CSS keywords
Summary
Many CSS properties have specific keywords which may be used as values; in addition, the keywords initial and inherit may be used as the value of any CSS property.
The keywords relevant to a specific CSS property are defined in its property page. All keywords meet the requirements of CSS identifiers, and are case sensitive. Keywords should never be quoted.
CSS-wide keywords
Certain keywords can be used for any CSS property value:
inherit copies the value of the property in effect for the element’s parent.
initial represents the initial (or default) value for the property, over-riding any values set earlier in the cascade; initial values are defined on each property’s definition; it is not supported in Internet Explorer.
unset is equivalent to inherit if the property is normally inherited, or initial otherwise; it is not currently supported in most browsers (although Firefox implements it).
Examples
body{
height:100%;
background-image:radial-gradient(ellipse , yellow, orange 30%);
text-align:center;
/* a property-specific keyword */
}
h1 {
background-image:inherit;
/* inherit a not-normally inherited property
(note that there is a second gradient that fits the
heading box)
*/
}
p {
text-align:initial;
/* over-ride an inheritied property,
if your browser supports the initial keyword */
}
a {
color: inherit !important;
/* over-ride a user stylesheet property */
text-decoration: unset !important;
/* over-ride a user stylesheet property,
if your browser supports the unset keyword */
}
Related specifications
- CSS Cascading and Inheritance Level 3
- W3C Candidate Recommendation
- CSS Values and Units Module Level 3
- W3C Candidate Recommendation
- CSS 2.1
- W3C Recommendation