CSS Pretty Print Online — Format & Indent CSS

Pretty print compressed CSS into clean indented code. Same operation as our CSS Beautifier — provided here for users who search the alternate vocabulary.

Indent:

Input CSS

Pretty Printed CSS

What is CSS Pretty Print?

CSS pretty print reformats a compressed or messy stylesheet into clean, multi-line code with one declaration per line, consistent indentation, and predictable spacing. It is the same operation as CSS beautify — different teams use different vocabulary, but the engine and output are identical.

Selectors, properties, values, and source order are preserved exactly, so the browser renders the page identically before and after. Pretty printing is purely a presentation transform — useful for reviewing minified third-party CSS, cleaning up DevTools output, or normalising formatting before commit.

How to pretty print CSS online — 4 steps

Paste your CSS. Drop minified, single-line, or messy CSS into the Input panel.
Pick indentation. 2-space, 4-space, or tab — match your project conventions.
Click Pretty Print. The tool reformats client-side: one declaration per line, indented inside braces.
Copy the result. Use Copy to grab clean output for your editor or pull request.

Before and after — pretty print example

Input — compressed

body{margin:0;font-family:system-ui;color:#0f172a}h1{font-size:2rem;font-weight:700}

Output — pretty printed

body {
  margin: 0;
  font-family: system-ui;
  color: #0f172a;
}

h1 {
  font-size: 2rem;
  font-weight: 700;
}

Clean Multi-Line Output

Each declaration goes on its own line, indented inside braces. Diffs become single-line, code review becomes faster.

Rendering Preserved

Whitespace is the only thing that changes. Selectors, values, !important, and source order stay byte-for-byte intact.

Local-Only Processing

CSS is parsed and reformatted in JavaScript inside your browser — nothing is uploaded. Verify in DevTools Network tab.

Common use cases

check_circlePretty printing minified CSS from a production bundle to debug specificity issues
check_circleReformatting CSS pasted from browser DevTools into a readable form
check_circleNormalising formatting before committing CSS to version control
check_circleCleaning up auto-generated CSS exported from design tools
check_circlePretty printing CSS for documentation, MDX, or developer blog code blocks
check_circleStandardising indent style when merging CSS from multiple authors
check_circleReformatting third-party CSS snippets before integrating into your codebase
check_circleAuditing critical CSS extracted by build tools before inlining

Pretty print vs. beautify — vocabulary difference, same engine

CSS "pretty print" and "beautify" describe identical operations: reformat compressed CSS with consistent indentation, line breaks, and spacing. Different teams use different names — Prettier and many JS-tooling docs say "pretty print"; CSS-specific guides historically say "beautify". Our canonical tool is the CSS Beautifier; this page serves search traffic for the alternate term and produces byte-identical output.

Need to compress, convert, or compile CSS?

OpenFormatter ships minify, convert, and compile tools for CSS, LESS, SCSS, SASS, and Stylus.

CSS Beautifier (canonical)CSS Minifier All CSS Tools

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between CSS pretty print and CSS beautify?

There is no difference — they are two names for the same operation: reformatting CSS with consistent indentation, line breaks, and spacing. We provide both URLs because some teams search for "pretty print" and others search for "beautify". The output is identical. Our canonical tool is the CSS Beautifier; this page exists for the alternate vocabulary.

Why have two URLs for the same tool?

Search vocabulary differs across teams and ecosystems: developer tooling docs (Prettier, ESLint) often say "pretty print", while CSS-specific tools historically use "beautify". To serve users searching for either term we publish both pages with the same engine. If you arrived here, the page works exactly as you expect.

Does pretty printing change how my CSS renders?

No. Pretty printing only adjusts whitespace — line breaks, indentation, and spaces around braces, colons, and commas. Selectors, property names, values, and source order are preserved exactly, so the browser renders the page identically to the input.

Can I pretty print CSS that contains @media or @keyframes?

Yes. Nested at-rules such as @media, @keyframes, @supports, @font-face, and @container are reformatted with their inner rules indented one level deeper. The structure is preserved exactly — only whitespace inside the blocks changes.

Does this tool validate that the CSS is well-formed?

It performs basic parsing — if the input cannot be reformatted at all (mismatched braces, malformed declarations) it will return an error. For full W3C CSS conformance checking use a dedicated CSS validator. Pretty printing is a presentation operation, not a validation tool.

Is my CSS uploaded anywhere?

No. The pretty printer runs entirely in JavaScript inside your browser. CSS containing internal class names, design-token comments, or unreleased UI never leaves your device. Verify in DevTools Network — no requests fire when you click Run.

Can I customise indentation width?

Yes. The toolbar lets you switch between 2-space (default), 4-space, and tab indentation. Pick the style that matches your project EditorConfig, Prettier, or team style guide.

Should I commit pretty-printed CSS or minified CSS?

Always commit the pretty-printed source — it gives clean diffs, readable code reviews, and useful blame history. Minify only the build output for production. The two operations are exact inverses, so you can always recover one from the other.