Inline code

Overview

link

Web

tanrei-code

schedule

SwiftUI

TanreiInlineCode

radio_button_unchecked

Jetpack Compose

TanreiInlineCode

radio_button_unchecked

Flutter

TanreiInlineCode

radio_button_unchecked

React Native

InlineCode

radio_button_unchecked

Generated from docs/status/status.json, specs/inline-code.spec.json

In a sentence, in a heading, and plain

Run npm install in the folder that holds package.json, then start the server with npm run dev -- --port 4000.

Setting size on a group

Plain: comp.button.container.shape

Inline code names a thing from code inside a sentence: a command, a prop, a file, a value. Lines of code to read and copy are a Code block. Keys to press are a Keyboard shortcut, which reads the modifier names aloud.

Usage

link

On the web, inline code is a class on your own code element, not an element. The text is in the document, so search, find-in-page and copy work before any script runs. Every code inside .tanrei-prose that is not in a pre is drawn the same way without the class, so rendered Markdown needs nothing.

SwiftUI, Compose, Flutter and React Native are planned: the names beside each platform at the top of this page are the ones the spec gives them, and nothing ships there yet.

<link rel="stylesheet" href="@tanrei/web/tokens.css" />
<link rel="stylesheet" href="@tanrei/web/code.css" />

<!-- Tonal: the default. -->
<p>Run <code class="tanrei-code" translate="no" spellcheck="false">npm install</code> first.</p>

<!-- Plain: the face alone, in the color of the text around it. -->
<code class="tanrei-code" data-variant="plain">comp.button.container.shape</code>

<!-- An ancestor chooses for every run inside it. -->
<table data-tanrei-code="plain">
  <tr><td><code class="tanrei-code">variant</code></td><td><code class="tanrei-code">filled</code></td></tr>
</table>

import '@tanrei/web/code.css';

<p>Run <code className="tanrei-code" translate="no" spellCheck={false}>npm install</code> first.</p>

Prop	On the web
text	The element’s own content
variant: tonal	data-variant="tonal"
variant: plain	data-variant="plain"
variant: auto (the default)	No attribute. The nearest ancestor with data-tanrei-code="plain" or "tonal" chooses, and tonal where none does

Specs

link

It wraps, and every piece keeps its fill

The token tanrei.comp.navigation-drawer.item.selected.hovered.state-layer.color is longer than this line. It breaks where the line ends and is never cut.

In a link, in strong text, and a column of code

See the Button reference. Never set disabled on the only way out.

PropDefaultvariantfilledsizemedium

Inline code has no size of its own. Its font size is the size of the text it sits in, multiplied by one ratio (comp.inline-code.label.scale), which evens out the code face and the text face. In body text that is 13 beside 14. In a heading it is the heading’s own size.

It never makes its line taller. The fill is as tall as the code face’s own text box and has no padding above or below.

A run wraps with its line. It breaks at its spaces first. A part with no space that is longer than the line breaks between characters, and no hyphen is added, because a hyphen would change the code. It is never cut and never scrolls.

Inside a link it takes the link’s color and the link’s underline runs under it. Inside strong text it is one weight step heavier. It is never slanted.

It is always laid out left to right, as a run of its own, in a right-to-left sentence too.

Anatomy

Part	Description
1 container · optional	The fill behind the text in the tonal form: as tall as the code face's own text box, with small corners and a little room at each end of every piece of the run. Decorative; the plain form has none.
2 label	The code: its characters exactly as given, in the code face.
3 outline · optional	An edge around the fill, where a design system gives it a width. The default system draws none.

Properties

Property	Type	Default	Description
text	string	""	The code: the characters exactly as they are to be read and copied ("npm install", "comp.button.container.shape"). Spaces inside it are kept.
variant	auto | tonal | plain	"auto"	How the run is set apart. tonal: the code face on a faint fill. plain: the code face alone, in the color of the text around it, for a column or a list whose every entry is code and for text on a colored container. auto, the default, takes what the nearest ancestor chooses for the inline code inside it, and tonal where none does.

States

Behavior

Requirements in EARS form. Every platform implementation is tested against these ids.

