Pico CSS is no longer maintained

v2.1.1 is the final release.

Why
Today, AI can generate lightweight, standalone, accessible HTML with just the CSS it needs, so a Minimal CSS Framework for Semantic HTML matters less than it used to. To stay relevant, Pico CSS would need a full rewrite: plain modern CSS instead of Sass, built on features it doesn't use today (OKLCH colors, cascade layers, Popover, anchor positioning) with fallbacks for older browsers, and a native compiler that strips unused CSS and makes customization easy. That would be a different project. Pico CSS stays as it is.

What this means

• Nothing breaks. npm, the jsDelivr CDN and picocss.com stay online for the long term.
• The repositories are archived. No new issues, PRs or releases.
• Pico CSS is MIT licensed. You're free to fork it and take it further. See community forks.
• The Pico CSS name and logo are not covered by the MIT license. Please give your fork its own name, so users don't confuse it with the original.

Thank you
What started as a small side project ended up powering thousands of websites. Thank you to everyone who used it, opened issues, sent pull requests and wrote kind messages over the years.

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Minimal CSS Framework for Semantic HTML

A minimalist and lightweight starter kit that prioritizes semantic syntax, making every HTML element responsive and elegant by default.

Write HTML, Add Pico CSS, and Voilà!

What’s new in v2?

Pico v2.0 features better accessibility, easier customization with SASS, a complete color palette, a new group component, and 20 precompiled color themes totaling over 100 combinations accessible via CDN.

Read more

A Superpowered HTML Reset

With just the right amount of everything, Pico is great starting point for a clean and lightweight design system.

• Class-light and Semantic
• Great Styles with Just CSS
• Responsive Everything
• Light or Dark Mode
• Easy Customization
• Optimized Performance

Table of contents

• Quick start
• Class-less version
• Limitations
• Documentation
• Browser Support
• Contributing
• Copyright and license

Quick start

There are 4 ways to get started with pico.css:

Install manually

Download Pico and link /css/pico.min.css in the <head> of your website.

<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/pico.min.css">

Usage from CDN

Alternatively, you can use jsDelivr CDN to link pico.css.

<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@picocss/pico@2/css/pico.min.css">

Install with NPM

npm install @picocss/pico

Or

yarn add @picocss/pico

Then, import Pico into your SCSS file with @use:

@use "pico";

Install with Composer

composer require picocss/pico

Starter HTML template

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
    <meta name="color-scheme" content="light dark">
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/pico.min.css">
    <title>Hello world!</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <main class="container">
      <h1>Hello world!</h1>
    </main>
  </body>
</html>

Class-less version

Pico provides a .classless version.

In this version, <header>, <main>, and <footer> inside <body> act as containers to define a centered or a fluid viewport.

Use the default .classless version if you need centered viewports:

<link
  rel="stylesheet"
  href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@picocss/pico@2/css/pico.classless.min.css"
/>

Or use the .fluid.classless version if you need a fluid container:

<link
  rel="stylesheet"
  href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@picocss/pico@2/css/pico.fluid.classless.min.css"
>

Then just write pure HTML, and it should look great:

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
    <meta name="color-scheme" content="light dark">
    <link
      rel="stylesheet"
      href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@picocss/pico@2/css/pico.classless.min.css"
    >
    <title>Hello, world!</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <main>
      <h1>Hello, world!</h1>
    </main>
  </body>
</html>

Limitations

Pico CSS can be used without custom CSS for quick or small projects. However, it’s designed as a starting point, like a “reset CSS on steroids”. As Pico does not integrate any helpers or utilities .classes, this minimal CSS framework requires SCSS or CSS knowledge to build large projects.

Read more

Documentation

Getting started

• Quick start
• Version picker New
• Color schemes
• Class-less version
• Conditional styling New
• RTL

Customization

• CSS Variables
• Sass
• Colors New

Layout

• Container
• Landmarks & section
• Grid
• Overflow auto New

Content

• Typography
• Link
• Button
• Table

Forms

• Overview
• Input
• Textarea
• Select
• Checkboxes
• Radios
• Switch
• Range

Components

• Accordion
• Card
• Dropdown
• Group New
• Loading
• Modal
• Nav
• Progress
• Tooltip

About

• What’s new in v2?
• Mission
• Usage scenarios
• Brand
• Built With

Browser Support

Pico CSS is designed and tested for the latest stable Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari releases. It does not support any version of IE, including IE 11.

Contributing

Contributions are closed. This repository is archived.

Copyright and license

Licensed under the MIT License.