Flutter Carbon

A comprehensive Flutter implementation of IBM's Carbon Design System, providing a complete theming solution with 48 components (31 pure Carbon + 17 Material equivalents), 4 theme variants, and seamless Material Design integration.

🔗 Live Demo

Component Coverage: 100% Practical Coverage (48 production-ready components)

Note: We implement 48 out of 60 Carbon components. The 12 omitted components are architectural concepts (like Grid) or better served by standard Flutter widgets, ensuring 100% coverage of practical UI needs.

Overview

This package brings the power and consistency of IBM's Carbon Design System V11 to Flutter applications. It includes all the design tokens (colors, typography, spacing, motion), a complete theme extension system, and production-ready widgets that follow Carbon specifications.

✨ Features

🎨 Complete Design Foundation

4 Theme Variants: White, Gray 10, Gray 90, Gray 100 with seamless runtime switching
Carbon Design System V11: Full compliance with the latest Carbon specifications
Complete Color Palette: All IBM Design Language colors with semantic token mappings
Typography System: 24 type styles following Carbon specifications (heading-01 through heading-07, body styles, code, helper text, labels)
Spacing & Layout: Consistent spacing scale (2px to 160px) and container sizes
Motion System: Duration and easing values for animations
Layering System: Background, layer, field, and border tokens for proper visual hierarchy

🧩 48 Components

31 Pure Carbon Widgets

Buttons & Actions

CarbonComboButton - Split button with primary action and dropdown menu
CarbonCopyButton - Copy to clipboard with visual feedback
CarbonChatButton - Specialized button for chat interfaces with quick actions

Forms & Input

CarbonDropdown - Single-select dropdown with search
CarbonComboBox - Autocomplete combo box with filtering
CarbonNumberInput - Numeric input with increment/decrement controls
CarbonToggle - Toggle switch (on/off)
CarbonFileUploader - File upload with button and drag-drop variants
CarbonMultiSelect - Multi-selection dropdown with chips and filtering

Navigation

CarbonBreadcrumb - Breadcrumb navigation
CarbonPagination - Page navigation with configurable sizes
CarbonUIShell - Complete application shell (header nav, side nav, content, right panel)
CarbonPageHeader - Page header with breadcrumbs, actions, tabs

Overlays & Dialogs

CarbonModal - 5 modal types (passive, transactional, danger, input, custom)
CarbonSidePanel - Slide-in panel from left/right with 5 size variants
CarbonTearsheet - Bottom sheet with full-height content
CarbonPopover - Floating content panel with positioning
CarbonToggleTip - Interactive tooltip that stays open on click

Content Display

CarbonCodeSnippet - Syntax-highlighted code display (single-line, multi-line, inline)
CarbonContentSwitcher - Tab-like content switcher
CarbonStructuredList - Table-like list with selectable rows
CarbonTreeView - Hierarchical tree with expand/collapse
CarbonLink - Styled hyperlinks with visited state
CarbonTile - Clickable/selectable/expandable tiles
CarbonContainedList - List container for small UI spaces with headers and actions

Notifications & Feedback

CarbonNotification - Toast/inline notifications with 4 severity types
CarbonLoading - Loading spinner (small, default, large)
CarbonSkeleton - Skeleton loading states (text, rectangle, circle)

Other Components

CarbonOverflowMenu - Kebab menu with actions
CarbonAILabel - AI-generated content indicator with gradient
CarbonFloatingMenu - Expandable floating action menu with animations

All standard Material widgets are automatically themed to match Carbon Design System:

FilledButton (Primary), ElevatedButton (Secondary), OutlinedButton (Tertiary), TextButton (Ghost)
TextField, Checkbox, Radio, Switch, Slider
ExpansionTile (Accordion), TabBar (Tabs), Chip (Tag), Tooltip
SearchBar, DropdownMenu, DataTable
Material date and time pickers

📱 51 Demo Pages

The example app includes comprehensive demos for every component, organized into 11 categories:

Foundation (3 pages)
Buttons (4 pages)
Forms (7 pages)
Navigation (5 pages)
Overlays (5 pages)
Content (6 pages)
Notifications (2 pages)
Data Display (4 pages)
AI & Syntax (2 pages)
Material Equivalents (8 pages)
Carbon Widgets (3 pages)

🚀 Quick Start

1. Setup Theme

Wrap your MaterialApp with Carbon theme:

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:flutter_carbon/flutter_carbon.dart';

void main() {
  runApp(const MyApp());
}

class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
  const MyApp({super.key});

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    // Choose your theme: WhiteTheme, G10Theme, G90Theme, or G100Theme
    final carbon = WhiteTheme.theme;

    return MaterialApp(
      title: 'My Carbon App',
      theme: carbonTheme(carbon: carbon),
      home: const MyHomePage(),
    );
  }
}

2. Access Theme Tokens

Use the context extension to access Carbon tokens:

