TheinitialCSS keyword applies theinitial (or default) value of a property to an element. It can be applied to any CSS property, including the CSS shorthand propertyall. Withall set toinitial, all CSS properties can be restored to their respective initial values in one go instead of restoring each one separately.

Oninherited properties, the initial value may be unexpected. You should consider using theinherit,unset,revert, orrevert-layer keywords instead.

Examples

Using initial to reset color for an element

HTML

<p>  <span>This text is red.</span>  <em>This text is in the initial color (typically black).</em>  <span>This is red again.</span></p>

CSS

p {  color: red;}em {  color: initial;}

Result

With theinitial keyword in this example,color value on theem element is restored to the initial value ofcolor, as defined in the specification.

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also

• Use theinherit keyword to make an element's property the same as its parent.
• Use therevert keyword to reset a property to the value established by the user-agent stylesheet (or by user styles, if any exist).
• Use therevert-layer keyword to reset a property to the value established in a previous cascade layer.
• Use theunset keyword to set a property to its inherited value if it inherits or to its initial value if not.
• Theall property lets you reset all properties to their initial, inherited, reverted, or unset state at once.