While it is simple to use the JSS based styling solution provided by Material-UI to style your application, it is possible to use any styling solution you prefer, from plain CSS to any number of CSS-in-JS libraries.
This guide aims to document the most popular alternatives,
but you should find that the principals applied here can be adapted to other libraries.
We have provided examples for the following styling solutions:
- [Raw CSS](#raw-css)
- [Styled Components](#styled-components)
- [Emotion](#emotion)
- [React Emotion](#react-emotion)
- [CSS Modules](#css-modules)
- [Global CSS](#global-css)
- [React JSS](#react-jss)
- [CSS to MUI webpack Loader](#css-to-mui-webpack-loader)
- [Glamor](#glamor)
## Raw CSS
Nothing fancy, just plain old CSS. Why reinvent the wheel when it has been working for decades?
**RawCssButton.css**
```css
.button {
background: linear-gradient(45deg, #fe6b8b 30%, #ff8e53 90%);
border-radius: 3px;
border: 0;
color: white;
height: 48px;
padding: 0 30px;
box-shadow: 0 3px 5px 2px rgba(255, 105, 135, .3);
}
```
**RawCssButton.js**
```jsx
import React from 'react';
import Button from '@material-ui/core/Button';
function RawCssButton() {
return (
);
}
export default RawCssButton;
```
[](https://codesandbox.io/s/vmv2mz9785)
**Note:** JSS injects its styles at the bottom of the ``. If you don't want to mark style attributes with **!important**, you need to change [the CSS injection order](/customization/css-in-js/#css-injection-order), as in the demo.
## Styled Components
The `styled()` method works perfectly on all of our components.
```jsx
import React from 'react';
import styled from 'styled-components';
import Button from '@material-ui/core/Button';
const StyledButton = styled(Button)`
background: linear-gradient(45deg, #fe6b8b 30%, #ff8e53 90%);
border-radius: 3px;
border: 0;
color: white;
height: 48px;
padding: 0 30px;
box-shadow: 0 3px 5px 2px rgba(255, 105, 135, .3);
`;
function StyledComponentsButton() {
return (
Styled Components
);
}
export default StyledComponentsButton;
```
[](https://codesandbox.io/s/mzwqkk1p7j)
### Controlling Priority
Both styled-components and JSS inject their styles at the bottom of the ``.
One approach to ensuring styled-components styles are loaded last is to change [the CSS injection order](/customization/css-in-js/#css-injection-order), as in the demo.
Another approach is to use the `&` character in styled-components to [bump up specificity](https://www.styled-components.com/docs/advanced#issues-with-specificity) by repeating the class name.
Use this to ensure styled-components styles are applied before JSS styles.
An example of this solution:
```jsx
import React from 'react';
import styled from 'styled-components';
import Button from '@material-ui/core/Button';
const StyledButton = styled(Button)`
&& {
background: linear-gradient(45deg, #fe6b8b 30%, #ff8e53 90%);
border-radius: 3px;
border: 0;
color: white;
height: 48px;
padding: 0 30px;
box-shadow: 0 3px 5px 2px rgba(255, 105, 135, .3);
}
`;
function StyledComponentsButton() {
return (
Styled Components
);
}
export default StyledComponentsButton;
```
[](https://codesandbox.io/s/xpp5oj9o0z)
### Deeper elements
In some cases, the approaches above will not work.
For example, if you attempt to style a [Drawer](/demos/drawers/) with variant `permanent`,
you will likely need to affect the Drawer's underlying `paper` style.
However, this is not the root element of `Drawer` and therefore styled-components customization as above will not work.
You can workaround this by using [stable JSS class names](/customization/css-in-js/#global-css), but the most reliable approach is to use the `classes` property to introduce an override style, and then style it with higher specificity via `&`.
The following example overrides the `label` style of `Button` in addition to the custom styles on the button itself. It also works around [this styled-components issue](https://github.com/styled-components/styled-components/issues/439) by "consuming" properties that should not be passed on to the underlying component.
