37

I thought that the initial value would restore initially rendered styles (as applied by a browser's internal user-agent stylesheet).

Example:

div.inline {
  display: inline;
}

div.initial {
  display: initial;
}

I expected the div.inline rule would display <div class="inline"> in inline mode, and the div.initial rule would display <div class="initial"> using a div's original display value of block.

But when I explore this, <div class="initial"> displays inline. Am I wrong? Can anyone elaborate more on this?

1

3 Answers 3

64

The initial value (not attribute) denotes the initial value of the property, as defined in CSS specifications: “The ‘initial’ keyword represents the specified value that is designated as the property's initial value.” Thus, its meaning depends on the property, but not on anything else, e.g. not on the browser or on the element that the property is being applied to. So it does not mean browser default.

For example, for the display property, initial always means inline, because that’s the designated initial value of the property. In the example case, the browser default is block, since the element is div.

Thus, the initial value is of limited usefulness. Its main effect seems to be to confuse people, due to misunderstandings. A possible use case is for the color property, since its initial value is browser-dependent (mostly black, as we know, but not necessarily). For it, initial means browser default, since that’s how the property has been defined, A similar use case is for font-family: by declaring font-family: initial, you get browser’s default font (which may depend on browser settings).

The usefulness is further limited by lack of support on IE (even IE 10).

11
  • 6
    There is one very common annoying use case where initial is extremely helpful: when you hide and unhide an element programmatically, i.e. give it display:none then display it again. This is because there are so many values for display, and no defaults without initial. jQuery has been doing this for years, and preprocessors like LESS, Stylus & SCSS make it easier, but it's helpful that it's right in CSS. IE not having it does limit it, though, especially since the others do allow it there.
    – trysis
    Jun 19, 2014 at 3:29
  • 4
    @trysis: display: initial is a synonym for disply: inline when it even works at all, so that doesn't buy you much.
    – recursive
    Aug 13, 2014 at 21:52
  • 1
    It also has the use of frustrating devs like me, that just want 2*initial to be a thing for "twice the default value". Dec 14, 2017 at 22:11
  • 1
    @trysis, I'm also confused by your comment about the "one very common annoying use case where initial is extremely helpful." It sounds like you're saying that "display: initial" can be used when you've hidden an element with "display: none" and then want to show it again, restoring whatever "display" property it had before you hid it. That doesn't work. It just gives the element a "display" property of "inline," regardless of whether it's a block-level element such as a <div> or an inline element such as a <span>. If you're saying something different, could you please clarify? Mar 28, 2019 at 22:32
  • 1
    Sorry, I wrote that comment a long time ago, when Inwas a brand new developer. I meant display: revert. Unfortunately, revert doesn't have very good support, even now.
    – trysis
    Apr 4, 2019 at 18:56
7

Source

The initial CSS keyword applies the initial value of a property to an element. It is allowed on every CSS property and causes the element for which it is specified to use the initial value of the property.

/* give headers a green border */
 h2 { border: medium solid green }

 /* but make those in the sidebar use the value of the "color" property */
 #sidebar h2 { border-color: initial; }
<p style="color:red"> 
    this text is red 
       <em style="color:initial"> 
          this text is in the initial color (e.g. black)
       </em>
    this is red again
 </p> 
2
  • Thanks for reply. Then what is the diff btwn inherit and initial?
    – NkS
    Aug 30, 2013 at 13:52
  • 1
    inherit gets its value from the parent element.
    – John Conde
    Aug 30, 2013 at 13:55
1

Summary: The most common use of the initial value is to override inherited styles.

When you use an inherited property on an element, some of its descendants might be affected undesirably. To wipe out the unwanted style from those elements, use the initial value.

p {
  visibility: hidden;
}

em {
  visibility: initial;
}
<p>
  <span>This text is hidden.</span>
  <em>I don't want this text to be hidden.</em>
  <span>This text is hidden.</span>
</p>

Then what's the difference between visibility and the display property, which is discussed in the OP? The visibility property can be inherited, but display cannot:

enter image description here

enter image description here

On non-inherited properties, the property's initial value may be unexpectedly different form the browser's default value. That means you need to know its initial value before you use it. Nevertheless, the computed (final) value may be different form the initial value:

p {
  display: flex;
}

a {
  display: initial;
}
<p>
  <a href="#">Link</a>
</p>

enter image description here

That's why I personally prefer not to use the initial value on non-inherited properties.

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