Eric Meyers CSS Reset code - a must-have for elements on the loose

Written by Alexander • on September 29, 2008

Note

Please note that this is an archived post, so links, code and the communicated message might be outdated. YMMV

Came over this nifty CSS code to reset all html elements to "default" style. It might help you (or it might not) when you want to start from scratch, i.e. in a CSS file for print.

To quote Eric Meyer, the contributor of the code:

The reset styles given here are intentionally very generic. There isn't any default color or background set for the body element, for example. I don't particularly recommend that you just use this in its unaltered state in your own projects. It should be tweaked, edited, extended, and otherwise tuned to match your specific reset baseline. Fill in your preferred colors for the page, links, and so on.
In other words, this is a starting point, not a self-contained black box of no-touchiness.

css

html,
body,
div,
span,
applet,
object,
iframe,
h1,
h2,
h3,
h4,
h5,
h6,
p,
blockquote,
pre,
a,
abbr,
acronym,
address,
big,
cite,
code,
del,
dfn,
em,
font,
img,
ins,
kbd,
q,
s,
samp,
small,
strike,
strong,
sub,
sup,
tt,
var,
b,
u,
i,
center,
dl,
dt,
dd,
ol,
ul,
li,
fieldset,
form,
label,
legend,
table,
caption,
tbody,
tfoot,
thead,
tr,
th,
td {
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
  border: 0;
  outline: 0;
  font-size: 100%;
  vertical-align: baseline;
  background: transparent;
}
body {
  line-height: 1;
}
ol,
ul {
  list-style: none;
}
blockquote,
q {
  quotes: none;
}
blockquote:before,
blockquote:after,
q:before,
q:after {
  content: '';
  content: none;
}

/* remember to define focus styles! */
:focus {
  outline: 0;
}

/* remember to highlight inserts somehow! */
ins {
  text-decoration: none;
}
del {
  text-decoration: line-through;
}

/* tables still need 'cellspacing="0"' in the markup */
table {
  border-collapse: collapse;
  border-spacing: 0;
}

About the author

Hi! My name is Alexander, and I am a creative frontender, specializing in UX, accessibility, universal design, frontend-architecture, node and design systems. I am passionate with open source projects and love to dabble with new emerging technologies related to frontend. With over 24 years of frontend experience, I have earned the right to be called a veteran. I am a lover of life, technologist at heart. If I am not coding, I am cooking and I love whisky and cigars. Oh, and coffee, I LOVE coffee!

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