🔧 Getting Started: Setup Tailwind CSS 4.1 Without a Build Tool
To keep things simple, we’ll use Tailwind via the CDN—no frameworks, no build tools.
<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <meta charset="UTF-8" /> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" /> <title>Tailwind 4.1 Demo</title> <script src="https://cdn.tailwindcss.com/4.1.0"></script> </head> <body class="dark:bg-gray-900 dark:text-white"> <!-- Your content will go here --> </body> </html>You can now use all of Tailwind’s new features right in your HTML.
🎨 1. Drop Shadow with Color
Standard shadows often fall flat, especially in dark mode. Tailwind 4.1 adds color drop shadows to give your elements more punch.
💡 Example:
<div class="p-6 rounded-lg drop-shadow-xl drop-shadow-red-500"> <h2 class="text-xl font-bold">Colorful Drop Shadow</h2> </div>To control intensity, use shade values like drop-shadow-red-500, drop-shadow-blue-300, etc.
✨ 2. Text Shadows (with Color!)
Text shadows bring another layer of depth, especially on headings and banners.
💡 Example:
<h2 class="text-4xl font-bold text-shadow text-shadow-red-200"> Spooky Red Glow </h2>You can go from text-shadow-2xs to text-shadow-lg, and add color variants like text-shadow-blue-400.
🖼️ 3. Mask Utilities for Images
You can now mask images or elements using directional gradients.
💡 Example:
<img src="your-image.jpg" class="mask mask-bottom from-20% mask-gradient from-50% to-90%" alt="Masked Image" />This creates a soft fade from bottom to top or vice versa. You can tweak directions with classes like mask-top, mask-left, mask-right.
⚠️ Mask gradients might look different in dark mode.
⚙️ 4. Seamless Dark Mode
Tailwind 4.1 improves dark mode handling—just use the dark: prefix, no extra configuration needed.
💡 Example:
<div class="bg-white dark:bg-gray-800 text-black dark:text-white p-4 rounded"> Dark Mode Ready </div>✅ Other Notable Improvements
Text wrapping control via
overflow-wrapImproved browser compatibility
Less need for configuration files
CSS
@importnow works for simpler integrations
📹 Video Description (for YouTube)
Tailwind CSS 4.1 is packed with awesome new features—from colored drop shadows and text shadows to masking utilities and dark mode improvements.
In this video, we:
✅ Set up Tailwind 4.1 without build tools
✅ Explore drop shadows with color
✅ Try out text shadows (yes, with color!)
✅ Add image masks using mask-gradient
✅ Tweak dark mode designs easily
🙌 Conclusion
Tailwind CSS 4.1 brings subtle but powerful tools to elevate your designs. Whether you're building a dark mode dashboard or fine-tuning text styling, there's a feature here for you.
👉 Which feature are you most excited about? Let me know in the comments or over on YouTube!
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