Introduction to Styling in Next.js

Welcome to the exciting world of styling your Next.js applications! In this chapter, we'll explore the various ways you can bring your user interfaces to life, from simple CSS to more advanced styling techniques. Next.js offers a flexible and powerful styling ecosystem that empowers you to build beautiful and performant web applications.

Choosing the right styling approach for your project depends on your team's preferences, the complexity of your UI, and your desired level of maintainability. Next.js supports several popular styling methods out-of-the-box or with minimal configuration.

Here's a quick overview of the styling options we'll cover:

• Global CSS: Applying styles that affect the entire application.
• CSS Modules: Encapsulating styles to prevent conflicts between components.
• Styled-JSX: Inline styling with the power of CSS.
• Tailwind CSS: A utility-first CSS framework for rapid UI development.
• Sass/SCSS: Preprocessor support for more advanced CSS features.

Let's dive into each of these methods to understand how they work within the Next.js framework.

Global CSS is the simplest way to add styles to your Next.js application. You can import a CSS file directly into your pages/_app.js file. This makes the styles available throughout your entire application. For instance, you might use global CSS for resetting default browser styles or for defining global typography and color palettes.

While global CSS is convenient, it can lead to style collisions in larger applications where multiple components might accidentally share the same class names. This is where CSS Modules come into play.