@override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
  final carbon = context.carbon;

  return Scaffold(
    backgroundColor: carbon.layer.layer01,
    body: Column(
      children: [
        Text(
          'Hello Carbon',
          style: CarbonTypography.heading03.copyWith(
            color: carbon.text.textPrimary,
          ),
        ),
        SizedBox(height: CarbonSpacing.spacing05), // 16px
        // Your widgets here
      ],
    ),
  );
}

3. Use Carbon Components

// Dropdown
CarbonDropdown<String>(
  label: 'Select an option',
  items: const [
    CarbonDropdownItem(value: 'opt1', child: Text('Option 1')),
    CarbonDropdownItem(value: 'opt2', child: Text('Option 2')),
  ],
  value: _selectedValue,
  onChanged: (value) => setState(() => _selectedValue = value),
)

// Multi-Select
CarbonMultiSelect<String>(
  label: 'Select countries',
  values: _selectedCountries,
  items: const [
    CarbonMultiSelectItem(value: 'kr', child: Text('South Korea')),
    CarbonMultiSelectItem(value: 'us', child: Text('United States')),
  ],
  onChanged: (values) => setState(() => _selectedCountries = values),
  itemToString: (value) => countryNames[value] ?? value,
)

// Tile
CarbonTile.selectable(
  title: 'Selectable Option',
  selected: _isSelected,
  onSelectedChanged: (selected) => setState(() => _isSelected = selected),
  child: const Text('Click to select this option'),
)

// Modal
CarbonModal.show(
  context: context,
  type: CarbonModalType.transactional,
  title: 'Confirm Action',
  body: const Text('Are you sure you want to proceed?'),
  primaryButtonText: 'Confirm',
  onPrimaryPressed: () => Navigator.pop(context),
)

// Notification
CarbonNotification(
  kind: CarbonNotificationKind.success,
  title: 'Success!',
  subtitle: 'Your changes have been saved.',
  onClose: () {},
)

🎨 Theme Switching

Switch between the 4 Carbon themes at runtime:

class MyApp extends StatefulWidget {
  const MyApp({super.key});

  @override
  State<MyApp> createState() => _MyAppState();
}

class _MyAppState extends State<MyApp> {
  CarbonThemeData _carbon = WhiteTheme.theme;

  void _switchTheme(String themeName) {
    setState(() {
      switch (themeName) {
        case 'white':
          _carbon = WhiteTheme.theme;
          break;
        case 'g10':
          _carbon = G10Theme.theme;
          break;
        case 'g90':
          _carbon = G90Theme.theme;
          break;
        case 'g100':
          _carbon = G100Theme.theme;
          break;
      }
    });
  }

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return MaterialApp(
      theme: carbonTheme(carbon: _carbon),
      home: MyHomePage(onThemeChanged: _switchTheme),
    );
  }
}

📚 Design Tokens

Colors

Access via context.carbon:

// Background & Layers
carbon.background
carbon.layer.layer01, .layer02, .layer03

// Fields & Borders
carbon.field.field01, .field02
carbon.layer.borderSubtle00, .borderStrong01

// Text
carbon.text.textPrimary, .textSecondary, .textOnColor, .textDisabled

// Buttons
carbon.button.buttonPrimary, .buttonSecondary, .buttonDanger

// Support (Status Colors)
carbon.layer.supportError, .supportSuccess, .supportWarning, .supportInfo

// Interactive
carbon.interactive.link, .focus, .hover

Typography

24 predefined styles via CarbonTypography:

// Headings
CarbonTypography.heading01  // 14px, 600, 18px line-height
CarbonTypography.heading02  // 16px, 600, 22px line-height
CarbonTypography.heading03  // 20px, 400, 28px line-height
CarbonTypography.heading04  // 28px, 400, 36px line-height
CarbonTypography.heading05  // 32px, 400, 40px line-height
CarbonTypography.heading06  // 42px, 300, 50px line-height
CarbonTypography.heading07  // 54px, 300, 64px line-height

// Body Text
CarbonTypography.bodyCompact01, .bodyCompact02
CarbonTypography.bodyShort01, .bodyShort02
CarbonTypography.bodyLong01, .bodyLong02

// Other
CarbonTypography.code01, .code02           // Monospace code
CarbonTypography.label01, .label02         // Form labels
CarbonTypography.helperText01, .helperText02  // Helper text

Spacing

13 spacing values via CarbonSpacing:

CarbonSpacing.spacing01  // 2px
CarbonSpacing.spacing02  // 4px
CarbonSpacing.spacing03  // 8px
CarbonSpacing.spacing04  // 12px
CarbonSpacing.spacing05  // 16px
CarbonSpacing.spacing06  // 24px
CarbonSpacing.spacing07  // 32px
CarbonSpacing.spacing08  // 40px
CarbonSpacing.spacing09  // 48px
CarbonSpacing.spacing10  // 64px
CarbonSpacing.spacing11  // 80px
CarbonSpacing.spacing12  // 96px
CarbonSpacing.spacing13  // 160px

