Is the use of the "inherit" value for style properties essential in HTML design?

Question

Is the use of the "inherit" value for style properties essential in HTML design?

My question is simple: why is there an "inherit" value for (almost) all properties in HTML-CSS when all browsers already support inheritance for all properties? When I searched on Google, I found a statement that said:

"Even though certain characteristics are inherited automatically in CSS, there may be situations where you want to emphasize the importance of the inherited property. By specifying a value of inherit for a CSS property, the element will adopt its parent's computed value. This can give more weight to the property by specifying it to inherit."

This explanation made me even more confused. What does it mean to "increase the weight" of an inherited property?

Is it about trying to be cautious and not relying solely on the browser's default inheritance capabilities, or is it for the sake of having clearer code? I am still unclear.

Some sources mention that Internet Explorer 7 and earlier versions do not fully support the inherit value for properties other than direction and visibility. If this is true, doesn't it weaken the argument for using the "inherit" value even more?

html css

Answer 1

Answer №1

For detailed information on the 'inherit' value, please refer to the W3C's specification.

Here is an excerpt from the specification:

The 'inherit' value can be utilized to reinforce inherited values and may also be applied to properties that are not typically inherited.

In my opinion, this description is more precise than stating "increase the weight of the inherited property."

If you're dealing with the IE7 inherit issue, you can find additional insights in this Stack Overflow post about theIE7 CSS inherit problem

UPDATE:
Based on K Prime's code sample, I conducted a comparison test between IE7 and IE8/FF3.5

Below is the HTML code used for the test:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<style type="text/css">
p { color: #666; }
p a { color: blue; text-decoration: underline; }
p a.inactive { color: inherit; text-decoration: none; }
</style>
</head>
<body>
<a href="#">should be default</a>
<p>
<a href="#" class="inactive">should be grey</a>
<a href="#">should be blue</a>
</p>
</body>
</html>

IE7 output:
https://i.sstatic.net/cwWf2.png

IE8/FF3.5 output:
https://i.sstatic.net/0rigW.png

As seen from the results, IE7 did not pass the 'inherit' test in this scenario.

Answer 2

For detailed information on the 'inherit' value, please refer to the W3C's specification.

Here is an excerpt from the specification:

The 'inherit' value can be utilized to reinforce inherited values and may also be applied to properties that are not typically inherited.

In my opinion, this description is more precise than stating "increase the weight of the inherited property."

If you're dealing with the IE7 inherit issue, you can find additional insights in this Stack Overflow post about theIE7 CSS inherit problem

UPDATE:
Based on K Prime's code sample, I conducted a comparison test between IE7 and IE8/FF3.5

Below is the HTML code used for the test:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<style type="text/css">
p { color: #666; }
p a { color: blue; text-decoration: underline; }
p a.inactive { color: inherit; text-decoration: none; }
</style>
</head>
<body>
<a href="#">should be default</a>
<p>
<a href="#" class="inactive">should be grey</a>
<a href="#">should be blue</a>
</p>
</body>
</html>

IE7 output:
https://i.sstatic.net/cwWf2.png

IE8/FF3.5 output:
https://i.sstatic.net/0rigW.png

As seen from the results, IE7 did not pass the 'inherit' test in this scenario.

Answer 3

Answer №2

When you want to reset a custom style that has been previously applied or reverse a customization, this code snippet comes in handy:

p { color: #666; }
p a { color: blue; text-decoration: underline; }

p a.inactive { color: inherit; text-decoration: none; }

This CSS rule ensures that all links (a) within a paragraph are styled in blue, except for those with the class inactive, which will inherit the styles from its parent element and appear gray in this specific scenario.

Answer 4

When you want to reset a custom style that has been previously applied or reverse a customization, this code snippet comes in handy:

p { color: #666; }
p a { color: blue; text-decoration: underline; }

p a.inactive { color: inherit; text-decoration: none; }

This CSS rule ensures that all links (a) within a paragraph are styled in blue, except for those with the class inactive, which will inherit the styles from its parent element and appear gray in this specific scenario.

Is the use of the "inherit" value for style properties essential in HTML design?

Answer №1

Answer №2

Similar questions

What is the best way to handle a 3-element mode using an onClick function in Next.js?

Placing a div tag directly beneath another div tag

How to Use Jquery to Show a Variable Amount of Divs Within Another Div

While it includes a new section, it fails to refresh the navbar

Generate HTML documentation from Matlab exports

Set a maximum height for the <td> element within a table, regardless of the length of the text in neighboring cells

Bootstrap 3 with a left sidebar menu featuring subtle ghosting borders for a sleek and modern

Floating Crosshair within Div - Limited to Container

In IE 11, Bootstrap 4 does not properly display the placeholder and typed text for input type text with padding

Displaying Angular 4 HTTP GET response in HTML: A Step-by-Step Guide

Using ng-src and ngFor in Angular applications

Concealing table row information when checkbox is marked

What is the best way to display table rows for a specified date range?

react-datepicker displaying error message "Preventing default action not possible within a passive event listener invocation"

Tips for defining a relative path in the base URL with AngularJS

Python Selenium Timeout Exception Handling

Is there a way to stack overlapping divs in a layout that resembles a pile of papers?

The Parent Div is styled with a background color, and I would like the sub div to inherit the background from whatever is behind the

Cursor or caret bleeding through overlay on Internet Explorer

The 'in' operator cannot be used in Jquery to search for 'display' in a value that is undefined