ID	Requirement
ICD-1	THE inline code SHALL set its text in the family, the weight and the letter spacing of comp.inline-code.label.typescale, at the font size of the text it sits in multiplied by comp.inline-code.label.scale — whatever that text is: a paragraph, a heading of any level, a lead paragraph, a caption, a label, a table cell — and SHALL NOT take the font size or the line height of the code role itself.
ICD-2	THE inline code SHALL sit on the baseline of the text it is part of, as a part of that text's line, and SHALL NOT make that line taller or change the distance between lines (PRS-17); its fill, where it has one, SHALL be as tall as the code face's own text box (from its ascent to its descent at the drawn size) and SHALL NOT be padded above or below.
ICD-3	WHILE the inline code is drawn tonal (ICD-5) THE inline code SHALL draw behind its text a fill of comp.inline-code.container.color with corners comp.inline-code.container.shape eased by sys.shape.corner-smoothing, extend that fill by comp.inline-code.container.padding-inline before the first and after the last character, draw its text in comp.inline-code.label.color, and, where comp.inline-code.outline.width is above 0, draw an edge of that width in comp.inline-code.outline.color inside the fill; it SHALL draw no elevation.
ICD-4	WHILE the inline code is drawn plain (ICD-5) THE inline code SHALL draw no fill, no edge and no padding, and SHALL draw its text in the color of the text it sits in, so that it reads on any container that text reads on.
ICD-5	WHILE variant is tonal or plain THE inline code SHALL be drawn in that form; WHILE variant is auto THE inline code SHALL be drawn in the form the nearest ancestor chooses for the inline code inside it (a table whose column is code, a callout, a list of names), and tonal where no ancestor chooses one; WHEN that choice changes while the inline code is shown THE inline code SHALL follow it at once.
ICD-6	THE inline code SHALL wrap with the line it sits in: it breaks first at the spaces inside it; a part with no space that is longer than the line SHALL break between any two characters rather than run past the edge of its container; and no hyphen or any other character SHALL be drawn at a break. Each piece of a run that breaks SHALL keep the fill, the corners and both paddings of ICD-3. THE inline code SHALL NOT cut its text and SHALL NOT scroll.
ICD-7	THE inline code SHALL draw the characters of text as given: every space is kept, a run of spaces is not collapsed, a line break in text is drawn as one space, and the text is not hyphenated, not capitalised or otherwise transformed, not translated by the platform's translation, not spell-checked and not turned into a link by itself.
ICD-8	THE inline code SHALL lay out its text as a left-to-right run of its own, isolated from the text around it, in every layout direction (PRS-26): a path, a call and an operator keep their order inside a right-to-left sentence and reorder nothing beside them; the run takes its place in the sentence by the sentence's own direction.
ICD-9	THE inline code SHALL take its layout direction from where it is used — the direction of the nearest ancestor that sets one, and the platform's own where none does — and SHALL have no direction setting of its own; WHEN that direction changes while the inline code is shown THE inline code SHALL draw itself for the new direction at once, without a motion of its own, keeping what it shows.
ICD-10	WHERE the inline code sits inside a link THE inline code SHALL draw its text in the link's color in place of comp.inline-code.label.color and the link's underline SHALL run under it; WHERE it sits inside strong text it SHALL gain sys.typescale.emphasis.body of weight over the weight of comp.inline-code.label.typescale, as strong text does (PRS-2); WHERE it sits inside emphasised text it SHALL NOT be slanted.
ICD-11	THE inline code SHALL NOT take pointer, touch or keyboard input of its own, SHALL NOT take focus or be a stop in the focus order, and SHALL NOT change anything it draws under a pointer, a press or focus: it has no hovered, focused, pressed, selected or disabled state, draws no state layer and no focus indicator, and emits no event. WHERE it is placed inside an element that takes input (a link, a button, a list item) input over it SHALL reach that element, which draws its own states.
ICD-12	THE inline code SHALL expose its text as text, read where it sits in the sentence, with the role of code where the platform has one and no name of its own; it SHALL NOT be announced as anything else and SHALL NOT expose its form. Selecting it SHALL select its characters with the text around it, and copying that selection SHALL yield exactly text: no character stands for the padding of ICD-3.
ICD-13	THE inline code SHALL draw all of its text in one color: it takes no syntax roles and SHALL NOT highlight, parse or otherwise interpret what it holds.
ICD-14	WHERE the platform draws with a person's own forced colors THE inline code SHALL draw its text in the platform's text color (the link color inside a link) and no fill, and an edge only where comp.inline-code.outline.width is above 0, in that text color: the face tells code from words, so nothing rests on the fill.
ICD-15	WHILE the text size is enlarged THE inline code SHALL grow with the text it sits in, keeping the proportion of ICD-1, its padding and its corners; at twice the text size in a container 320 wide it SHALL wrap as ICD-6 says and SHALL NOT cause horizontal scrolling.
ICD-16	IF text is empty THE inline code SHALL draw nothing, take no space and expose nothing. WHEN variant names a value this spec does not have THE inline code SHALL be drawn as variant auto, and in debug builds report the unknown value.

