postcss

What is postcss?

PostCSS is a tool for transforming CSS with JavaScript plugins. These plugins can lint your CSS, support variables and mixins, transpile future CSS syntax, inline images, and more.

What are postcss's main functionalities?

Autoprefixing

Automatically adds vendor prefixes to CSS rules using values from Can I Use. It is recommended by Google and used in Twitter and Alibaba.

postcss([ require('autoprefixer') ]).process(css).then(result => { result.warnings().forEach(warn => { console.warn(warn.toString()); }); console.log(result.css); });

CSS Variables

Transforms CSS Custom Properties (CSS variables) syntax into a static representation that can be understood by browsers that do not support this feature.

postcss([ require('postcss-custom-properties') ]).process(css).then(result => { console.log(result.css); });

CSS Nesting

Allows you to nest one style rule inside another, following the CSS Nesting Module Level 3 specification.

postcss([ require('postcss-nesting') ]).process(css).then(result => { console.log(result.css); });

Minification

A modular minifier, built on top of the PostCSS ecosystem. It is used to minimize CSS for better performance.

postcss([ require('cssnano') ]).process(css).then(result => { console.log(result.css); });

Future CSS Syntax

Allows you to use future CSS features today. It polyfills CSS features that are not yet fully supported in browsers.

postcss([ require('postcss-preset-env') ]).process(css).then(result => { console.log(result.css); });

Other packages similar to postcss

sass

Sass is a mature, stable, and powerful professional grade CSS extension language. It provides mechanisms such as variables, nesting, and mixins, which are not present in standard CSS. Unlike PostCSS, which uses JavaScript plugins, Sass has its own syntax and compiles to standard CSS.

less

Less is a backward-compatible language extension for CSS. It also allows variables, mixins, functions and many other techniques that allow you to make CSS more maintainable and extendable. Less is similar to Sass and differs from PostCSS in that it offers a different syntax and set of features.

stylus

Stylus is a preprocessor that serves as a more robust and feature-rich alternative to CSS. It supports both an indented syntax and regular CSS style. Stylus provides significant flexibility and feature parity with Sass and Less but with a different syntax and feature set compared to PostCSS.

README

PostCSS

PostCSS is a tool for transforming styles with JS plugins. These plugins can lint your CSS, support variables and mixins, transpile future CSS syntax, inline images, and more.

PostCSS is used by industry leaders including Wikipedia, Twitter, Alibaba, and JetBrains. The Autoprefixer PostCSS plugin is one of the most popular CSS processors.

Twitter account: @postcss. VK.com page: postcss. Support / Discussion: Gitter.

For PostCSS commercial support (consulting, improving the front-end culture of your company, PostCSS plugins), contact Evil Martians at [e-mail].

Plugins

Currently, PostCSS has more than 200 plugins. You can find all of the plugins in the plugins list or in the searchable catalog. Below is a list of our favorite plugins — the best demonstrations of what can be built on top of PostCSS.

If you have any new ideas, PostCSS plugin development is really easy.

Solve Global CSS Problem

• postcss-use allows you to explicitly set PostCSS plugins within CSS and execute them only for the current file.
• postcss-modules and react-css-modules automatically isolate selectors within components.
• postcss-autoreset is an alternative to using a global reset that is better for isolatable components.
• postcss-initial adds all: initial support, which resets all inherited styles.
• cq-prolyfill adds container query support, allowing styles that respond to the width of the parent.

Use Future CSS, Today

• autoprefixer adds vendor prefixes, using data from Can I Use.
• postcss-cssnext allows you to use future CSS features today (includes autoprefixer).

Better CSS Readability

• precss contains plugins for Sass-like features, like variables, nesting, and mixins.
• postcss-sorting sorts the content of rules and at-rules.
• postcss-utilities includes the most commonly used shortcuts and helpers.
• short adds and extends numerous shorthand properties.

Images and Fonts

• postcss-assets inserts image dimensions and inlines files.
• postcss-sprites generates image sprites.
• font-magician generates all the @font-face rules needed in CSS.
• postcss-inline-svg allows you to inline SVG and customize its styles.
• postcss-write-svg allows you to write simple SVG directly in your CSS.

Linters

• stylelint is a modular stylesheet linter.
• stylefmt is a tool that automatically formats CSS according stylelint rules.
• doiuse lints CSS for browser support, using data from Can I Use.
• colorguard helps you maintain a consistent color palette.

