govuk-frontend
Advanced tools
GOV.UK Frontend contains the code you need to start building a user interface for government platforms and services.
The govuk-frontend npm package provides a set of reusable, accessible components and styles for building user interfaces that align with the UK Government Digital Service (GDS) design principles. It is designed to help developers create consistent, user-friendly, and accessible web applications and services.
Typography
GOV.UK Frontend provides a set of typography styles that ensure text is readable and accessible. The 'govuk-body' class is used to style paragraphs according to GDS standards.
<p class="govuk-body">This is a paragraph with GOV.UK Frontend styling.</p>Buttons
GOV.UK Frontend includes styles for buttons that make them visually consistent and accessible. The 'govuk-button' class is used to style buttons.
<button class="govuk-button">Submit</button>Forms
GOV.UK Frontend provides styles and components for creating accessible forms. The 'govuk-form-group', 'govuk-label', and 'govuk-input' classes are used to style form elements.
<form><div class="govuk-form-group"><label class="govuk-label" for="input-id">Label text</label><input class="govuk-input" id="input-id" name="input-name" type="text"></div></form>Navigation
GOV.UK Frontend includes styles for navigation elements to ensure they are accessible and consistent. The 'govuk-nav', 'govuk-nav__list', 'govuk-nav__item', and 'govuk-nav__link' classes are used to style navigation menus.
<nav class="govuk-nav"><ul class="govuk-nav__list"><li class="govuk-nav__item"><a class="govuk-nav__link" href="#">Home</a></li><li class="govuk-nav__item"><a class="govuk-nav__link" href="#">About</a></li></ul></nav>Notifications
GOV.UK Frontend provides components for displaying notifications and alerts. The 'govuk-notification-banner', 'govuk-notification-banner__header', 'govuk-notification-banner__title', and 'govuk-notification-banner__content' classes are used to style notification banners.
<div class="govuk-notification-banner"><div class="govuk-notification-banner__header"><h2 class="govuk-notification-banner__title">Important</h2></div><div class="govuk-notification-banner__content"><p class="govuk-notification-banner__heading">This is a notification message.</p></div></div>Bootstrap is a popular front-end framework for developing responsive and mobile-first websites. It provides a wide range of components and utilities similar to GOV.UK Frontend but is more general-purpose and not specifically tailored to government services.
Foundation is another front-end framework that offers a variety of responsive components and styles. Like Bootstrap, it is a general-purpose framework and does not specifically adhere to government design principles.
The U.S. Web Design System (USWDS) provides a set of design guidelines and components for building accessible and consistent government websites in the United States. It is similar to GOV.UK Frontend but tailored to U.S. government standards.
GOV.UK Frontend contains the code you need to start building a user interface for government platforms and services.
See live examples of GOV.UK Frontend components, and guidance on when to use them in your service, in the GOV.UK Design System.
GOV.UK Frontend is maintained by a team at Government Digital Service. If you want to know more about GOV.UK Frontend, please email the Design System team or get in touch with them on Slack.
There are 2 ways to start using GOV.UK Frontend in your app.
Once installed, you will be able to use the code from the examples in the GOV.UK Design System in your service.
We recommend installing GOV.UK Frontend using node package manager (npm).
You can also download the compiled and minified assets (CSS, JavaScript) from GitHub.
You need to import the GOV.UK Frontend styles into the main Sass file in your project. You should place the below code before your own Sass rules (or Sass imports) if you want to override GOV.UK Frontend with your own styles.
To import add the below to your Sass file:
@import "node_modules/govuk-frontend/govuk/all";
More details on importing styles
Some of the JavaScript included in GOV.UK Frontend improves the usability and accessibility of the components. You should make sure that you are importing and initialising Javascript in your application to ensure that all users can use it successfully.
You can include Javascript for all components either by copying the all.js from node_modules/govuk-frontend/govuk/ into your application or referencing the file directly:
<script src="<path-to-govuk-frontend-all-file>/all.js"></script>
Next you need to initialise the script by adding:
<script>window.GOVUKFrontend.initAll()</script>
More details on importing Javascript and advanced options
In order to import GOV.UK Frontend images and fonts to your project, you should configure your application to reference or copy the relevant GOV.UK Frontend assets.
More details on importing assets
To be notified when there’s a new release, you can either:
Find out how to update with npm.
Unless stated otherwise, the codebase is released under the MIT License. This covers both the codebase and any sample code in the documentation. The documentation is © Crown copyright and available under the terms of the Open Government 3.0 licence.
If you want to help us build GOV.UK Frontend, view our contribution guidelines.
3.8.0 (Feature release)
$govuk-secondary-text-colour and govuk-colour("dark-grey") are now darker so users can more clearly read hint text that uses the colour.
The colour now has a contrast ratio of 7:1 against a white background, and helps hint text meet the WCAG 2.1 (AAA) accessibility standard.
This was added in pull request #1827: Make dark grey darker.
The error styling for the:
This means it’s easier for users to tell the difference between a field with an error and a field that's focused.
When an error message is about several fields, make sure you're clear which field has the error. You must not rely on users being able to tell which field has the error styling.
This was added in pull request #1870: Reduce border width of form inputs in the error state.
You can now turn spellcheck on or off in the input, textarea and character count components using the new spellcheck option instead of the attributes option.
For example:
{{ govukInput({
spellcheck: true
}) }}
This was added in pull requests:
From GOV.UK Frontend v4.0.0, you'll no longer be able to reference the $govuk-border-width-form-element-error Sass setting.
Change any references to $govuk-border-width-form-element-error in your Sass code so they reference $govuk-border-width-form-element instead.
This was changed in pull request #1870: Reduce border width of form inputs in the error state.
We’ve made fixes to GOV.UK Frontend in the following pull requests:
FAQs
GOV.UK Frontend contains the code you need to start building a user interface for government platforms and services.
The npm package govuk-frontend receives a total of 89,153 weekly downloads. As such, govuk-frontend popularity was classified as popular.
We found that govuk-frontend demonstrated a healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released less than a year ago. It has 1 open source maintainer collaborating on the project.
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