Platform name mapping

Parity does not mean identical APIs. Each platform uses its own idiom for the same contract.

Spec	Web	SwiftUI	Jetpack Compose	Flutter	React Native
Component	tanrei-code	TanreiInlineCode	TanreiInlineCode	TanreiInlineCode	InlineCode
text · Property	textContent	text	text	text	children
variant · Property	data-variant	variant	variant	variant	variant
Notes	A class, not an element, as prose is: <code class="tanrei-code">npm install</code> from the optional stylesheet @tanrei/web/code.css, and every code that is prose's own and not inside a pre when prose.css is loaded (the code rules of prose.css move here; PRS-16's islands apply). The text is the element's own content, so it is in the document for search engines, find-in-page and copy without script. variant is data-variant="tonal | plain" on the code; an ancestor chooses with data-tanrei-code="plain" (ICD-5), which rendered Markdown cannot set per run and a table or a callout can set once. ICD-1: font-family, font-weight and letter-spacing from the code role and font-size: calc(1em * var(--tanrei-comp-inline-code-label-scale)), so a heading's size is followed without a rule per level. ICD-2: line-height: 0 on the run, as today, and no block padding. ICD-6: overflow-wrap: anywhere, white-space: pre-wrap, hyphens: none, box-decoration-break: clone. ICD-7: translate="no" and spellcheck="false" are the author's or the renderer's attributes; the README says so. ICD-8: direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: isolate. ICD-14: forced-color-adjust is left alone; the fill is a background, which the mode removes.	TanreiInlineCode(_ text: String, variant:) is a Text that concatenates with the Text around it (Text("Run ") + TanreiInlineCode("npm install")), and AttributedString.tanreiInlineCode(variant:) styles a run of a renderer's attributed string. The ancestor's choice is an environment value. A Text run can carry a background color but neither corners nor padding: inside a sentence the tonal form is a square fill without ICD-3's padding, and the README says so; a run that stands alone is drawn whole.	AnnotatedString.Builder.tanreiInlineCode(text, variant) adds the run with its span style and an annotation, and Modifier.tanreiInlineCode() on the Text that holds it draws the fills behind the annotated ranges from the text layout (one rounded rectangle per line piece). TanreiInlineCode(text, variant) is a composable for a run that stands alone. The ancestor's choice is a composition local.	TanreiInlineCode.span(text, variant:) returns an InlineSpan for Text.rich; the fill is painted behind the run's boxes by TanreiInlineCodeText, which wraps the rich text. TanreiInlineCode(text) is a widget for a run that stands alone. The ancestor's choice is an inherited widget.	<InlineCode>npm install</InlineCode> nested in a <Text>. A nested Text takes a background color but, on iOS, neither corners nor padding: the tonal form inside a sentence is a square fill there, stated in the README. The ancestor's choice is a context. Follows the app's direction where an ancestor's is not known.

Tokens

Token	Aliases	Resolved (light)
--tanrei-comp-inline-code-container-color	sys.color.surface-container-highest	#eeeeee
--tanrei-comp-inline-code-container-padding-inline	sys.space.space50	4px
--tanrei-comp-inline-code-container-shape	sys.shape.corner.extra-small	3px
--tanrei-comp-inline-code-label-color	sys.color.on-surface	#1b1b1b
--tanrei-comp-inline-code-label-scale	—	0.9286
--tanrei-comp-inline-code-outline-color	sys.color.outline-variant	#000000 · 8%
--tanrei-comp-inline-code-outline-width	sys.space.space0	0px
--tanrei-comp-inline-code-label-typescale	sys.typescale.code	400 13px/1.5385