Other

• postcss-rtl combines both-directional (left-to-right and right-to-left) styles in one CSS file.
• cssnano is a modular CSS minifier.
• lost is a feature-rich calc() grid system.
• rtlcss mirrors styles for right-to-left locales.

Syntaxes

PostCSS can transform styles in any syntax, not just CSS. If there is not yet support for your favorite syntax, you can write a parser and/or stringifier to extend PostCSS.

• sugarss is a indent-based syntax like Sass or Stylus.
• postcss-scss allows you to work with SCSS (but does not compile SCSS to CSS).
• postcss-less allows you to work with Less (but does not compile LESS to CSS).
• postcss-less-engine allows you to work with Less (and DOES compile LESS to CSS using true Less.js evaluation).
• postcss-js allows you to write styles in JS or transform React Inline Styles, Radium or JSS.
• postcss-safe-parser finds and fixes CSS syntax errors.
• midas converts a CSS string to highlighted HTML.

Articles

• Some things you may think about PostCSS… and you might be wrong
• What PostCSS Really Is; What It Really Does
• PostCSS Guides
• Mastering PostCSS for Web Design

More articles and videos you can find on awesome-postcss list.

Usage

You can start using PostCSS in just two steps:

1. Find and add PostCSS extensions for your build tool.
2. Select plugins and add them to your PostCSS process.

Gulp

Use gulp-postcss and gulp-sourcemaps.

gulp.task('css', function () {
    var postcss    = require('gulp-postcss');
    var sourcemaps = require('gulp-sourcemaps');

    return gulp.src('src/**/*.css')
        .pipe( sourcemaps.init() )
        .pipe( postcss([ require('autoprefixer'), require('precss') ]) )
        .pipe( sourcemaps.write('.') )
        .pipe( gulp.dest('build/') );
});

Webpack

Use postcss-loader:

module.exports = {
    module: {
        loaders: [
            {
                test:   /\.css$/,
                loader: "style-loader!css-loader!postcss-loader"
            }
        ]
    },
    postcss: function () {
        return [require('autoprefixer'), require('precss')];
    }
}

npm run / CLI

To use PostCSS from your command-line interface or with npm scripts there is postcss-cli.

postcss --use autoprefixer -c options.json -o main.css css/*.css

Browser

If you want to compile CSS string in browser (for instance, in live edit tools like CodePen), just use Browserify or webpack. They will pack PostCSS and plugins files into a single file.

To apply PostCSS plugins to React Inline Styles, JSS, Radium and other CSS-in-JS, you can use postcss-js and transforms style objects.

var postcss  = require('postcss-js');
var prefixer = postcss.sync([ require('autoprefixer') ]);

prefixer({ display: 'flex' }); //=> { display: ['-webkit-box', '-webkit-flex', '-ms-flexbox', 'flex'] }

Runners

• Grunt: grunt-postcss
• HTML: posthtml-postcss
• Stylus: poststylus
• Rollup: rollup-plugin-postcss
• Brunch: postcss-brunch
• Broccoli: broccoli-postcss
• Meteor: postcss
• ENB: enb-postcss
• Fly: fly-postcss
• Start: start-postcss
• Connect/Express: postcss-middleware

JS API

For other environments, you can use the JS API:

var postcss = require('postcss');
postcss([ require('autoprefixer'), require('cssnano') ])
    .process(css, { from: 'src/app.css', to: 'app.css' })
    .then(function (result) {
        fs.writeFileSync('app.css', result.css);
        if ( result.map ) fs.writeFileSync('app.css.map', result.map);
    });

Read the PostCSS API documentation for more details about the JS API.

All PostCSS runners should pass PostCSS Runner Guidelines.

Options

Most PostCSS runners accept two parameters:

• An array of plugins.
• An object of options.

Common options:

• syntax: an object providing a syntax parser and a stringifier.
• parser: a special syntax parser (for example, SCSS).
• stringifier: a special syntax output generator (for example, Midas).
• map: source map options.
• from: the input file name (most runners set it automatically).
• to: the output file name (most runners set it automatically).

Node.js 0.10 and the Promise API

If you want to run PostCSS in Node.js 0.10, add the Promise polyfill:

require('es6-promise').polyfill();
var postcss = require('postcss');

IDE Integration

Atom

• language-postcss adds PostCSS and SugarSS highlight.
• source-preview-postcss previews your output CSS in a separate, live pane.

Sublime Text

• Syntax-highlighting-for-PostCSS adds PostCSS highlight.

WebStorm

WebStorm 2016.3 has built-in PostCSS support.