In this article we will explore some new CSS features in 2024.
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1. CSS container queries
Container queries allow you to apply a style to an item depending on the size of the item's container.Container queries work like media queries.
Using container queries
Using container queries, you can dynamically adjust the style of child elements within a parent element according to their size.
To do this, you must first define a container context for the parent element. You specify this with the container-type property.
container-type: size; When set to , you can query by both width and height values.
container-type: inline-size; When set to , query is made only on width (horizontal dimension).
Thanks to this feature, the style properties of child elements can be changed depending on the size of the parent element.
Examples :
<div class="post">
<div class="card">
<h2>Card title</h2>
<p>Card content</p>
</div>
</div>
.post {
container-type: size;
}
.card h2 {
font-size: 1em;
color: blue;
}
@container (min-width: 700px) {
.card h2 {
font-size: 5em;
color: purple;
}
}
Output :
2. Css Nesting
With CSS nesting, you can place one rule inside another. This is especially useful for managing styles that are context-dependent. For example, if you have a .container class and want to style its .item elements, you can write the .item rules directly inside the .container rule. CSS Nesting is parsed directly by the browser. This means you don’t need a preprocessor to compile nested rules; they work natively in the browser.
Examples :
<form>
<label for="name">Name:
<input type="text" id="name" />
</label>
<label for="surname">Surname:</label>
<input type="text" id="surname" />
</form>
input {
border: red 2px solid;
}
label {
font-family: system-ui;
font-size: 1.25rem;
& input {
border: purple 2px solid;
}
}
Output :
3. :scope Pseudo Class
The Scope Selector is used to define the scope for styles in CSS.
Usage :
- If :scope is at the root level of a css, it is equivalent to :root
Examples :
<html></html>
:scope {
background-color: orange;
}
Output :
- Using :scope within @scope blocks allows for clear and targeted styling based on the context defined by the class names.
Examples :
<div class="light">
<p>
<a href="#">dev.to</a>,
</p>
</div>
<div class="dark">
<p>
Lorem Ipsum
<a href="#">dev.to</a>,
</p>
</div>
@scope (.light) {
:scope {
background-color: black;
}
a {
font-size : 2rem;
}
}
@scope (.dark) {
:scope {
background-color: yellow;
color: purple;
}
a {
font-size : 4rem;
}
Output :
4. :has() Pseudo Class
The :has() selector in CSS allows you to style a parent element if it contains a specific child element.
Examples :
<p>
Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters,<a href="/">as opposed to using 'Content here, content here', making it look like readable English.</a>
</p>
p:has(a) {
font-size: 40px;
}
Output :
5. Color Functions
You can have much more control over the tones and contrasts of colors with new color functions such as color-mix() and color-contrast()
Examples :
color-mix(in lab, plum 60%, #f00 50%)
color-contrast(wheat vs tan, sienna, #d2691e)
color-contrast(#008080 vs olive, var(--myColor), #d2691e)
6. Anchor Positioning
The CSS anchor positioning module defines features that allow you to tether elements together. Certain elements are defined as anchor elements; anchor-positioned elements can then have their size and position set based on the size and location of the anchor elements to which they are bound.
Conclusion
In this article, we explored some new features CSS in 2024. You can use this features for app.
Top comments (20)
Careful with the conclusion part!
While this is a great list, it is worth noting:
:scopeis not supported at all in Firefox.color-contrastis not supported at all in any browser and is purely experimental.So in reality, out of the list you gave, container queries are the only one that is "safe" to use at the moment, depending on how far back you want to support browsers!
When talkink about any "new" features of web technologies, one has to be aware of possible lack of support in certain browsers.
A dedicated website caniuse.com/ is here to save the day providing detailed info about browser adoption of most if not all of them. If anyone doesn't know it yet, bookmark it asap!
This is a fantastic point. And this is common with new features in CSS or JavaScript. It's fine to play with them in your personal projects, but you must pay a lot of attention to browser support before using them in production.
Yes, I’m aware of the current support limitations. However, it’s worth noting that when Flexbox and Grid first came out, they faced similar browser support challenges, yet over time they became well-supported
absolutely! And I encourage people to play with things and put them in side projects, just wanted to point out they were not really "production ready" yet.
Thank you for your feedback. I respect every comment, every information and opinion made on my articles in this community. Your comment is very valuable to me
Workaround would be to install PostCSS and respective plugins which will transform modern CSS to output understandable to older browsers. Once the browser support of these features is acceptable, you just remove the PostCSS plugins from your build step without modyfing the code at all.
Thank you , it seems logical to easily provide legacy browser support with PostCSS and related plugins.
This is true
Thanks for clarifying this! It’s important to check the browser support on any features you use.
Most of these are beta features
Yes, I already said it is.
Yes you did 😅
But I personally love beta features
Sometimes i wish everyone just put their effort into 1 package , tailwind css, utility based
You may be right, but a CSS framework contains CSS codes. To use a framework effectively, you need to understand css, so you have to learn css.
Love it
:)
I want you to teach me
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