Fixtures

Canonical renderings. Every platform snapshots each fixture under the same id so the results can be compared.

tonal

text: npm install

plain

text: npm install variant: plain

spaces

text: git commit -m "fix: a typo"

long

text: tanrei.comp.navigation-drawer.item.selec…

rtl

text: src/app/main.ts direction: rtl

in-paragraph

{}

in-heading

{}

in-large-text

{}

in-link-and-strong

{}

wrapping

{}

plain-in-table

variant: plain

japanese

{}

in-rtl-paragraph

direction: rtl

Generated from specs/inline-code.spec.json, tokens/comp/inline-code.tokens.json, design/tokens/

What the web draws differently

link

• translate="no" and spellcheck="false" are your attributes, or your Markdown renderer’s. A stylesheet cannot set them.
• A hyphen in the code is a place where a line may end, before the run is broken between characters.
• WebKit draws the fill and the corners of every piece of a run that wraps, and not the room at each end: the pieces after the first begin at the fill’s edge.
• A line break inside the run is drawn as one space only in browsers that support white-space-collapse: preserve-spaces. Write a run on one line.
• An unknown data-variant is drawn as auto, and nothing is reported in debug builds.

Guidelines

link

Tonal or plain

link

Variant	Draws	Use it when
Tonal	The code face on a faint fill	A name in running text
Plain	The code face alone, in the color of the text around it	A column or a list whose every entry is code, and text on a colored container

Do

link

• Write the sentence so that it reads when the code is spoken as words. Screen readers do not announce the code role by default.
• Use plain on a colored container such as a status container or an inverse surface. The tonal fill is a surface role and is paired with surfaces only.
• Set the form once on the ancestor (data-tanrei-code="plain") for a table or a list of names.

Don’t

link

• Don’t use inline code for emphasis. It says “this is code”.
• Don’t put keys to press in inline code. Use a Keyboard shortcut.
• Don’t put more than a line in it. Use a Code block.

Accessibility

link

Role

code

Labeling

Inline code has no name of its own: it is text, read in its sentence. Its role is code where the platform has one (the web's code element); elsewhere it is plain text. Nothing announces its form.

Minimum target

The hit area meets the minimum target size even when the visual size is smaller. minimum 32px · pointer 44px · spacing 8px · touch 48px

Keyboard

Keys	Action

Notes

• Not interactive: inline code takes no input and no focus (ICD-11), so there is no target to size; minimumTarget holds trivially. Inside a link it is part of that link's text and target.
• Told from the words around it by its face, not by color (WCAG 1.4.1): the fill is decorative, and the plain form and forced colors (ICD-14) draw none.
• Contrast in the default system: the tonal form's text is on-surface on surface-container-highest, and a link's color on that fill is held at the same ratio — both by the token invariants that hold text roles at 4.5:1 on every surface (7:1 in the high-contrast schemes). The plain form has the contrast of the text it sits in.
• The tonal form's fill is a surface role, so it is correct on a surface. On a colored container (a callout, an inverse tooltip, a filled button) the text color of ICD-3 is not paired with that container's content color: use plain there. A component that hosts text on such a container chooses plain for the inline code inside it (ICD-5).
• Screen readers do not announce the code role by default, so a sentence must make sense when the code is read as words. Symbols are read as the person's settings say; write a name out in the sentence where its spelling matters.
• It reflows (WCAG 1.4.10): a long name breaks rather than scroll the page (ICD-6, ICD-15). No hyphen is added, because a hyphen would change the code.
• Keys to press are a keyboard shortcut, which reads modifier names aloud; inline code would read the characters.

Generated from specs/inline-code.spec.json, tokens/sys/measure.tokens.json

What the component handles

link

• It is the code element, so it has the code role, and its text is read where it sits in the sentence.
• It is told from the words around it by its face, not by color. In forced colors the fill goes and nothing is lost.
• It takes no focus and no input. Inside a link or a button, a press over it reaches that element.
• A long name breaks instead of scrolling the page, at any text size.
• Selecting and copying a sentence copies the code’s characters exactly.

What you need to do

link

• Write a name out in the sentence where its spelling matters, because symbols are read as the person’s settings say.
• Mark the run translate="no" so that a browser’s translation leaves it alone.