normalize.css

What is normalize.css?

The npm package normalize.css is a modern, HTML5-ready alternative to CSS resets. It makes browsers render all elements more consistently and in line with modern standards by precisely targeting only the styles that need normalizing.

What are normalize.css's main functionalities?

HTML Element Normalization

Ensures consistent line height and prevents font size adjustments after device orientation changes.

/*! normalize.css v8.0.1 | MIT License | github.com/necolas/normalize.css */

/* Document
   ========================================================================== */
/**
 * 1. Correct the line height in all browsers.
 * 2. Prevent adjustments of font size after orientation changes in iOS.
 */
html {
  line-height: 1.15; /* 1 */
  -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; /* 2 */
}

Section and Article Styles

Removes default margins from the body and ensures the 'main' element is displayed consistently across browsers.

/* Sections
   ========================================================================== */
/**
 * Remove the margin in all browsers.
 */
body {
  margin: 0;
}

/**
 * Render the 'main' element consistently in IE.
 */
main {
  display: block;
}

Text-Level Semantics

Adjusts box sizing and border color inheritance in Firefox for elements like <hr>.

/* Grouping content
   ========================================================================== */
/**
 * Add the correct box sizing in Firefox.
 * Correct the inheritance of border color in Firefox. (Bug 688556)
 */
hr {
  box-sizing: content-box; /* 1 */
  height: 0; /* 1 */
  overflow: visible; /* 2 */
}

Other packages similar to normalize.css

reset-css

Similar to normalize.css, reset-css is an npm package that provides CSS reset styles. It differs in that it aims to strip all default browser styling on elements, whereas normalize.css aims to make these styles consistent across browsers without removing as much of the default styling.

sanitize.css

sanitize.css is another CSS normalization library that not only normalizes styles but also corrects bugs and common browser inconsistencies. It is similar to normalize.css but includes more opinionated defaults that enforce better usability.

README

normalize.css

A modern alternative to CSS resets

NPM

npm install --save normalize.css

Bower

bower install --save normalize-css

CDN

See https://cdnjs.com/libraries/normalize

Download

See https://necolas.github.io/normalize.css/latest/normalize.css

What does it do?

• Preserves useful defaults, unlike many CSS resets.
• Normalizes styles for a wide range of elements.
• Corrects bugs and common browser inconsistencies.
• Improves usability with subtle modifications.
• Explains what code does using detailed comments.

Browser support

• Chrome (last two)
• Edge (last two)
• Firefox (last two)
• Firefox ESR
• Internet Explorer 8+
• Opera (last two)
• Safari 6+

[Normalize.css v1 provides legacy browser support] (https://github.com/necolas/normalize.css/tree/v1) (IE 6+, Safari 4+), but is no longer actively developed.

Extended details and known issues

Additional detail and explanation of the esoteric parts of normalize.css.

pre, code, kbd, samp

The font-family: monospace, monospace hack fixes the inheritance and scaling of font-size for preformatted text. The duplication of monospace is intentional. Source.

sub, sup

Normally, using sub or sup affects the line-box height of text in all browsers. Source.

svg:not(:root)

Adding overflow: hidden fixes IE9's SVG rendering. Earlier versions of IE don't support SVG, so we can safely use the :not() and :root selectors that modern browsers use in the default UA stylesheets to apply this style. [Source] (https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-svg-wg/2008JulSep/0339.html).

select

By default, Chrome on OS X and Safari on OS X allow very limited styling of select, unless a border property is set. The default font weight on optgroup elements cannot safely be changed in Chrome on OSX and Safari on OS X.

[type="checkbox"]

It is recommended that you do not style checkbox and radio inputs as Firefox's implementation does not respect box-sizing, padding, or width.

[type="number"]

Certain font size values applied to number inputs cause the cursor style of the decrement button to change from default to text.

[type="search"]

The search input is not fully stylable by default. In Chrome and Safari on OSX/iOS you can't control font, padding, border, or background. In Chrome and Safari on Windows you can't control border properly. It will apply border-width but will only show a border color (which cannot be controlled) for the outer 1px of that border. Applying -webkit-appearance: textfield addresses these issues without removing the benefits of search inputs (e.g. showing past searches). Safari (but not Chrome) will clip the cancel button on when it has padding (and textfield appearance).

::placeholder

In Edge, placeholders will disappear on relative or absolute positioned <input> elements if you use opacity less than 1 due to a bug.

Contributing

Please read the contribution guidelines in order to make the contribution process easy and effective for everyone involved.

Acknowledgements

Normalize.css is a project by Nicolas Gallagher, co-created with Jonathan Neal.

Changelog

5.0.0 (October 3, 2016)

• Add normalized sections not already present from https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/.
• Move unsorted rules into their respective sections.
• Update the summary style in all browsers.
• Remove ::placeholder styles due to a bug in Edge.
• More explicitly define font resets on form controls.
• Remove the optgroup normalization needed by the previous font reset.
• Update text-size-adjust documentation
 for IE on Windows Phone
• Update OS X reference to macOS
• Update the semver strategy.