What is postcss-reduce-initial?
The postcss-reduce-initial npm package is a PostCSS plugin that optimizes CSS by replacing properties set to their initial values with the 'initial' keyword, thus reducing the size of the CSS file. It can be particularly useful for minimizing the output of CSS preprocessors that tend to output properties with their initial values.
What are postcss-reduce-initial's main functionalities?
Replace properties with 'initial'
This feature takes CSS properties that are set to their initial values and replaces them with the 'initial' keyword. For example, 'min-width: auto;' would be replaced with 'min-width: initial;', and 'transition-duration: 0s;' would be replaced with 'transition-duration: initial;'.
".element {\n min-width: auto;\n transition-duration: 0s;\n}"
Other packages similar to postcss-reduce-initial
cssnano
cssnano is a modular minifier for CSS that includes various optimizations, including reducing initial values to the 'initial' keyword, similar to postcss-reduce-initial. However, cssnano offers a broader range of optimizations such as merging rules, minifying font values, discarding comments, and more.
postcss-normalize-whitespace
postcss-normalize-whitespace is a PostCSS plugin that normalizes whitespace by removing it where possible in CSS files. While it doesn't specifically target initial values, it contributes to the overall reduction of CSS file size, which is a similar goal to postcss-reduce-initial.
postcss-merge-longhand
postcss-merge-longhand is a plugin that merges multiple CSS properties into shorthand properties, which can reduce the size of CSS files. This is different from postcss-reduce-initial's approach of replacing properties with the 'initial' keyword but achieves a similar end of optimizing CSS output.
postcss-reduce-initial

Reduce initial
definitions to the actual initial value, where possible.
Install
With npm do:
npm install postcss-reduce-initial --save
Example
This module will replace the initial
CSS keyword with the actual value,
when this value is smaller than the initial
definition itself. For example,
the initial value for the min-width
property is 0
; therefore, these two
definitions are equivalent;
Input
h1 {
min-width: initial;
}
Output
h1 {
min-width: 0;
}
See the data for more conversions. This data is courtesy
of Mozilla.
Usage
See the PostCSS documentation for
examples for your environment.
Contributors
Thanks goes to these wonderful people (emoji key):
This project follows the all-contributors specification. Contributions of
any kind welcome!
License
Template:CSSData by Mozilla Contributors is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.5.
MIT © Ben Briggs