What else do we want or need CSS to do? It’s like being out late at night someplace you shouldn’t be and a stranger in a trenchcoat walks up and whispers in your ear.

“Psst. You wanna buy some async @imports? I’ve got the specificity you want.”

You know you shouldn’t entertain the idea but you do it anyway. All your friends doing Cascade Layers. What are you, a square?

I keep thinking of how amazing it is to write CSS today. There was an email exchange just this morning where I was discussing a bunch of ideas for a persistent set of controls in the UI that would have sounded bonkers even one year ago if it wasn’t for new features, like anchor positioning, scroll timelines, auto-height transitions, and popovers. We’re still in the early days of all these things — among many, many more — and have yet to see all the awesome possibilities come to fruition. Exciting times!

 

Chris kept a CSS wishlist, going back as far as 2013 and following up on it in 2019. We all have things we’d like to see CSS do and we always will no matter how many sparkly new features we get. Let’s revisit the ones from 2013:

  1. ✅ “I’d like to be able to select an element based on if it contains another particular selector.” Hello, :has()!
  2. ❌ “I’d like to be able to select an element based on the content it contains.”
  3. ❌ “I’d like multiple pseudo-elements.”
  4. ✅ “I’d like to be able to animate/transition something to height: auto;” Yep, we got that!
  5. 🟠 “I’d like things from Sass, like @extend, @mixin, and nesting.” We got the nesting part down with some progress on mixins.
  6. ❌ “I’d like ::nth-letter, ::nth-word, etc.”
  7. ✅ “I’d like all the major browsers to auto-update.” This one was already fulfilled.

So, about a score of 3.5 out of 7. It could very well be that some of these things fell out of favor at some point (haven’t heard any crying for a new pseudo-element since the first wishlist). Chris re-articulated the list this way:

  • Parent queries. As in, selecting an element any-which-way, then selecting the parent of that element. We have some proof it’s possible with :focus-within.
  • Container queries. Select a particular element when the element itself is under certain conditions.
  • Standardized styling of form elements.
  • Has/Contains Selectors.
  • Transitions to auto dimensions.
  • Fixed up handling of viewport units.

And we’ve got the vast majority of those under wraps! We have ways to query parents and containers. We’re exploring stylable selects and field-sizing. We know about :has() and we’re still going gaga over transitions to intrinsic sizes. We’ve openly opined whether there’s too much CSS (there isn’t).

But what else is on your CSS wishlist? Ironically enough, Adam Argyle went through this exercise just this morning and I love the way he’s broken things down into a user-facing wishlist and a developer-facing wishlist. I mean, geez, a CSS carousel? Yes, please! I love his list and all lists like it.

We’ll round things up and put a list together — so let us know!

 

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What else do we want or need CSS to do?

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) has evolved significantly since its inception, adding powerful features that were once unimaginable. However, as web design and development grow more sophisticated, developers and designers continue to encounter limitations in CSS that could inspire future enhancements.

Here’s an exploration of what we want or need CSS to do to meet modern demands:

1. Improved Layout and Grid Systems

While CSS Grid and Flexbox revolutionised layouts, there’s still room for improvement:

  • Subgrid Enhancements: Subgrid is already a game-changer, but its adoption could be more streamlined, allowing greater flexibility when dealing with deeply nested layouts.
  • Better Support for Overlapping Content: Simplified methods for layering elements, especially in responsive designs.
  • Aspect Ratio Management: Enhanced controls for dynamically setting and adjusting aspect ratios without extra wrappers.

2. Native Container Queries

Container Queries, introduced in 2023, allow styles to depend on the size of a container rather than the viewport. However, developers desire:

  • Simpler Syntax: Refinements to reduce verbosity and make them easier to integrate into complex designs.
  • Broader Browser Support: Standardisation across all modern browsers to ensure consistent behaviour.