```jsx
import React from 'react';
import styled from 'styled-components';
import Button from '@material-ui/core/Button';
const StyledButton = styled(({ color, ...other }) => (
))`
background: linear-gradient(45deg, #fe6b8b 30%, #ff8e53 90%);
border: 0;
color: white;
height: 48px;
padding: 0 30px;
box-shadow: 0 3px 5px 2px rgba(255, 105, 135, 0.3);
& .label {
color: ${props => props.color};
}
`;
function StyledComponentsButton() {
return (
Styled Components
);
}
export default StyledComponentsButton;
```
[](https://codesandbox.io/s/j4n13yl1r9)
## Emotion
Emotion's **css()** method works seamlessly with Material-UI. The class names returned by **css()** can be directly passed to a component's `className` prop to override the root styles.
```jsx
import React from 'react';
import { css } from 'emotion';
import Button from '@material-ui/core/Button';
const buttonStyles = css`
background: linear-gradient(45deg, #fe6b8b 30%, #ff8e53 90%);
border-radius: 3;
border: 0;
color: white;
height: 48px;
padding: 0 30px;
box-shadow: 0 3px 5px 2px rgba(255, 105, 135, 0.3);
`;
// We just assign them the Button's className attribute
function EmotionButton() {
return (
);
}
export default EmotionButton
```
[](https://codesandbox.io/s/yw93kl7y0j)
### Deeper elements
The styles created with **css()** can also be mapped to class names using the `classes` prop. This is useful when you want to customize the styles of deeper elements within a component.
```jsx
import React from 'react';
import { css } from 'emotion';
import Button from '@material-ui/core/Button';
const styles = {
button: css({
background: 'linear-gradient(45deg, #fe6b8b 30%, #ff8e53 90%)',
borderRadius: 3,
border: 0,
height: 48,
padding: '0 30px',
boxShadow: '0 3px 5px 2px rgba(255, 105, 135, 0.3)',
}),
label: css({
color: 'papayawhip',
}),
};
function EmotionButton() {
return (
);
}
export default EmotionButton
```
[](https://codesandbox.io/s/4q8o1y975w)
**Note:** By default Emotion and JSS both inject their styles at the bottom of the ``. If you don't want to mark style attributes with **!important**, you need to change [the CSS injection order](/customization/css-in-js/#css-injection-order), as in the examples.
## React Emotion
The **styled()** function can be used to customize the root styles of any Material-UI component.
```jsx
import React from 'react';
import styled from 'react-emotion';
import Button from '@material-ui/core/Button';
const StyledButton = styled(Button)`
background: linear-gradient(45deg, #fe6b8b 30%, #ff8e53 90%);
border-radius: 3;
border: 0;
color: white;
height: 48px;
padding: 0 30px;
box-shadow: 0 3px 5px 2px rgba(255, 105, 135, 0.3);
`;
function ReactEmotionButton() {
return (
React Emotion
);
}
export default ReactEmotionButton;
```
[](https://codesandbox.io/s/xj81yqx504)
**Note:** By default Emotion and JSS both inject their styles at the bottom of the ``. If you don't want to mark style attributes with **!important**, you need to change [the CSS injection order](/customization/css-in-js/#css-injection-order), as in the examples.
## CSS Modules
It's hard to know the market share of [this styling solution](https://github.com/css-modules/css-modules) as it's dependent on the
bundling solution people are using.
**CssModulesButton.css**
```css
.button {
background: linear-gradient(45deg, #fe6b8b 30%, #ff8e53 90%);
border-radius: 3px;
border: 0;
color: white;
height: 48px;
padding: 0 30px;
box-shadow: 0 3px 5px 2px rgba(255, 105, 135, .3);
}
```
**CssModulesButton.js**
```jsx
import React from 'react';
// webpack, parcel or else will inject the CSS into the page
import styles from './CssModulesButton.css';
import Button from '@material-ui/core/Button';
function CssModulesButton() {
return (
);
}
export default CssModulesButton;
```
[](https://codesandbox.io/s/m4j01r75wx)
**Note:** JSS injects its styles at the bottom of the ``. If you don't want to mark style attributes with **!important**, you need to change [the CSS injection order](/customization/css-in-js/#css-injection-order), as in the demo.
## Global CSS
Explicitly providing the class names to the component is too much effort?
