2022-11-24
1787
#css
Daniel Schwarz
141822
Nov 24, 2022 â‹… 6 min read

What should a modern CSS boilerplate look like?

Daniel Schwarz Previously, design blog editor at Toptal and SitePoint. Now I advocate for better UX design alongside industry leaders such as Adobe, InVision, Marvel, Wix, Net Magazine, CreativeBloq, CSS-Tricks, and more.

Recent posts:

Stagehand and Gemini logos on a gradient background symbolizing AI web automation

How to build a web-based AI agent with Stagehand and Gemini

This guide walks you through creating a web UI for an AI agent that browses, clicks, and extracts info from websites powered by Stagehand and Gemini.

Elijah Asaolu
Jul 4, 2025 â‹… 8 min read
Getting Started With Claude 4 API: A Developer's Walkthrough

Getting started with Claude 4 API: A developer’s walkthrough

This guide explores how to use Anthropic’s Claude 4 models, including Opus 4 and Sonnet 4, to build AI-powered applications.

Andrew Baisden
Jul 3, 2025 â‹… 16 min read
ai dev tool power rankings

AI dev tool power rankings & comparison [July 2025 edition]

Which AI frontend dev tool reigns supreme in July 2025? Check out our power rankings and use our interactive comparison tool to find out.

Chizaram Ken
Jul 2, 2025 â‹… 3 min read
how API client automation can save you hours in development

How API client automation can save you hours in development

Learn how OpenAPI can automate API client generation to save time, reduce bugs, and streamline how your frontend app talks to backend APIs.

Lewis Cianci
Jul 1, 2025 â‹… 7 min read
View all posts

2 Replies to "What should a modern CSS boilerplate look like?"

  1. I totally disagree with most of your ideas.
    Changing the box-model is something I really wouldn’t do. I get that it can be a bit of a challenge to get your head around the standard box model at first, but once you get it has at least as many pros as it has cons, and as it is the standard way, it makes your CSS a lot more understandable for others that might have to work with it at some point.
    Valuing your own design over the needs of users, as you do with disabling borders and even worse outlines, is plainly rude and selfish. (That you try to be clever about t it by using focus-visible shows, that you are not totally ignorant. It might make it even worse though, as a lack of knowledge might be an excuse for a lack of wisdom…)
    You can do this for each element you actually carefully design and where you do offer good accessibility alternatives – I do it all the time. But you can never know if your client or her nephew at some point in the future will install a plugin that shows crucial elements that you made inaccessible with your laziness.

    Changin the root font-size because you want to make it easier to calculate things, that most likely should be handled totally differently (ever heard of CSS custom properties?) seem just foolish. Also, code examples with unitless values for font size or with? Really?

    Even if some of the standards of the web are disputable, your ‘solutions’ for the most part are worse.

Leave a Reply