Can style guides use theme inheritance?

Yes. If you have a theme and sub-theme using style guides, the sub-theme will inherit values from the parent theme.

If your website is set-up to use style guides, you can apply values to them on the theme settings page. Each theme that uses a style guide will display the style guide forms and a preview of the website with the style guide values applied.

For more detailed information, see Style guide manager in the user guide.