How to format CSS
- Paste your CSS into the box above.
- Pick an indent of 2 spaces, 4 spaces or tabs.
- Tick Remove comments only if you want them gone.
- Read the formatted stylesheet in the output box.
- Copy the result or download it.
What this CSS formatter gives you
- One declaration per line with even indents.
- Media queries and other at rules indented inside their block.
- Text inside strings kept exactly as written.
- Comments kept by default or removed on request.
- No reordering or merging so behavior stays identical.
- Live results for stylesheets of any size.
Why use a CSS formatter?
A production stylesheet often arrives as one line. That line can run tens of thousands of characters. It is perfect for shipping and terrible for reading.
Maybe you need to find where a color comes from. Maybe a selector keeps losing a specificity fight. The first step is always the same. Lay the file out so you can read it.
A clean layout brings back the structure. You see which declarations belong to which selector. You see where a media query starts and ends. None of it changes what the browser does.
Where a CSS formatter helps most
- You need to read a framework or third party stylesheet.
- You lost the source and only have the production file.
- Several people edited one file in different styles.
- You want a clean diff for code review.
- You know a rule exists but cannot spot it in the compressed file.
Why this tool stays careful
This formatter changes indents and nothing else. It does not reorder declarations. It does not merge duplicate selectors. It does not convert colors or rewrite shorthand. It never removes rules that look redundant.
That restraint is the point. CSS depends on order more than most people think. Two rules with equal specificity resolve by which one comes last. A repeated selector later in a file may override an earlier one on purpose. An aggressive tidy can change a page in ways nobody notices until it breaks in production.
Strings and comments stay safe
The tool reads the stylesheet token by token. Simple pattern tools do not. This matters more than it sounds. A semicolon inside content: "a; b" does not end a declaration. A brace inside a string does not open a block. Naive formatters break on both.
The tool keeps comments by default. That includes license banners at the top of a file. You usually must keep those for legal reasons. Strip comments only for production output after you check the license terms.
Which indent should you choose?
| Indent | Good for |
|---|---|
| 2 spaces | The most common CSS style and good for deep nesting |
| 4 spaces | Teams that use four spaces in other code |
| Tabs | Each developer picks a width in the editor |
Accessibility guides often favor tabs for that reason. Consistency matters more than the exact choice.
A quick CSS debugging workflow
- Paste the production file and format it.
- Search the output for the selector you care about.
- Note every place that selector appears.
- Check which rule comes last since the last one wins a tie.
- Fix the source file and not the formatted copy.
This method finds most style bugs in minutes. The browser dev tools then confirm which rule applies.
Common CSS formatter problems
The output looks broken in one spot
Your source may have a missing brace. Look where the indent stops making sense.
My license comment vanished
You ticked the option to remove comments. Untick it and format again.
The live preview paused
Very large files pause live updates while you type. Change any option to format the full file.
Tips for readable CSS
- Group rules by page section.
- Keep one indent style across the whole project.
- Write short comments that explain why and not what.
- Format before every review so diffs stay small.
- Delete old rules that no page uses.
Who uses a CSS formatter?
Front end developers debug styles. Designers read theme files. WordPress users edit child themes. Students study how real sites write CSS. Reviewers compare changes line by line.
Your stylesheet stays private
The tool works in your browser and uploads nothing. Ready to ship again? Use the CSS minifier. Need to tidy markup too? Try the HTML formatter. Do you work with data files? The JSON formatter helps.