8 CSS preprocessors to speed up development time
CSS allow you to do lots of things, but some features are missing to developers. What about variable, constants, and general faster syntax? As normal CSS can’t do that, people created preprocessors to allow the use of variables on CSS files and then parse it to regular stylesheets.
Less CSS
Less is probably the most well known CSS preprocessor. It allow a simplified syntax and the use of variables. Less CSS is for the Ruby programming language, however it looks like Aaron Russel created an extension for creating cached stylesheets your PHP projects can use.
Get it: http://lesscss.org
Sass
On their website, Sass claims to make CSS fun again. To be honest, I must admit that what this project is capable of is very interesting. Like Less CSS, it allow the use of variables and have a simplified syntax. Sass is definitely a great tool, unfortunely only available for Ruby, as far as I know.
Get it: http://sass-lang.com/
Turbine
If like me, you’re a PHP Lover, here is a css preprocessor made for your favorite language. I haven’t tested it yet, but Turbine looks very cool. It allow a minimal syntax, automatically gzip multiple css, fix cross-browser issues, and a lot more. A must check if you’re into PHP.
Get it: http://turbine.peterkroener.de/index.php
Switch CSS
Switch is a full featured, production ready CSS preprocessor. It runs under Apache with mod_python, or as an environment-agnostic command line tool.
Get it: http://sourceforge.net/projects/switchcss/
CSS Cacheer
CSS Cacheer is a very cool preprocessor which allows developers to create plugins. It requires PHP and Apache with mod_deflate and mod_rewrite in order to work.
Get it: http://retired.haveamint.com/archive/2008/05/30/check_out_css_cacheer
CSS Preprocessor
Another interesting preprocessor, written in PHP 5. Among other things, this tool allow you to use expressions such as margin-left: (200px * 3/2 – 10px); in your stylesheets.
Get it: http://pornel.net/css
DT CSS
DtCSS speeds up CSS coding by extending the features to CSS. Such as nested selectors, color mixing and more. DtCSS reads the CSS file with special syntax written for DtCSS, and outputs the standard CSS. It also comes with a smart caching system.
Get it: http://code.google.com/p/dtcss/
CSS PP
Unfortunely, CSS PP is still in alpha status, but the authors says the code will be released very soon. One of the good points of this projects is that it will be available in PHP, Python and Ruby. Great news for developpers who work with all of these languages.
Get it: http://csspp.org/
You miss this one Jean http://www.w3avenue.com/2009/10/13/csscaffold-php-based-css-framework/.
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I wonder why there’s no compass in the list. It’s also worth to try and can be used in windows as well.
You missed this too
The LESS for CSS has been re-written in Javascript have a look at this
http://github.com/cloudhead/less.js
I prefer the JS version of Less
Regards.
Compass(compass-style.org) is the best!
I would prefer to the JS version of Less
[...] 8 CSS preprocessors to speed up development time [...]
[...] 8 CSS preprocessors to speed up development time Filed under: CSS, CSS3, WebDesign by routhu — Leave a comment August 11, 2010 CSS allow you to do lots of things, but some features are missing to developers. What about variable, constants, and general faster syntax? As normal CSS can’t do that, people created preprocessors to allow the use of variables on CSS files and then parse it to regular stylesheets. View full article » [...]
Excellent tips mate, CSS coding have always been a headache for me, especially because all new written CSS is short type or it is all on one line. Using WebDeveloper and Firebug helps, but those tools that you reviewed in above article are amazing.
I prefer the JS version as well.
Really good article, I will put this features to my collection.
It’s also worth to try and can be used in windows as well.
The icon You used was not a public domain image, it belongs to the developers of CssEdit, MacRabbit, please stop using it and other copyrighted images for profit.
SASS and Compass can be used for any language as long as you have Ruby installed in your system. For an example of using both on CakePHP see:
http://weblog.robwilkerson.org/post/1131885328/compass-sass-cakephp
Great resource, generally I am not good with CSS especially editing the short code. I guess this will help me improve my skills.
wro4j (http://code.google.com/p/wro4j/) has support for Less and Sass, so both can be used in Java environment
Good list, but you missed stylus (http://learnboost.github.com/stylus/)!
The address for Turbine has changed to turbinecss.org
Even if you are on a php project, you can install ruby on your server, install sass or compass and start compiling your .scss files to css. So its not really that sass is available only for ruby, but sass compiler is written on ruby and therefore requires ruby. Does anyone disagree?
And also, there is a javascript compiler for less. You can install eg node.js on your server and fire up the compiler in your build process.