SomeComponent() {
  const { mode, systemMode } = useColorScheme();
  console.log(mode); // "system"
  console.log(systemMode); // "light" | "dark" based on the user's preference.
}
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Creating a mode-toggle component

You can create a toggle component to give users the option to select between modes.

In the example below, we're using a Button component that calls setMode from the useColorSchemes() hook to handle the mode toggling.

import { useColorScheme } from '@mui/joy/styles';
import Button from '@mui/joy/Button';

function ModeToggle() {
  const { mode, setMode } = useColorScheme();
  return (
    <Button
      variant="outlined"
      color="neutral"
      onClick={() => setMode(mode === 'dark' ? 'light' : 'dark')}
    >
      {mode === 'dark' ? 'Turn light' : 'Turn dark'}
    </Button>
  );
}

Server-side rendering notes

Avoid hydration mismatch

Make sure to render the UI when the page is mounted on the client.

This is because the mode will only be available to the client-side (it is undefined on the server). If you try to render your UI based on the server, before mounting on the client, you'll see a hydration mismatch error.

 function ModeToggle() {
   const { mode, setMode } = useColorScheme();
   const [mounted, setMounted] = React.useState(false);

+  React.useEffect(() => {
+    setMounted(true);
+  }, []);
+
+  if (!mounted) {
+    // to avoid layout shift, render a placeholder button
+    return <Button variant="outlined" color="neutral" sx={{ width: 120 }} />;
+  }

   return (
     <Button
       variant="outlined"
       color="neutral"
       onClick={() => setMode(mode === 'dark' ? 'light' : 'dark')}
     >
       {mode === 'dark' ? 'Turn light' : 'Turn dark'}
     </Button>
   );
 };

Avoiding screen flickering

To prevent the UI from flickering, apply getInitColorSchemeScript() before the main application script－it varies across frameworks:

Next.js

To use the Joy UI API with a Next.js project, add the following code to the custom pages/_document.js file:

import Document, { Html, Head, Main, NextScript } from 'next/document';
import { getInitColorSchemeScript } from '@mui/joy/styles';

export default class MyDocument extends Document {
  render() {
    return (
      <Html>
        <Head>...</Head>
        <body>
          {getInitColorSchemeScript()}
          <Main />
          <NextScript />
        </body>
      </Html>
    );
  }
}

Gatsby

To use the Joy UI API with a Gatsby project, add the following code to the custom gatsby-ssr.js file:

import * as React from 'react';
import { getInitColorSchemeScript } from '@mui/joy/styles';

export function onRenderBody({ setPreBodyComponents }) {
  setPreBodyComponents([getInitColorSchemeScript()]);
}