Lately I’ve been getting quite a few emails asking me if they should include a CSS reset stylesheet in their projects. Basically each time I answer these emails, my response is always yes. Not everyone thinks it is necessary to include a reset stylesheet, but I find it can’t hurt by including one. So people will say that it will slow your site down as there is more code to use, but with the speed of the internet these days, that argument is not really valid any more.
In all of the projects I do, I will always include a CSS reset, for the main reason that it will reduce the inconsistencies in the variety of different browsers that people use. Some of the quirks in different browsers are: line heights, margins, paddings and font sizes for headings, by including a reset stylesheet you are reducing the chances of the webpages displaying differently in each browser, unfortunately even using a CSS reset, you will still get inconstancies between the most popuplar browsers.
Currently there are five popular choices with CSS reset, they are:
- Eric Meyer’s ‘Reset CSS’ v2.0
- Yahoo! (YUI 3) Reset CSS
- HTML5 Doctor CSS Reset
- Universal Selector ’*’ Reset
- Normalize.css 1.0
From the list above, the most popular one would be Eric Meyer’s CSS Reset, but I would recommend that you experiment with the different files to find the one that suits your web layouts the best. All of the reset stylesheets have been released in the public domain, which means you are free to use them for both personal and commercial work.
Eric Meyer’s ‘Reset CSS’ v2.0
html,body,div,span,applet,object,iframe,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,p,blockquote,pre,a,abbr,acronym,address,big,cite,code,del,dfn,em,img,ins,kbd,q,s,samp,small,strike,strong,sub,sup,tt,var,b,u,i,center,dl,dt,dd,ol,ul,li,fieldset,form,label,legend,table,caption,tbody,tfoot,thead,tr,th,td,article,aside,canvas,details,embed,figure,figcaption,footer,header,hgroup,menu,nav,output,ruby,section,summary,time,mark,audio,video{border:0;font-size:100%;font:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;margin:0;padding:0}article,aside,details,figcaption,figure,footer,header,hgroup,menu,nav,section{display:block}body{line-height:1}ol,ul{list-style:none}blockquote,q{quotes:none}blockquote:before,blockquote:after,q:before,q:after{content:none}table{border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:0}
Yahoo! (YUI 3) Reset CSS
html{color:#000;background:#FFF}body,div,dl,dt,dd,ul,ol,li,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,pre,code,form,fieldset,legend,input,textarea,p,blockquote,th,td{margin:0;padding:0}table{border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:0}fieldset,img{border:0}address,caption,cite,code,dfn,em,strong,th,var{font-style:normal;font-weight:normal}ol,ul{list-style:none}caption,th{text-align:left}h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6{font-size:100%;font-weight:normal}q:before,q:after{content:''}abbr,acronym{border:0;font-variant:normal}sup{vertical-align:text-top}sub{vertical-align:text-bottom}input,textarea,select{font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-weight:inherit}input,textarea,select{*font-size:100%}legend{color:#000}#yui3-css-stamp.cssreset{display:none}
HTML5 Doctor CSS Reset
html,body,div,span,object,iframe,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,p,blockquote,pre,abbr,address,cite,code,del,dfn,em,img,ins,kbd,q,samp,small,strong,sub,sup,var,b,i,dl,dt,dd,ol,ul,li,fieldset,form,label,legend,table,caption,tbody,tfoot,thead,tr,th,td,article,aside,canvas,details,figcaption,figure,footer,header,hgroup,menu,nav,section,summary,time,mark,audio,video{margin:0;padding:0;border:0;outline:0;font-size:100%;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent}body{line-height:1}article,aside,details,figcaption,figure,footer,header,hgroup,menu,nav,section{display:block}nav ul{list-style:none}blockquote,q{quotes:none}blockquote:before,blockquote:after,q:before,q:after{content:none}a{margin:0;padding:0;font-size:100%;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent}ins{background-color:#ff9;color:#000;text-decoration:none}mark{background-color:#ff9;color:#000;font-style:italic;font-weight:bold}del{text-decoration:line-through}abbr[title],dfn[title]{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}table{border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:0}hr{display:block;height:1px;border:0;border-top:1px solid #ccc;margin:1em 0;padding:0}input,select{vertical-align:middle}
Universal Selector ’*’ Reset
*{margin:0;padding:0;}
Normalize.css 1.0
article,aside,details,figcaption,figure,footer,header,hgroup,nav,section,summary{display:block}audio,canvas,video{display:inline-block;*display:inline;*zoom:1}audio:not([controls]){display:none;height:0}[hidden]{display:none}html{font-size:100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:100%;-ms-text-size-adjust:100%}html,button,input,select,textarea{font-family:sans-serif}body{margin:0}a:focus{outline:thin dotted}a:active,a:hover{outline:0}h1{font-size:2em;margin:.67em 0}h2{font-size:1.5em;margin:.83em 0}h3{font-size:1.17em;margin:1em 0}h4{font-size:1em;margin:1.33em 0}h5{font-size:.83em;margin:1.67em 0}h6{font-size:.75em;margin:2.33em 0}abbr[title]{border-bottom:1px dotted}b,strong{font-weight:bold}blockquote{margin:1em 40px}dfn{font-style:italic}mark{background:#ff0;color:#000}p,pre{margin:1em 0}code,kbd,pre,samp{font-family:monospace,serif;_font-family:'courier new',monospace;font-size:1em}pre{white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;word-wrap:break-word}q{quotes:none}q:before,q:after{content:'';content:none}small{font-size:75%}sub,sup{font-size:75%;line-height:0;position:relative;vertical-align:baseline}sup{top:-0.5em}sub{bottom:-0.25em}dl,menu,ol,ul{margin:1em 0}dd{margin:0 0 0 40px}menu,ol,ul{padding:0 0 0 40px}nav ul,nav ol{list-style:none;list-style-image:none}img{border:0;-ms-interpolation-mode:bicubic}svg:not(:root){overflow:hidden}figure{margin:0}form{margin:0}fieldset{border:1px solid #c0c0c0;margin:0 2px;padding:.35em .625em .75em}legend{border:0;padding:0;white-space:normal;*margin-left:-7px}button,input,select,textarea{font-size:100%;margin:0;vertical-align:baseline;*vertical-align:middle}button,input{line-height:normal}button,html input[type="button"],input[type="reset"],input[type="submit"]{-webkit-appearance:button;cursor:pointer;*overflow:visible}button[disabled],input[disabled]{cursor:default}input[type="checkbox"],input[type="radio"]{box-sizing:border-box;padding:0;*height:13px;*width:13px}input[type="search"]{-webkit-appearance:textfield;-moz-box-sizing:content-box;-webkit-box-sizing:content-box;box-sizing:content-box}input[type="search"]::-webkit-search-cancel-button,input[type="search"]::-webkit-search-decoration{-webkit-appearance:none}button::-moz-focus-inner,input::-moz-focus-inner{border:0;padding:0}textarea{overflow:auto;vertical-align:top}table{border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:0}
CSS Resets are nice, but the thing I dislike about them is that they kill margins on elements that really should have them.
One of my intentions is to, at some point change the CSS reset I use so the elements still behave in the default manner, but also in a standardized manner on all web browsers. I like my paragraphs having margins, and my bullets working like bullets. CSS Resets usually break these, I plan to simply standardize them. There are other things, but those are just two off the top of my head.
It’s often better to tame the beast rather than kill it.