3. Style State Management

Currently, CSS is limited in handling certain states of components dynamically:

  • Parent Selectors: A long-standing request is the ability to style parent elements based on the state or properties of their children (e.g., :has() selector).
  • Scoped Styles: The ability to scope styles to specific components or elements natively, reducing reliance on external libraries or frameworks like Shadow DOM in Web Components.
  • Conditionally Applied Styles: Native support for applying styles based on complex logic, reducing dependency on JavaScript for dynamic behaviour.

4. Advanced Animations and Interactivity

CSS animations are robust but could be expanded further:

  • 3D Transformations: Simplified syntax for creating and animating complex 3D objects or scenes.
  • Physics-based Animations: Built-in properties for motion physics like bounce, inertia, and spring dynamics without relying on JavaScript libraries.
  • Event-driven Animations: The ability to trigger animations based on more complex user interactions (e.g., hover states combined with scroll behaviour).

5. Enhanced Colour and Design Control

The introduction of CSS colour functions (e.g., color-mix() and lab() in modern specs) is promising, but:

  • Dynamic Colour Blending: More intuitive tools for blending or generating colour palettes dynamically based on design systems.
  • Theme-aware Design: Native support for light/dark mode and custom themes, allowing CSS to adapt styles based on global themes or user preferences.
  • True Gradients: Radial and conic gradients have limitations—more flexible controls, such as non-linear gradients or texture-based gradients, are desired.

6. Typography and Text Manipulation

Typography remains a key area for improvement:

  • Advanced Typographic Controls: Better handling of ligatures, hyphenation, and fine-tuned kerning.
  • Variable Fonts Support: Simplified integration and manipulation of variable fonts for smoother animations and responsive designs.
  • Vertical Text Alignment: Improved tools for managing complex text layouts, such as multi-line text alignment or text fitting into specific shapes.

7. Native Cross-Browser Consistency

Browser inconsistencies are a persistent challenge:

  • Standardised Features: Better alignment in the implementation of newer CSS properties across browsers.
  • Debugging Tools: Enhanced tools to identify and fix browser-specific issues directly within dev tools.

8. Better Media Query Features

CSS Media Queries revolutionised responsive design but still have limitations:

  • Media Query Nesting: Allow nesting within rules for cleaner syntax and easier management of breakpoints.
  • Orientation-based Queries: Better handling of device orientation changes and scenarios like foldable screens.
  • Environmental Queries: Support for more contextual styling, such as adapting based on ambient light or even device capabilities like battery level.

9. Direct Integration with JavaScript and APIs

CSS lacks deeper interaction with JavaScript in some cases:

  • Dynamic Variable Updates: More seamless integration with CSS custom properties (--variables) to allow real-time updates from JavaScript.
  • API Interaction: Direct support for interacting with device APIs (e.g., sensors, cameras) for creative designs.

10. Native Responsive Images

Handling images for different screen sizes often requires complex workarounds:

  • Image Aspect Ratio Control: Simplified, native solutions to dynamically scale images without distorting content.
  • Adaptive Images: CSS handling multiple resolutions and pixel densities more intuitively for responsive designs.

11. Better Performance and Debugging

CSS performance impacts user experience, and debugging can be tedious:

  • Performance Profiling: Tools to identify slow-rendering styles or layout bottlenecks.
  • CSS Minification Support: Native options for optimising stylesheets without relying on external build tools.

12. Modularisation and Scalability

CSS for large-scale applications can become unwieldy:

  • Component-based Styling: Built-in mechanisms for modular CSS, akin to CSS-in-JS but natively implemented.
  • File Imports and Dependencies: Enhanced support for importing stylesheets conditionally or modularly.

Conclusion

While CSS has made tremendous strides, ongoing enhancements can make it more powerful, accessible, and developer-friendly. Features like broader container query support, advanced animations, and better browser consistency will empower designers and developers to craft more responsive, interactive, and scalable websites. By addressing these needs, CSS can continue to evolve as the backbone of modern web design.

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