NodlumeStripes & rulings · Lines
Pinstripe CSS texture
Pinstripe is a vertical one-pixel rule every six pixels: hairlines so close they read as a fabric rather than as lines, the suiting pattern the name comes from. It is a texture of formality and finance, and it works because it is directional — the eye reads vertical lines as height, which makes a surface feel taller and more composed.
It suits a sidebar, a footer, a pricing card, or any surface that should feel considered without being decorated. Keep the alpha low — five percent is plenty at this pitch — and never widen the stripe; at two pixels it stops being a pinstripe and becomes a barcode. It works in both modes because it mixes from the foreground.
Under text
Reading-size copy on the texture, so the alpha is judged by legibility rather than by taste.
A card on top
Separated without a second border.
Recipe
- Kind
- Lines
- Ink
- theme foreground at 5%
- Pitch
- 6px
- Line
- 1px
- Angle
- 90°
- Ink color
- color-mix(in oklab, var(--foreground) 5%, transparent)
CSS
.pinstripe {
background-image: repeating-linear-gradient(90deg, color-mix(in oklab, var(--foreground) 5%, transparent) 0 1px, transparent 1px 6px);
}Tailwind
bg-[image:repeating-linear-gradient(90deg,_color-mix(in_oklab,_var(--foreground)_5%,_transparent)_0_1px,_transparent_1px_6px)]
Token
--texture-pinstripe: repeating-linear-gradient(90deg, color-mix(in oklab, var(--foreground) 5%, transparent) 0 1px, transparent 1px 6px);
Pinstripe, answered
- How is the pinstripe texture made in CSS?
- Pinstripe is one repeating linear gradient, where the first stop is the band and the period is the pitch. Its ink is the theme's foreground color mixed to 5% with color-mix, so the same declaration re-tints itself when the theme switches between light and dark mode. The full declaration is repeating-linear-gradient(90deg, color-mix(in oklab, var(--foreground) 5%, transparent) 0 1px, transparent 1px 6px) — copy the CSS rule, the Tailwind classes or the custom property above, or open it in the playground to change the pitch, the ink or the alpha.
- How do I use the pinstripe texture in Tailwind CSS?
- Copy the Tailwind tab: it is one or two arbitrary-value classes, bg-[image:…] for the gradient and bg-[size:…] for the pitch where the kind needs one, with spaces written as underscores. Tailwind v3 and v4 both accept the form. For a value you reuse across the site, register the Token tab's custom property in your theme and reference it from a utility.
- How subtle should the pinstripe texture be?
- Most line textures work between three and eight percent of the foreground; this preset sits at 5%. Where two layers cross, the crossings stack to roughly double strength, so halve the per-layer alpha you would use for a single stripe.