Using A CSS Reset For Better Cross-Browser Compatibility (2020 Update)

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) better style the presentation of documents written in markup languages like HTML. In simpler terms, using a CSS Reset for better cross-browser compatibility allows developers to format multiple web pages. In regards to using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for better cross-browser compatibility, the process may be complex and require additional attention-to-detail when assigning the programming language. Fortunately, this article will simplify the process and go over the valuable CSS techniques useful for developers and businesses.

What is CSS?

The programming language, known as a Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), is associated with World Wide Web technology, alongside HTML and JavaScript. Originally, CSS was first produced by Hakon Wium Lie as a service that complements HTML. The programming language dates back to December 17, 1996, and the stylesheet language carries over 20 years of support for the developer community. Presently, the CSS programming language has significantly simplified for new users, and CSS resets are available for better cross-browser compatibility.

HTML and CSS

Hypertext Markup Language

Generally, Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) structure web documents amongst a set of parameters. Essentially, Hypertext Markup Language defines typical features such as headlines, paragraphs, subheadings, and subparagraphs while allowing image, video, and other media embedding options for developers. For design purposes, Hypertext Markup Language assists programmers to better describe the content on websites, while using tags for additional paragraphs, headers, pictures, bullets, and other content structures.

Cascading Style Sheets

However, there is major difference between HTML and CSS. To illustrate, Cascading Style Sheets serve web developers with document styling to features within web pages. In detail, document styles, such as page layouts, colors, fonts, backgrounds, and more are all customizable within CSS programming. Typically in uses that complement HTML, Cascading Style Sheets offer programmers to create creative perspectives for web pages while providing more natural design qualities for developers. In most cases, web designs are not universal across another browser which may lead to unwanted CSS and HTML errors or cross-browser compatibility issues. In this matter, a software developer is to evaluate projects and opt into using a CSS Reset for better cross-browser compatibility.

Advantages of HTML and CSS

The benefits of understanding and using HTML and CSS properly is essential for creating high exposure, creative, and great quality content on websites and web pages. Especially for programmers, CSS and HTML are excellent tools when supporting cross-platform mobile application development with compatibility modifications for digital devices, such as tablets and smartphones.

In combination, the two programming languages present numerous advantages:

Multi-platform Development and Cost Effectiveness

Across various platforms, devices, and markets, developers may implement a single batch of code for universal adjustments. As a result, lower development and maintenance costs when allocating valuable resources of projects is ensured.

Efficient Search Engine Optimization and Page Ranking

For Search Engine Optimization (SEO) purposes, proper HTML, and CSS layout generate better ranking web content onto numerous search engines. The proper Hypertext Markup Language and Cascading Style Sheet designs reindex page value. Overall, a higher ranking page within a web index usually equates to more content exposure, higher ROI and conversion, retention of existing clients or users of products and services, and potential increases in new client acquisitions.

Offline Browsing

In some instances, mobile and online web services applications are capable of operating offline. As an explanation, applications that run offline without an internet connection are often supported by a Hypertext Markup Language local storage web application code and content management device through an offline application cache.

Multi Web Browser Consistency

For Search Engine Optimization (SEO) purposes, proper HTML, and CSS layout generate better ranking web content onto numerous search engines. The appropriate Hypertext Markup Language and Cascading Style Sheet designs reindex page value. Overall, a higher ranking page within a web index usually equates to more content exposure, higher ROI and conversion, retention of existing clients or users of products and services, and potential increases in new client acquisitions.

User Experience

The well-known programming languages, such as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), work best when a business seeks an increase in user engagement. Through better site content management and web application design and presentation, CSS tools differentiate a business within the market and may even allow higher conversion rates.

Understanding CSS Functions

Collaboratively, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) interacts with Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) elements to provide additional styling components to websites and webpages across various browsers.

HTML Selectors and CSS Decelerations

To elaborate, CSS tools recognize various HTML symbols and codes. Often referred to as “selectors,” developers may target specific HTML for modifications. Usually, the “selector” is identified to the left of a “{” bracket. Followed after a selector is a “declaration.” To expand, a “declaration” is the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) information added between the brackets. To illustrate more, deceleration’s consist of property values that add to default HTML selectors. Due to the large set of selector properties available for modification, developers are more willing to customize font sizes, colors, backgrounds, margins, and more.

For example, paragraphs in HTML follow the structure of <p> text for paragraph </p>. However, CSS adjustments follow a guide represented as “p { color:pink; font-weight:Bold; }.” The CSS program illustrates that the developer programmed bold and pink paragraphs, which would appear throughout the project’s web pages.

Using CSS for Text Formats

Within CSS, individual HTML scripts may undergo various formatting options to better suit developer projects. For one instance, a website may differ from another site when developers implement CSS changes in text characters or formats, such as adjusting a 10 point font to a 12 point font. Consequentially, randomized, and unstructured formatting may cause potential issues for developers in the future when assembling digital media projects. Going beyond traditional HTML capabilities, a web developer benefits from the use of CSS to restructure default layouts for a wide array of web pages.

Using CSS for Table Formats

Also, web developers gain more access to customizable table properties when applying Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to HTML formatted web pages. For example, the CSS programming may be especially useful for web developers to better define cell padding of table cells, along with adjusting the styles, thickness, table-border colors, and the padding around tables, images, or other media objects.

Internal, External, and InLine CSS

There are three different variations of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) available for users.

Internal CSS

Most useful for a scenario of programming a single site page, the Internal Style Sheets (ISS) instructions link directly into the HTML header for specific .html pages.

For example, an internal style sheet is illustrated as:

<head>

<style>

Body { background-color:thistle; }

P { font-size:20px; color:mediumblue; }

</style>

</head>

The applied changes show that there are additions to a thistle background color, paragraphs appear with 20 point fonts, and a medium-blue font style is translated throughout the entire site page.

