The Different Ways to Select in CSS
Temani Afif recently did this exercise and I thought I’d build off of it. Some of these are useful. Many of them are not. There’s…
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Popover API or Dialog API: Which to Choose?
Choosing between Popover API and Dialog API is difficult because they seem to do the same job, but they don’t! After a bit lots of…
What’s !important #6: :heading, border-shape, Truncating Text From the Middle, and More
Despite what’s been a sleepy couple of weeks for new Web Platform Features, we have an issue of What’s !important that’s prrrretty jam-packed. The web…
Yet Another Way to Center an (Absolute) Element
TL;DR: We can center absolute-positioned elements in three lines of CSS. And it works on all browsers! .element { position: absolute; place-self: center; inset: 0;…
An Exploit … in CSS?!
Ok, take a deep breath. We’ll have some fun understanding this vulnerability once you make sure your browser isn’t affected, using the table below. Chromium-based…
A Complete Guide to Bookmarklets
You’re surely no stranger to bookmarks. The ability to favorite, save, or “bookmark” web pages has been a staple browser feature for decades. Browsers don’t…
Loading Smarter: SVG vs. Raster Loaders in Modern Web Design
I got this interesting question in an SVG workshop: “What is the performance difference between an SVG loader and simply rotating an image for a…
Potentially Coming to a Browser :near() You
Just before we wrapped up 2025, I saw this proposal for :near(), a pseudo-class that would match if the pointer were to go near the…
Distinguishing “Components” and “Utilities” in Tailwind
Here’s a really quick tip. You can think of Tailwind utilities as components — because you can literally make a card “component” out of Tailwind…
Spiral Scrollytelling in CSS With sibling-index()
Confession time: I’ve read about the performance benefits of scroll-timeline(), but when I see an impressive JavaScript scrollytelling site like this one, it makes me…
Interop 2026
Interop 2026 is formally a thing. So, you know all of those wild, new CSS features we’re always poking at but always putting under a…
What’s !important #5: Lazy-loading iframes, Repeating corner-shape Backgrounds, and More
This issue of What’s !important is dedicated to our friends in the UK (aka me), who are currently experiencing a very miserable 43-day rain streak.…
Making a Responsive Pyramidal Grid With Modern CSS
In the previous article, we built the classic hexagon grid. It was a responsive implementation without the use of media queries. The challenge was to…
Approximating contrast-color() With Other CSS Features
You have an element with a configurable background color, and you’d like to calculate whether the foreground text should be light or dark. Seems easy…
Trying to Make the Perfect Pie Chart in CSS
Speaking of charts… When was the last time you had to use a pie chart? If you are one of those people who have to…