I\'ve read conflicting information regarding Internet Explorer\'s silly CSS limits. I am (think I am) understanding that you can only have 31 <style>
and <link>
tags (combined), and that each sheet can have up to 31 @import
-s (so 31 <link>
-s, each to 31 @import
-s is fine, albeit insane).
However, the 4095 rule is less clear - is this 4095 rules per document, or per sheet? For instance, can I <link>
to two stylesheets, each with 4000 rules, and have it work, or will this break the limit?
3rd party edit 2018
On this msdn blog post stylesheet-limits-in-internet-explorer further information is given.
Referring the following from Microsoft:
- Stylesheet Limits in Internet Explorer
- KB - A webpage that uses CSS styles does not render correctly in Internet Explorer
The rules for IE9 are:
- A sheet may contain up to 4095 selectors (Demo)
- A sheet may @import up to 31 sheets
- @import nesting supports up to 4 levels deep
The rules for IE10 are:
- A sheet may contain up to 65534 selectors
- A sheet may @import up to 4095 sheets
- @import nesting supports up to 4095 levels deep
Testing the 4095 rule by sheet limit
By way of confirmation, I\'ve created a gist with 3 files. One HTML, and two CSS files.
- The first file contains 4096 selectors and means that its final selector doesn\'t get read in.
- The second file (4095.css) has one less selector, and gets read in, and works perfectly in IE (even though its already read another 4095 selectors from the previous file.
A javascript script to count your CSS rules:
function countCSSRules() {
var results = \'\',
log = \'\';
if (!document.styleSheets) {
return;
}
for (var i = 0; i < document.styleSheets.length; i++) {
countSheet(document.styleSheets[i]);
}
function countSheet(sheet) {
if (sheet && sheet.cssRules) {
var count = countSelectors(sheet);
log += \'\\nFile: \' + (sheet.href ? sheet.href : \'inline <style> tag\');
log += \'\\nRules: \' + sheet.cssRules.length;
log += \'\\nSelectors: \' + count;
log += \'\\n--------------------------\';
if (count >= 4096) {
results += \'\\n********************************\\nWARNING:\\n There are \' + count + \' CSS rules in the stylesheet \' + sheet.href + \' - IE will ignore the last \' + (count - 4096) + \' rules!\\n\';
}
}
}
function countSelectors(group) {
var count = 0
for (var j = 0, l = group.cssRules.length; j < l; j++) {
var rule = group.cssRules[j];
if (rule instanceof CSSImportRule) {
countSheet(rule.styleSheet);
}
if (rule instanceof CSSMediaRule) {
count += countSelectors(rule);
}
if( !rule.selectorText ) {
continue;
}
count += rule.selectorText.split(\',\').length;
}
return count;
}
console.log(log);
console.log(results);
};
countCSSRules();
I don\'t have enough rep to comment on the above similar snippet, but this one counts the @media rules. Drop it in Chrome console.
function countCSSRules() {
var results = \'\',
log = \'\';
if (!document.styleSheets) {
return;
}
for (var i = 0; i < document.styleSheets.length; i++) {
countSheet(document.styleSheets[i]);
}
function countSheet(sheet) {
var count = 0;
if (sheet && sheet.cssRules) {
for (var j = 0, l = sheet.cssRules.length; j < l; j++) {
if (!sheet.cssRules[j].selectorText) {
if (sheet.cssRules[j].cssRules) {
for (var m = 0, n = sheet.cssRules[j].cssRules.length; m < n; m++) {
if(sheet.cssRules[j].cssRules[m].selectorText) {
count += sheet.cssRules[j].cssRules[m].selectorText.split(\',\').length;
}
}
}
}
else {
count += sheet.cssRules[j].selectorText.split(\',\').length;
}
}
log += \'\\nFile: \' + (sheet.href ? sheet.href : \'inline <style> tag\');
log += \'\\nRules: \' + sheet.cssRules.length;
log += \'\\nSelectors: \' + count;
log += \'\\n--------------------------\';
if (count >= 4096) {
results += \'\\n********************************\\nWARNING:\\n There are \' + count + \' CSS rules in the stylesheet \' + sheet.href + \' - IE will ignore the last \' + (count - 4096) + \' rules!\\n\';
}
}
}
console.log(log);
console.log(results);
};
countCSSRules();
source: https://gist.github.com/krisbulman/0f5e27bba375b151515d
According to a page on the MSDN IEInternals blog entitled Stylesheet Limits in Internet Explorer the limits shown above (31 sheets, 4095 rules per sheet, and 4 levels) applied to IE 6 through IE 9. The limits were increased in IE 10 to the following:
- A sheet may contain up to 65534 rules
- A document may use up to 4095 stylesheets
- @import nesting is limited to 4095 levels (due to the 4095 stylesheet limit)
A nice solution to this problem for people using Grunt:
https://github.com/Ponginae/grunt-bless
Developer tools within FireFox dev edition shows CSS rules
Might be handy for those of you still fighting with older IE versions / large CSS files.
FF Developer Edition Website
I think it\'s also worth noting that any CSS file larger than 288kb will only be read up until that ~288kb. Anything after will be completely ignored in IE <= 9.
http://joshua.perina.com/africa/gambia/fajara/post/internet-explorer-css-file-size-limit
My advice is to keep CSS files for larger applications split up into modules & components and keep a constant eye on filesize.