Rest assured, we provide an option to make the class names **deterministic** for quick
prototyping: [`dangerouslyUseGlobalCSS`](/customization/css-in-js/#global-css).
**GlobalCssButton.css**
```css
.MuiButton-root {
background: linear-gradient(45deg, #fe6b8b 30%, #ff8e53 90%);
border-radius: 3px;
border: 0;
color: white;
height: 48px;
padding: 0 30px;
box-shadow: 0 3px 5px 2px rgba(255, 105, 135, .3);
}
```
**GlobalCssButton.js**
```jsx
import React from 'react';
import Button from '@material-ui/core/Button';
function GlobalCssButton() {
return (
);
}
export default GlobalCssButton;
```
[](https://codesandbox.io/s/2zv5m0j37p)
**Note:** JSS injects its styles at the bottom of the ``. If you don't want to mark style attributes with **!important**, you need to change [the CSS injection order](/customization/css-in-js/#css-injection-order), as in the demo.
## React JSS
Material-UI's styling solution shares many building blocks with [react-jss](https://github.com/cssinjs/react-jss).
We went ahead and forked the project in order to handle our unique needs, but we're working to merge the changes and fixes from Material-UI back to react-jss.
```jsx
import React from 'react';
import PropTypes from 'prop-types';
import injectSheet from 'react-jss/lib/injectSheet';
import Button from '@material-ui/core/Button';
const styles = {
button: {
background: 'linear-gradient(45deg, #FE6B8B 30%, #FF8E53 90%)',
borderRadius: 3,
border: 0,
color: 'white',
height: 48,
padding: '0 30px',
boxShadow: '0 3px 5px 2px rgba(255, 105, 135, .3)',
},
};
function ReactJssButton(props) {
return (
);
}
ReactJssButton.propTypes = {
classes: PropTypes.object.isRequired,
};
export default injectSheet(styles)(ReactJssButton);
```
[](https://codesandbox.io/s/219x6qqx0p)
## CSS to MUI webpack Loader
The [css-to-mui-loader](https://www.npmjs.com/package/css-to-mui-loader) for webpack allows you to write CSS that gets transpiled into JS for use with the [`withStyles()`](/customization/css-in-js/#withstyles-styles-options-higher-order-component) higher-order component. It provides a few hooks for accessing the theme from within the CSS.
**webpack.config.js**
```js
module.exports = {
module: {
rules: [
{
test: /\.css$/,
use: [ 'babel-loader', 'css-to-mui-loader' ]
}
]
}
}
```
**CssToMuiButton.css**
```css
.button {
background: $(theme.palette.primary.main);
padding: 2su; /* Material-UI spacing units */
}
.button:hover {
background: $(theme.palette.primary.light);
}
@media $(theme.breakpoints.down('sm')) {
.button {
font-size: $(theme.typography.caption.fontSize);
}
}
```
**CssToMuiButton.js**
```js
import Button from '@material-ui/core/Button';
import { withStyles } from '@material-ui/core/styles';
import styles from './CssToMuiButton.css';
const CssToMuiButton = withStyles(styles)(({ classes }) => (
));
```
## Glamor
A good way to apply styles with Glamor is using the **css()** function and then **classnames** to get them as strings:
```jsx
import React from 'react';
import glamorous from 'glamorous';
import { css } from 'glamor';
import classnames from 'classnames';
import Button from '@material-ui/core/Button';
const buttonStyles = {
background: 'linear-gradient(45deg, #FE6B8B 30%, #FF8E53 90%)',
borderRadius: 3,
border: 0,
color: 'white',
height: 48,
padding: '0 30px',
boxShadow: '0 3px 5px 2px rgba(255, 105, 135, .3)',
};
// First we get the classNames with Glamor css function
const buttonClasses = css(buttonStyles);
// We need the class names to be strings
const className = buttonClasses.toString();
// Then we just assign them the Button's className attribute
function GlamorButton() {
return (
);
}
export default GlamorButton;
```
[](https://codesandbox.io/s/ov5l1j2j8z)
**Note:** Both Glamor and JSS inject their styles at the bottom of the ``. If you don't want to mark style attributes with **!important**, you need to change [the CSS injection order](/customization/css-in-js/#css-injection-order), as in the demo.