What are design tokens in CSS design systems?

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Multiple Choice

What are design tokens in CSS design systems?

Design tokens are centralized, name-based values for colors, typography, and spacing that act as a single source of truth for a design system. This approach makes it easy to keep styling consistent across all components—every button, card, or header pulls from the same set of values like color-primary, font-size-base, or space-4. Because the tokens are named, you can change a theme by updating the token values in one place, and all components reflect that update, enabling quick theming, accessibility tweaks, or platform-wide adjustments. In practice, tokens are often defined in a neutral format (like JSON, YAML, or CSS variables) and then consumed by code or styles, so designers and developers stay aligned. They’re not HTML elements, not a font-loading method, and not a JavaScript framework.

Design tokens are centralized, name-based values for colors, typography, and spacing that act as a single source of truth for a design system. This approach makes it easy to keep styling consistent across all components—every button, card, or header pulls from the same set of values like color-primary, font-size-base, or space-4. Because the tokens are named, you can change a theme by updating the token values in one place, and all components reflect that update, enabling quick theming, accessibility tweaks, or platform-wide adjustments. In practice, tokens are often defined in a neutral format (like JSON, YAML, or CSS variables) and then consumed by code or styles, so designers and developers stay aligned. They’re not HTML elements, not a font-loading method, and not a JavaScript framework.

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