I have an image with a white background, which looks off on docusaurus dark theme, so I want to detect when the user changes theme so I use a different image.
Is it possible to detect if docusaurus is in light or dark mode?
5.1k Views Asked by Adegoke Temitope AtThere are 6 best solutions below

Now it is possible with the following, in a .mdx
file:
import ThemedImage from '@theme/ThemedImage';
<ThemedImage
alt="Docusaurus themed image"
sources={{
light: useBaseUrl('/img/docusaurus_light.svg'),
dark: useBaseUrl('/img/docusaurus_dark.svg'),
}}
/>;
Reference: Docusaurus. Themed images

br8dy's answer above works in development-mode, but will throw an error when you try to build the project - Docusaurus will complain that the component doesn't exist within a component (displaying a reference to this part of the docs).
The solution is to use BrowserOnly, as documented here. Explicitly, you need to change this:
const ImageSwitcher = ({lightImageSrc, darkImageSrc}) => {
const { isDarkTheme } = useThemeContext();
return (
<img src={isDarkTheme ? darkImageSrc : lightImageSrc} alt="Example banner" />
)
}
To something like this:
const ImageSwitcher = ({lightImageSrc, darkImageSrc, altText}) => {
return (
<BrowserOnly fallback={<img src={darkImageSrc} alt={altText} />}>
{() => {
const { isDarkTheme } = useThemeContext();
const imgSrc = isDarkTheme ? darkImgSrc : lightImgSrc;
const fullImgSrc = useBaseUrl(imgSrc);
return (
<img src={fullImgSrc} alt={altText} />
)
}}
</BrowserOnly>
)
}

It sets attribute to html tag so you can check this attribute data-theme and listen to changes through MutationObserver.

If you are using the classic theme, you can leverage the useThemeContext
hook to detect the current color mode setting. Since documents support MDX, you can create a component that conditionally displays the appropriate image based on the color mode value provided by the theme context. Here is a basic example.
This suggestion is based on using the following docusaurus versions:
>= @docusaurus/[email protected]
>= @docusaurus/[email protected]
ImageSwitcher Component File
Create a react component that can be imported to your documentation
import React from 'react';
import useThemeContext from '@theme/hooks/useThemeContext'; //docs: https://v2.docusaurus.io/docs/2.0.0-alpha.69/theme-classic#usethemecontext
const ImageSwitcher = ({lightImageSrc, darkImageSrc}) => {
const { isDarkTheme } = useThemeContext();
return (
<img src={isDarkTheme ? darkImageSrc : lightImageSrc} alt="Example banner" />
)
}
export default ImageSwitcher;
Documentation Markdown File
Import the component into your documentation and pass the appropiate image sources to the component.
---
id: your-docs
title: Your Docs
---
import ImageSwitcher from '../../../src/ImageSwitcher.js';
<ImageSwitcher
lightImageSrc="//satyr.io/300/black?text=LightMode"
darkImageSrc="//satyr.io/300/white?text=DarkMode"/>

for version 2.0.0-beta.15
, you can get current theme mode like this:
import { useColorMode } from '@docusaurus/theme-common';
// ^^ I don't think it's in the docs yet, but I get the referencet from here
// https://github.com/rohit-gohri/redocusaurus/issues/116
const Component = () => {
const { isDarkTheme } = useColorMode();
return <div>{isDarkTheme ? 'Dark' : 'Light'}</div>;
};
Instead of creating a custom component, you can use Themed Images:
With it, you will not have the following error: