CSS Beautifier

Warnings

• breaking Past versions (e.g., v1.11.0) experienced `pip install cssbeautifier` failures due to packaging issues related to the `jsbeautifier` dependency. While fixed in later releases (v1.12.0), this highlights a potential fragility in the dependency management.
  Fix: Ensure you are using `cssbeautifier` version 1.12.0 or newer. If issues persist, try installing `jsbeautifier` explicitly first: `pip install jsbeautifier cssbeautifier`.
• gotcha The Python `cssbeautifier` library is specifically designed for CSS code and *does not* support HTML beautification. Users familiar with the Node.js version of the beautifier might expect HTML support, but this functionality is not available in the Python package.
  Fix: For HTML beautification in Python, consider alternative libraries or use the Node.js `js-beautify` CLI/library. The `cssbeautifier` package should only be used for CSS.
• gotcha The beautifier may produce unexpected results or even invalid CSS for highly complex, unconventional, or malformed CSS syntax. Historical issues include incorrect handling of `@media` queries, `@font-face` rules, nested `@-rules`, and comments with quotes, leading to extra spaces or parsing errors.
  Fix: Always review the output of the beautifier, especially for complex CSS. Test the beautified code to ensure it remains valid and functional. If consistent issues arise with specific CSS constructs, consider opening an issue on the project's GitHub page.
• gotcha When configuring options, the Python API uses `snake_case` for option names (e.g., `indent_size`), while the command-line interface (CLI) and some other language implementations (e.g., Node.js) typically use `kebab-case` (e.g., `--indent-size`).
  Fix: Refer to the Python documentation for the correct `snake_case` option names when setting `BeautifierOptions` attributes. Avoid directly translating CLI flags to Python option names without adjustment.

Install

• pip install cssbeautifier Install latest version

Imports

• beautify

  import cssbeautifier
  result = cssbeautifier.beautify(css_string)

  While `beautify` can be imported directly, the official examples typically use `cssbeautifier.beautify` for clarity.
• default_options

  from cssbeautifier import default_options
  opts = default_options()

  Used to retrieve a configurable options object.

Quickstart

This quickstart demonstrates how to beautify a CSS string using the `cssbeautifier.beautify` function. It shows both default formatting and how to customize options like indentation size and newline rules using `cssbeautifier.default_options`. The library also supports reading from and writing to files.

import cssbeautifier

ugly_css = ".container{display:flex;}.item{color:red;font-size:16px;margin:0 auto;}"

# Beautify with default options
pretty_css_default = cssbeautifier.beautify(ugly_css)
print("--- Default Beautification ---")
print(pretty_css_default)

# Beautify with custom options
opts = cssbeautifier.default_options()
opts.indent_size = 2
opts.end_with_newline = True
opts.newline_between_rules = False

pretty_css_custom = cssbeautifier.beautify(ugly_css, opts)
print("\n--- Custom Beautification (2-space indent, no newline between rules) ---")
print(pretty_css_custom)

# Example of beautifying a file (conceptual, requires a file to exist)
# Assuming 'styles.min.css' exists with ugly_css content
# with open('styles.min.css', 'w') as f:
#     f.write(ugly_css)
# beautified_file_content = cssbeautifier.beautify_file('styles.min.css', opts)
# print("\n--- Beautified File Content ---")
# print(beautified_file_content)