It’s Time To Talk About “CSS5”

Ever search for CSS info and run into some article — perhaps even one or a dozen on this site — that looks promising until you realize it was published when dinosaurs roamed the planet? The information is good, but maybe isn’t the best reflection of modern best practices?

I’ve wondered that a bunch. And so has Chris. But so has Brecht De Ruyte and he’s actually doing something about it, along with other folks who make up the W3C CSS-Next community group. I worked with him on this article for Smashing Magazine and was stoked to see how much discussion, thought, and intention have gone into “versioning” CSS.

The idea? We’d “skip” CSS4, so to speak, slapping a CSS4 label on a lot of what’s released since CSS3:

CSS3 (~2009-2012):
Level 3 CSS specs as defined by the CSSWG. (immutable)

CSS4 (~2013-2018):
Essential features that were not part of CSS3 but are already a fundamental part of CSS..

From there?

CSS5 (~2019-2024):
Newer features whose adoption is steadily growing.

CSS6 (~2025+):
Early-stage features that are planned for future CSS

The most important part of the article, though, is that you (yes, you) can help the CSS-Next community group.

We also want you to participate. Anyone is welcome to join the CSS-Next group and we could certainly use help brainstorming ideas. There’s even an incubation group that conducts a biweekly hour-long session that takes place on Mondays at 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time (2:00 p.m. GMT).

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