TypeCellOS / TypeCellOS/BlockNote
Improve placeholder and side menu icon contrast for WCAG compliance
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- Dominant language
- TypeScript
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Description
Discussed in https://github.com/TypeCellOS/BlockNote/discussions/2519
Originally posted by Ovgodd September 4, 2025
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
The placeholder text and side menu icons in the BlockNote editor have insufficient contrast.
This fails WCAG 2.1 requirements (minimum 4.5:1), making it harder for users with low vision.
Describe the solution you'd like
Update the placeholder text and side menu icon styles to use higher-contrast colors.
For example, switching --bn-colors-side-menu: #cfcfcf; to --bn-colors-side-menu: #2a2a2a;
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Search the codebase for --bn-colors-side-menu and the editor placeholder styles, then inspect how those colors are applied to the side menu icons and placeholder text. Update the relevant styles so the affected text and icons meet the stated WCAG contrast requirement, and verify the result against the 4.5:1 target.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- css, typescript
- Domain
- accessibility, frontend
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 2/5
- Estimated time
- 1-3 hours
- Activity status
- Quiet
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 68/100