Is the :root selector truly devoid of value?

While I understand that :root can be used to select the html tag in an HTML file and the svg tag in an SVG file, I personally find it strange and not practical to apply the same styles to both HTML and SVG using :root. It seems like an unrealistic scenario to me.

The only legitimate use of :root that I have come across is to override styles set for html, as pseudo-class selectors take precedence over type selectors. However, I believe it is best to avoid frequent overrides of html styles and instead link specific CSS files later in the document.

Therefore, my question is: are there any real-world scenarios where using :root would not just be a peculiar alternative to selecting html (or svg for SVG files)?

htmlcsscss-selectorspseudo-class

Answer №1

When working with HTML, most authors usually only consider two key differences between using :root and html:

  1. :root is more specific as a pseudo-class. However, if you prefer the lower specificity of a type selector, using html instead of :root is perfectly acceptable.
  2. :root can also be utilized to hide certain rules from older versions of Internet Explorer, although this use case may not be as common in modern times as it was a few years back.

Aside from these differences, the main purpose of the :root pseudo-class is to target the root element in any document without requiring knowledge of the element type, making it suitable for various document languages including XML-based ones. It's worth noting that the Selectors module in level 3 serves a wide range of document languages and not just for styling HTML elements with CSS, hence the name change from "CSS Selectors" to simply "Selectors."

Furthermore, in host languages where the root element doesn't have a specific type and can be both the root and nested element, :root is essential for distinguishing between them. There are alternative methods like :not(:nth-child(n)) with equivalent specificity in Selectors 3, or :not(* > *) with zero specificity in Selectors 4.

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