A modern CSS reset

Andy Bell:

In this modern era of web development, we don’t really need a heavy-handed reset, or even a reset at all, because CSS browser compatibility issues are much less likely than they were in the old IE 6 days. That era was when resets such as normalize.css came about and saved us all heaps of hell. Those days are gone now and we can trust our browsers to behave more, so I think resets like that are probably mostly redundant.

I still like to reset stuff, so I’ve been slowly and continually tinkering with a reset myself over the years in an obsessive code golf manner.

Here’s the result:

/* Box sizing rules */
*,
*::before,
*::after {
  box-sizing: border-box;
}

/* Remove default padding */
ul[class],
ol[class] {
  padding: 0;
}

/* Remove default margin */
body,
h1,
h2,
h3,
h4,
p,
ul[class],
ol[class],
li,
figure,
figcaption,
blockquote,
dl,
dd {
  margin: 0;
}

/* Set core body defaults */
body {
  min-height: 100vh;
  scroll-behavior: smooth;
  text-rendering: optimizeSpeed;
  line-height: 1.5;
}

/* Remove list styles on ul, ol elements with a class attribute */
ul[class],
ol[class] {
  list-style: none;
}

/* A elements that don't have a class get default styles */
a:not([class]) {
  text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;
}

/* Make images easier to work with */
img {
  max-width: 100%;
  display: block;
}

/* Natural flow and rhythm in articles by default */
article > * + * {
  margin-top: 1em;
}

/* Inherit fonts for inputs and buttons */
input,
button,
textarea,
select {
  font: inherit;
}

/* Remove all animations and transitions for people that prefer not to see them */
@media (prefers-reduced-motion: reduce) {
  * {
    animation-duration: 0.01ms !important;
    animation-iteration-count: 1 !important;
    transition-duration: 0.01ms !important;
    scroll-behavior: auto !important;
  }
}

Clever usage of the [class] selector to selectively apply CSS rulesets!

A Modern CSS Reset →

Published by Bramus!

Bramus is a frontend web developer from Belgium, working as a Chrome Developer Relations Engineer at Google. From the moment he discovered view-source at the age of 14 (way back in 1997), he fell in love with the web and has been tinkering with it ever since (more …)

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1 Comment

  1. It’s nice, but I don’t agree with rules that only apply when something doesn’t have a class.

    Here:
    /* A elements that don’t have a class get default styles */
    a:not([class]) {
    text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;
    }

    Just imagine adding a class to color that link and unexpectedly affecting the how the link is underlined.

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