External CSS

Rather than adding particular CSS codes for each HTML sequence on a website, external style sheets offer developers more flexibility. Developers may adjust the appearance of an entire website platform with external style sheets (ESS). Typically, External Style Sheets save as .css and apply to HTML header sections.

The linking process shows as:

<head>

<link rel=stylesheet type=text/CSS href=mysitestyle.css>

</head>

This sequence will link the .html file to an external style sheet; in this case, mysitestyle.css. Then, all of the CSS instructions in that file will then apply to the linked .html pages.

Inline CSS

Finally, inline styles are snippets of CSS that are written directly into HTML code. Inline Style Sheets (ILSS) are applicable to single coding instances.

For example:

<h1 style=font-size:40px;color:violet;>Check out this headline!</h1>

In this sequence, the Inline Style Sheets adjusts headlines with a view of violet colors and 40 point fonts.

Why Use a CSS Reset?

Every web browser contains built-in default style-sheets. Whether it be web browsers like Google Chrome, Firefox, or Internet Explorer, style-sheets are implemented within the browser. Reasonably, developers must determine which different styles within various default browser settings are most applicable throughout all project web pages. At the beginning of this process, using a CSS reset for better cross-browser compatibility will better allow the developer to create changes within a global HTML sequence to save time and ensure universal uniformity across various browsers. After the CSS reset, developers may then adjust a series of default settings by adding margins, media padding, line-height styles, default fonts, background textures, and more.

Solving Errors with a CSS Reset

The process of designing web pages with CSS, however, becomes more tedious as additional formats upload onto websites. Hence, developers will require more considerable attention in creating consistency throughout various default styles in each browser to avoid unnecessary formatting or styling issues.

Developers and businesses using a CSS reset for better cross-browser compatibility might consider different CSS resets to resolve existing errors. In particular, issues such as errors in linting codes, CSS prefixes, browser tracking dev tools, browser support polyfills, and responsiveness problems are all common within HTML and CSS programming. Moreover, response issues are the most famous of problems because individual site pages added CSS styles. This website may appear functional in a desktop browser but instead displays significant errors on mobile devices due to programming additions of content or animations.

Available CSS Resets

Eric Meyer’s CSS Reset:

One primary CSS tool available for developers is Eric Meyer’s CSS Reset. The 2008 Cascading Style Sheets reset device features a short and straightforward reset with only 43 lines of codes. Drawbacks of using Eric Meyer’s include an extensive removal of all existing programming languages rather than resolving specific design and formatting issues. Also, reset styles are very generic, with a lack of default color or background sets for body elements. The reset tool demonstrates flexibility and is more functional when tweaked, edited, extended, and otherwise tuned to match other specific reset baselines.

Eric Meyer’s Reset Code:

Normalize.CSS

Another widely-recognized and recommended CSS reset is Normalize.css. In contrast to restructuring browser defaults, this standard CSS reset is a unique alternative for developers that wish to preserve valuable browser defaults and then re-apply styling and formatting designs. Also, the tool normalizes display settings for HTML elements, corrects various browser inconsistencies, and better protects browser defaults from existing or potential bugs. Other advantages included are anti-clutter from dev tools.

The Normalize.CSS program also provides better documentation within descriptive texts to discuss changes with developers to promote a greater understanding of CSS guidelines and track recurring errors. Moreover, the Normalize.CSS reset operates as expected for developer and business projects and CSS frameworks, including Twitter Bootstrap, HTML5 Boilerplate, GOV.UK, and many others.

Sanatize.CSS

Similarly, Sanatize.CSS is a functional tool for developers using a CSS reset for better cross-browser compatibility. The Santize.CSS device performs similar reset functions as the Normalize.css. One difference is that more detailed reasoning is present when applying CSS. The descriptions are located clearly with box borders and are labeled opinionated for better user understanding and web page uniformity. Furthermore, separate stylesheets serve more advanced functions to modernize typography. The style-sheet system works with interfaces to adjust fonts and normalize forms with standard-like styling.

Reboot

To continue, Reboot, developed by Bootstrap in 2015, provides all the functions of Normalize.CSS but may be downloaded onto web servers as a stand-alone file. The Bootstrap tool also provides more advanced formatting and styling reset features for more professional interfaces. Uniquely, Reboots offers opinionated styles using only element selectors and offers additional techniques using classes.

CSS Remedy

Lastly, CSS Remedy is a newer CSS reset available for developers. It is another CSS reset that enables developers to set CSS properties or values towards current default browsers without backward compatibility issues. Developers may benefit significantly from the additional accessibility of gaining ideas, tips, and other resources from the community forums.

How To Use A CSS Reset

In the example of normalize.css, Using a CSS reset is very simple. Initially, the user requires to download the CSS FIle from the official site. Followed after, the administrator must link the CSS file in the <head> section of the .html file.

<link rel=”stylesheet” href=”assets/styles/normalize.css”>

It is advisable to reset stylesheets placed before the main stylesheet with custom styles.

<link rel=”stylesheet” href=”assets/styles/normalize.css”>

<link rel=”stylesheet” href=”assets/styles/main.css”>

Alternatively, developers may use the reset rules needed for specific resets. Custom CSS attributes separate in different stylesheets or adds to the main .css file. For example, if sites do not contain any <Table> elements, remove any styles applied to the tables. This process cuts down on the file size as well as HTTP requests if only using a single file.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) offers developers more creative control over web page appearances than simple HTML tools. As a result, CSS developers express better control of content management, efficient SEO optimization, and attract increases in user experiences. Using a CSS Reset for cross-browser compatibility enhances developer creativity for websites & web applications.