Using the Salesforce Lightning Design System in Apps
Your application automatically gets Lightning Design System styles and design tokens if it extends force:slds. This method is the easiest way to stay up to date and consistent with Lightning Design System enhancements.
To extend force:slds:
<aura:application extends="force:slds">
<!-- customize your application here -->
</aura:application>
Using a Static Resource
When you extend force:slds, the version of Lightning Design System styles is automatically updated whenever the CSS changes. If you want to use a specific Lightning Design System version, download the version and add it to your org as a static resource.
To download a version of Lightning Design System that doesn’t exceed the maximum size for a static resource, go to the Lightning Design System downloads page.
Salesforce recommends that you name the Lightning Design System archive static resource using the name format SLDS###, where ### is the Lightning Design System version number (for example, SLDS252). This lets you have multiple versions of the Lightning Design System installed, and manage version usage in your components.
<aura:component>
<ltng:require
styles="{!$Resource.SLDS252 +
'/styles/salesforce-lightning-design-system.min.css'}" />
</aura:component>