What is a CSS boilerplate and do I need to use one?

Browsers will apply their own default styles to certain HTML elements, but they don't all style them the same because...of course not.

Which is why we use a CSS boilerplate (aka a reset stylesheet, like the normalize.css stylesheet you get with the Jubilee Austen starter files) to make things more consistent across browser experiences.

There are a few CSS boilerplates out there. For instance, Eric Meyer's is another good one. Regardless of which you use, you never want to touch the reset styles. They should always load first, which is why we link it first in our head, because our site reads HTML and CSS from top to bottom.

If you don't like the reset styles for all elements or certain elements, you can always override them with your own styles in your main.css style sheet that loads next. Awesome!
We suggest you keep the boilerplate and your own styles in two separate files (a) so you don't get confused and overwrite those reset styles and (b) because your stylesheet would get quite long and annoying with all those reset styles at the top.
And you can simply copy the normalize.css stylesheet into each new project you start (like Rogue Pickings!).

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