CSS Formatter

CSS Formatter - Format and Beautify CSS Online

A powerful online CSS formatter and beautifier tool that helps you format, beautify, and minify CSS code. Features syntax highlighting, customizable indentation, and selector expansion options. Perfect for web developers, designers, and anyone working with stylesheets.

What is CSS?

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is a stylesheet language used to describe the presentation of a document written in HTML. CSS controls how HTML elements are displayed, including:

- Colors and backgrounds
- Fonts and text styling
- Layout and positioning
- Spacing and sizing
- Animations and transitions
- Responsive design for different screen sizes

CSS works alongside HTML and JavaScript to create beautiful, interactive web experiences. Modern CSS includes powerful features like Flexbox, Grid, custom properties (variables), and advanced selectors.

What does this CSS Formatter do?

This tool provides two main functions:

1. Format (Beautify): Takes compressed or poorly formatted CSS and makes it readable with proper indentation, line breaks, and spacing. You can choose indent size (2, 4, or 8 spaces, or tabs) and optionally expand multiple selectors onto separate lines.

2. Minify: Removes all unnecessary whitespace, line breaks, and comments to create the smallest possible CSS file. Useful for reducing file size in production and improving page load times.

Both functions include syntax highlighting for selectors, properties, values, colors, and comments to make CSS code easy to read and understand.

How do I format CSS?

Formatting CSS is simple:

1. Paste or type your CSS code in the input field
2. Select your preferred indent size (2, 4, or 8 spaces, or tab)
3. Optionally check 'Expand selectors' to put each selector on its own line
4. Click the 'Format' button
5. View the beautifully formatted CSS in the output section

The formatted CSS will have:
- Proper indentation for nested rules
- Each property on its own line
- Consistent spacing around braces and colons
- Syntax highlighting for selectors, properties, values, and colors
- Easy to read and maintain structure

What's the difference between Format and Minify?

Format and Minify are opposite operations:

Format (Beautify):
- Adds indentation, line breaks, and spacing
- Makes CSS human-readable and editable
- Increases file size
- Best for development and maintenance
- Makes it easy to understand styles and hierarchy
- Example: A 5KB minified CSS might become 12KB when formatted

Minify:
- Removes all unnecessary whitespace and line breaks
- Removes CSS comments
- Makes CSS compact and optimized
- Reduces file size significantly (often 40-60%)
- Best for production deployment
- Improves page load speed and performance
- Example: A 12KB formatted CSS becomes 5KB when minified

Use Format when developing or maintaining styles, and Minify when deploying to production. Many build tools can automatically minify CSS during deployment.

What does 'Expand selectors' mean?

The 'Expand selectors' option controls how multiple selectors are formatted:

Without expansion (default):
h1, h2, h3 {
color: blue;
}

With expansion enabled:
h1,
h2,
h3 {
color: blue;
}

This is useful when:
- You have many selectors sharing the same styles
- You want better readability for complex selectors
- You need to see each selector clearly
- You're comparing different versions of CSS (easier to see which selector changed)
- You prefer vertical alignment for better scanning

This option makes it easier to add or remove individual selectors without affecting others.

Does minifying CSS affect browser compatibility?

No, minifying CSS does not affect browser compatibility. The minification process:

✓ Safe operations:
- Removes whitespace and line breaks
- Removes comments
- Removes last semicolons in declaration blocks
- Preserves all CSS rules and values
- Maintains selector specificity
- Keeps media queries intact

✗ Does NOT:
- Change property names or values
- Alter selector logic
- Remove any functional code
- Affect how browsers interpret styles
- Modify vendor prefixes

Minified CSS works identically to formatted CSS. The only difference is file size. Major websites use minified CSS to improve performance without any compatibility issues.

Can I format CSS with vendor prefixes?

Yes! This formatter handles CSS with vendor prefixes perfectly:

- -webkit- prefixes for Chrome, Safari, Edge
- -moz- prefixes for Firefox
- -ms- prefixes for Internet Explorer
- -o- prefixes for Opera

Example:
.box {
-webkit-transform: rotate(45deg);
-moz-transform: rotate(45deg);
-ms-transform: rotate(45deg);
transform: rotate(45deg);
}

The formatter preserves all vendor prefixes and formats them properly. It also handles:
- CSS Grid and Flexbox properties
- CSS custom properties (variables)
- Modern CSS features like :has(), :is(), :where()
- Nested media queries
- @supports, @keyframes, and other at-rules

Will minifying CSS break my website?

No, properly minified CSS will not break your website. Minification is a safe, standard practice that:

✓ Preserves:
- All CSS rules and declarations
- Selector specificity and cascade order
- Media query breakpoints
- Keyframe animations
- Custom properties (variables)
- Pseudo-classes and pseudo-elements

⚠ Consider:
- Always test minified CSS before deployment
- Use source maps for debugging if available
- Keep original formatted CSS for maintenance
- Some CSS hacks might rely on specific whitespace (very rare)

Millions of websites use minified CSS without issues. It's a best practice for production sites. Many popular frameworks and build tools automatically minify CSS (Webpack, Parcel, Vite, etc.).

Is my CSS code safe and private?

Yes, your code is completely safe and private. This tool:

- Processes all CSS entirely in your browser
- Does not send any data to our servers
- Does not store or log any of your CSS
- Works offline once the page is loaded
- Does not use any external services

You can even disconnect from the internet after loading the page and the tool will still work perfectly. Your CSS code never leaves your computer. This makes it safe to format proprietary or client CSS code without any privacy concerns.

What are the statistics shown?

After formatting or minifying, the tool displays useful statistics:

- Characters: Total number of characters in the output
- Lines: Total number of lines in the output
- Size: File size in bytes (B), kilobytes (KB), or megabytes (MB)

These statistics help you:
- Compare file sizes before and after minification
- See how much bandwidth you're saving
- Estimate page load impact
- Monitor CSS complexity
- Make optimization decisions

For example, you might see a 50-60% reduction in file size when minifying formatted CSS. This directly translates to faster page loads, especially on mobile devices or slow connections.

Key Features

• Format CSS with customizable indentation (2, 4, 8 spaces, or tabs)
• Minify CSS to reduce file size for production
• Expand selectors option for better readability
• Syntax highlighting for selectors, properties, values, and colors
• Real-time statistics (characters, lines, size)
• Copy formatted CSS to clipboard
• Download formatted CSS as .css file
• Upload CSS files for formatting
• Dark mode support
• No file size limits
• 100% client-side processing - your code never leaves your browser
• Works offline after initial load
• Mobile-friendly responsive design
• Preserves vendor prefixes and modern CSS features