CSS vendor prefixes

Written byPhuoc Nguyen

Created

07 Sep, 2022

Before a CSS property or JavaScript API is standardized and becomes popular, each browser tries to support it differently by its own engine. We can give it a try by using a different syntax.

A property might need to be prefixed with an identifier indicating the corresponding browsers, for example:

Prefix	Browser(s)
`-moz-`	Firefox
`-ms-`	Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge before it uses the Chromium engine
`-o-`	The old versions of Opera before it uses the WebKit engine
`-webkit-`	Google Chrome, Safari and newer versions of Opera and Edge

Let's take a look at a simple example. In the old days when the `transition` property is not standardized, we usually had to prefix it to make sure it works in popular browsers:

-webkit-transition: all 400ms ease;
-moz-transition: all 400ms ease;
-ms-transition: all 400ms ease;
-o-transition: all 400ms ease;
transition: all 400ms ease;

However, the `transtion` property is a standard property currently and supported by all modern browsers, we just simply remove all prefixes:

transition: all 400ms ease;

Do we need to track properties which have been standardized and work without being prefixed?

Fortunately, there are more tools to automate the process. They prefix a CSS property automatically based on the data covering which browsers (including versions) support that property. Autoprefixer is one of the most popular tools.

#See also

JavaScript vendor prefixes

CSS feature queries←

Normalize CSS→

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CSS vendor prefixes

#See also

Questions? 🙋

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