CSSInheritance
CSS Inheritance
CSS inheritance is about what happens if no value is specified for a property on an element.
If no value is specified for a property, the value can either be inherited from the parent element, or be set to its initial (default) value.
For CSS inheritance, properties are categorized in two types:
- inherited properties
- non-inherited properties
Inherited Properties
Inherited properties are, by default, set to the computed value of the parent element.
Properties related to text, such ascolor,font-family,font-size,line-height, andtext-align, are typically inherited. This ensures consistent text styling throughout a document.
In the following example, the text inside the <strong> element will appear in 20px and in blue, since the <strong> element inherits the color and the font-size value from the parent (<p>) element.
Example
The color and font-size properties are inherited:
p {
color: blue;
font-size: 20px;
}
</style>
<body>
<p>This is a paragraph with some <strong>important</strong> text.</p>
</body>
Non-inherited Properties
If there is not set a value for a non-inherited property, the value is set to the initial (default) value of that property.
Properties related to the box model or layout, likeborder,background,margin,padding,width, andheight, are typically not inherited.
In the following example, the <strong> element, inside the <p> element, will not have an additional border (since the initial value ofborder-style is none).
Example
The border property is not inherited:
p {
border: 1px solid red;
}
</style>
<body>
<p>This is a paragraph with some <strong>important</strong> text.</p>
</body>
The inherit Keyword
Theinherit keyword is used to explicitly specify inheritance. It works on both inherited and non-inherited properties.
In the following example, the <strong> element, inside the <p> element, will have an additional border, since we have used theinherit keyword to explicitly specify that the border value should be inherit.
Example
Explicitly set the inheritance with theinherit keyword:
p {
border: 1px solid red;
}
strong {
border: inherit;
}
</style>
<body>
<p>This is a paragraph with some <strong>strong</strong> text.</p>
</body>
