Blank slate CSS reset for 2026

README.md

Blank Slate CSS Reset for 2026

🔗 Demo Page

I pieced this together from various articles, forum posts, and published CSS resets.

The goal is to have a full reset that works for most, modern, evergreen browsers.

A few rules could be considered "normalization" - but I'm trying for as much of a clean slate as possible, with the only exceptions being things like <strong> being bold, <em> being italics, and <a> tags having an underline; for accessibility reasons, these are not things we should reset by default.

Every rule was researched, questioned, updated, and individually documented for easy removal, if there's something you don't need/want, or disagree with.

Please feel free to comment with any corrections/additions.

reset.css

/* Padding and borders should not change an element's declared size. */
*, *::before, *::after {
  box-sizing: border-box;
}

/* Browser margin/padding defaults vary wildly across elements and vendors.
   Start from zero - handle spacing intentionally via the design system. */
* {
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
}

/* Prevents flex/grid children from overflowing their container.
   The default min-width: auto on flex and grid children causes overflow bugs
   that are notoriously confusing to debug. */
* {
  min-width: 0;
}

/* Hidden means hidden: !important is warranted here. */
[hidden] {
  display: none !important;
}

/* Allows CSS transitions to/from intrinsic keyword sizes (auto, min-content, etc.).
   Only meaningful for users who haven't requested reduced motion. */
@media (prefers-reduced-motion: no-preference) {
  html {
    interpolate-size: allow-keywords;
  }
}

/* Prevent adjustments of font size after orientation changes in iOS. */
html {
  -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; /* Safari, iOS Safari */
  text-size-adjust: 100%;         /* Chrome, Edge, Firefox Android */
}

/* Ensures the page occupies at least the full viewport.
   dvh accounts for mobile browser UI (address bar, navigation)
   and overrides the vh fallback in browsers that support it. */
body {
  min-height: 100vh;
  min-height: 100svh;
}

/* Reserves space for the scrollbar, when the scrollbar is not showing.
   Prevents flicker when changes on the page cause the scrollbar to toggle. */
html {
  scrollbar-gutter: stable;
}

/* Antialiased rendering looks better on high-DPI (retina) screens.
   On lower-DPI displays, subpixel antialiasing (the default) can be
   sharper, so this is slightly lossy on older monitors. */
body {
  -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
  -moz-osx-font-smoothing: grayscale;
}

/* A unitless line-height avoids inheritance math issues.
   The smaller default line-height for h-elements avoids excessive
   line-height when your design system (likely) applies larger fonts. */
body {
  line-height: 1.5;
}
h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 {
  line-height: 1.1;
}

/* Prevents long URLs or unbreakable strings from blowing out their container. */
p, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 {
  overflow-wrap: break-word;
}

/* Smarter line-breaking:
   'pretty' avoids widows (lone words on the last line of a paragraph).
   'balance' distributes heading text more evenly across lines. 
   Harmless in browsers that don't support them. */
p {
  text-wrap: pretty;
}
h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 {
  text-wrap: balance;
}

/* Headings carry semantic meaning, not visual weight.
   h1–h6 sizing and boldness should come from your design system. */
h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 {
  font-size: inherit;
  font-weight: inherit;
}

/* Inline embedded content has a gap at the bottom caused by baseline alignment.
   Block display removes it; max-width prevents overflow.
   height: auto preserves aspect ratio when max-width constrains the width. */
img, picture, video, canvas, svg, embed, iframe, object, audio {
  display: block;
  max-width: 100%;
  height: auto;
}

/* Exemption for SVG icons (Heroicons/Lucide/Phosphor, etc.) with explicit sizes:
   these should not be constrained. */
svg[width][height] {
  max-width: revert;
}

/* Strips visual chrome from buttons so they can be styled from scratch. */
button {
  background: none;
  border: none;
}

/* Form elements use OS-level fonts and ignore font inheritance by default. */
input, button, textarea, select {
  font: inherit;
}

/* Strips OS-level native styling from interactive elements.
   Leaves border and background intact, providing accessibility by default.
   Visual styling should be handled by the design system. */
input, button, textarea, select {
  -webkit-appearance: none;
  appearance: none;
}

/* Anything interactive should signal clickability.
   'button' attribute targets [type="button"], [type="submit"], etc. */
button,
[role="button"],
label,
summary,
select {
  cursor: pointer;
}

/* Inherit color by default so links don't always appear in browser-default blue.
   Text-decoration is intentionally left as underlined for accessibility. */
a {
  color: inherit;
}

/* Removes bullets/numbers.
   list markers should be an explicit choice, not a default. */
ul, ol {
  list-style: none;
}

/* Tables default to separated borders with spacing between cells.
   For any custom table design, you'll want to collapse the borders. */
table {
  border-collapse: collapse;
}

/* Browsers apply bold to <th> elements.
   Boldness in tables should be controlled by your design system. */
th {
  font-weight: inherit;
}

/* Fieldsets have a surprise border and padding that most UIs don't want. */
fieldset {
  border: none;
  padding: 0;
}

/* More of a normalization, but these are inconsistently styled in some browsers. */
sub,
sup {
  font-size: 75%;
  line-height: 0;
  position: relative;
  vertical-align: baseline;
}
sub { bottom: -0.25em; }
sup { top: -0.5em; }

/* Ensures monospace elements render at the same size as surrounding text. */
pre, code, kbd, samp {
  font-family: monospace;
  font-size: inherit;
}

/* Browser-generated quotation marks are rarely wanted in a design system. */
blockquote,
q {
  quotes: none;
}
blockquote::before,
blockquote::after,
q::before,
q::after {
  content: none;
}

/* Creates an explicit stacking context on the app root.
   Prevents z-index bleed from portals, modals, or tooltips
   from leaking out unexpectedly. */
#root {
  isolation: isolate;
}