📱 Example App

A comprehensive example app showcasing all 48 components is included in the example/ directory. It features:

51 demo pages with interactive examples
All 4 theme variants with live switching
Multiple examples per component (variants, states, sizes)
Categorized navigation for easy browsing
Real-world usage patterns
"All Components" overview page

Run the example:

cd example
flutter run

🏗️ Project Structure

lib/
├── flutter_carbon.dart          # Main export file
├── src/
│   ├── theme/
│   │   ├── carbon_theme.dart          # Theme helper function
│   │   ├── carbon_theme_data.dart     # Main theme data class
│   │   ├── component_themes/          # Theme data for each component
│   │   │   ├── button_theme_data.dart
│   │   │   ├── modal_theme_data.dart
│   │   │   ├── tile_theme_data.dart
│   │   │   ├── contained_list_theme_data.dart
│   │   │   └── ... (23 more theme files)
│   │   └── themes/                    # 4 concrete themes
│   │       ├── white/
│   │       ├── g10/
│   │       ├── g90/
│   │       └── g100/
│   ├── foundation/
│   │   ├── colors.dart                # Color palette
│   │   ├── typography.dart            # Typography system
│   │   ├── spacing.dart               # Spacing constants
│   │   └── motion.dart                # Animation durations
│   ├── widgets/                       # 31 Custom components
│   │   ├── carbon_modal.dart
│   │   ├── carbon_dropdown.dart
│   │   ├── carbon_tile.dart
│   │   ├── carbon_multi_select.dart
│   │   ├── carbon_contained_list.dart
│   │   ├── carbon_floating_menu.dart
│   │   └── ... (27 more widgets)
│   └── icons/                         # Carbon icon font
│       └── carbon_icons.dart
└── example/                           # Example app
    ├── lib/
    │   ├── main.dart                  # App entry + routing
    │   ├── routes.dart                # Route definitions
    │   └── pages/                     # 51 demo pages
    └── assets/                        # Example assets

🎯 Carbon Design System V11 Compliance

This implementation follows the official Carbon Design System V11 specifications:

✅ Color tokens match Carbon V11 theme definitions
✅ Typography follows Carbon type scale
✅ Components match Carbon web component behavior
✅ All 4 official themes (White, G10, G90, G100) supported
✅ Spacing, motion, and layering follow Carbon guidelines
✅ 80% component coverage (48/60 components)

Reference: https://carbondesignsystem.com/

Components Not Included (12 - Intentionally Omitted)

The remaining 20% (12/60 components) are intentionally omitted for valid reasons. Here's the complete list:

1. Already Covered by Existing Widgets (2)

Copy - Already implemented as CarbonCopyButton
Button - Fully covered by Material buttons with Carbon theming

2. Architectural/Structural Concepts (2)

Form - Structural wrapper, not a visual component (use Form widget)
Layer - UI depth architectural concept, not a renderable widget

3. Better Served by Material Widgets (4)

Inline Loading - Use Material CircularProgressIndicator inline
Progress Indicator - Already themed via CircularProgressIndicator
Progress Bar - Already themed via LinearProgressIndicator
List - Use Material ListTile with Carbon theming

4. Accessibility Helpers (1)

Skip to Content - Accessibility navigation helper, no visual widget

5. Specialized/Context-Specific (3)

Menu - Covered by MenuBar/MenuButton with Carbon theme
Date Picker - Fully themed Material DatePicker
Text Area - Use TextField with maxLines: null

Why This Approach Works:

✅ 100% of visual, practical components are available
✅ Material widgets provide excellent functionality when themed
✅ No duplicate work for components with good Material equivalents
✅ Focus on unique Carbon patterns that need custom implementation

Bottom Line: We focus on high-quality, native Flutter implementations. The 12 omitted components are either architectural concepts (Grid, Layer) or are better served by standard Flutter widgets (like ListView or Form), ensuring 100% coverage of practical UI needs.

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! This project implements the Carbon Design System V11 for Flutter.

Guidelines

Follow Carbon Design System V11 specifications
Support all 4 theme variants (White, G10, G90, G100)
Use Material Design widgets when possible, create custom widgets when necessary
Add comprehensive examples in the example app with demos
Run flutter analyze to ensure code quality
Test across all 4 themes

📄 License

This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0 - see the LICENSE file for details.

This is the same license used by IBM's Carbon Design System.

🙏 Acknowledgments

IBM's Carbon Design System team for the design specifications
The Flutter team for the excellent framework
Carbon Design System: https://carbondesignsystem.com
Carbon GitHub: https://github.com/carbon-design-system/carbon

💬 Support

For issues, questions, or contributions, please refer to the project repository.

Built with Flutter ❤ Inspired by IBM's Carbon Design System V11