Our field (of web and frontend development) has been using resets—which for simplicity here includes “reboots” and “normalizers”—for about

The CSS Reset Contradiction

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Style Pass

2024-11-26 06:00:16

Our field (of web and frontend development) has been using resets—which for simplicity here includes “reboots” and “normalizers”—for about 20 years. I say “about” because it seems Tantek Çelik had it all started in 2004 (where you find yours truly, too), but other authors may have used similar techniques even earlier.

It should also be obvious that if the differences don’t apply, there’s no need for a CSS reset, either. For example, form styling differences don’t matter on form-less websites.

And—many arguments have unnecessarily broken out over this—it also means that if the differences aren’t considered important enough, there’s also no need for a CSS reset.

I believe that what we’ve seen over the course of the last 20 years is that not all authors have paid attention to whether styling differences across user agents affected them, and whether the differences actually mattered.

For CSS reset users, the reality is that they feel a need to use a CSS reset. It’s possible (and also probable) that there are CSS reset users who don’t feel that way, and either use a CSS reset because they have to or because they feel safer using them. Practically speaking, however, using a CSS reset is part of their reality, too.