Improve placeholder and side menu icon contrast for WCAG compliance

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Assessment

Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Newbie friendliness
68/100
Issue type
Feature
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Quiet
Tech stack
css, typescript
Domain
accessibility, frontend

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.

Description

a11y
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;

Image
Dominant language
TypeScript
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Merged PRs (30d)
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