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March 10, 2025 22:14
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CSS Tricks Cheatsheet

A comprehensive cheat sheet covering various CSS tricks, hacks, and optimizations for improved web development. Includes code snippets and examples for easy reference.

General CSS Tricks

Box Sizing

Setting box-sizing: border-box makes it easier to manage element sizes by including padding and border in the element’s total width and height.

*, *:before, *:after {
  box-sizing: border-box;
}

Using border-width, border-style, and border-color to control element borders.

div {
  border-width: 0;
  border-style: solid;
  border-color: #e5e7eb;
}

Typography

text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;

Improves the readability of text by enabling kerning and ligatures.

Example:

h1, h2, h3 {
  text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;
}

Gradient Text

Applying a gradient to text using -webkit-background-clip: text.

Example:

background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, from(#eee), to(#333));
-webkit-background-clip: text;
-webkit-text-fill-color: transparent;

Text Stroke

Adding a stroke to text using -webkit-text-stroke.

Example:

-webkit-text-stroke: 3px black;

See: Introducing text stroke

Layout

display: contents;

Makes the element vanish, but its children become direct children of the element’s parent.

Example:

<div class="parent">
  <div class="contents">
    <h1>Title</h1>
    <p>Content</p>
  </div>
</div>

.contents {
  display: contents;
}

iOS Specific Tricks

Native-like iOS Scrolling

Enabling native-like iOS scrolling using -webkit-overflow-scrolling: touch.

-webkit-overflow-scrolling: touch;
overflow-y: auto;

Preventing iOS scrolling on certain elements.

document.ontouchstart = (e) => {
  const $pane = $(e.target).closest('.scrollable>div');
  if ($pane.length === 0 || $pane[0].scrollHeight <= $pane[0].innerHeight())
    e.preventDefault();
};

SCSS Mixin for iOS Scrollable Elements

%ios-scrollable {
  &, >div {
    -webkit-overflow-scrolling: touch;
    overflow: auto;
  }

  >div {
    position: absolute;
    top: 0;
    left: 0;
    right: 0;
    bottom: 0;
  }
}

UIWebView Optimizations

Optimizations for UIWebView, such as disabling tap highlight color and user selection.

* {
  -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0,0,0,0);
  -webkit-user-select: none; /* disable text select */
  -webkit-touch-callout: none; /* disable callout, image save panel (popup) */
  -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; /* "turn off" link highlight */
}

a:focus {
  outline: 0; /* Firefox (remove border on link click) */
}

See: iOS WebKit UIWebView Remove Tap/Click Highlight Border with CSS
See: Customizing the Mobile Safari Tap Highlight Color

Browser Hacks

Mozilla-only Hack

Targeting Mozilla Firefox using @-moz-document.

@-moz-document url-prefix() {
  .box {
    color: blue;
  }
}

Webkit-only Hack

Targeting Webkit browsers using @media query.

@media all and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1) {
  /* Styles for Webkit browsers */
}

CSS Reset and Best Practices

Universal Reset

A basic CSS reset to normalize styles across browsers.

html,:host {
  line-height: 1.5;
  -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;
  -moz-tab-size: 4;
  -o-tab-size: 4;
  tab-size: 4;
  font-family: ui-sans-serif,system-ui,sans-serif,"Apple Color Emoji","Segoe UI Emoji",Segoe UI Symbol,"Noto Color Emoji";
  font-feature-settings: normal;
  font-variation-settings: normal;
  -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;
}

body {
  margin: 0;
  line-height: inherit;
}

Element Normalization

Normalizing various HTML elements for consistent styling.

hr {
  height: 0;
  color: inherit;
  border-top-width: 1px;
}

abbr:where([title]) {
  -webkit-text-decoration: underline dotted;
  text-decoration: underline dotted;
}

h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 {
  font-size: inherit;
  font-weight: inherit;
}

a {
  color: inherit;
  text-decoration: inherit;
}