In Focus
We all know that sometimes our CSS style sheets can really get big, especially if we are coding large websites with lots of pages and sections. Nice coding habits like comments and code separation are useful at development stage, but that also contributes in a negative way as style sheets usually get even bigger. When CSS files are big they eat up bandwidth and slow down website response time because more time is needed to process them. That’s where CSS compressors jump in to optimize them properly, but keep in mind that they are not always the best solution although they can really help at some cases.
CSS Compressor at cssdrive.com
CSS Compressor at cssdrive.com
Has two modes. Basic and advanced. Options include dealing with spaces and tabs, new lines, comments, and few other. There is no possibility to upload CSS file which means you can only paste raw CSS code into the form.
CSS Compressor at csscompressor.com
CSS Compressor at csscompressor.com
Entire website with only one purpose. To optimize CSS code. Compression modes go from lowest to highest, and you can also compress colors, font widths, make lowercase selectors, and remove backslashes and semi-colons. Does not support file uploading.
CSS Compressor at cssoptimiser.com
CSS Compressor at cssoptimiser.com
First one so far that offers you to specify CSS styles through file url, upload file, or simply paste the CSS code into the form field. Although it offers that, it lacks other fancy options and offers only very basic ones.
CSS Compressor at iceyboard.no-ip.org
CSS Compressor at iceyboard.no-ip.org
Offers all three types to define CSS code. You can upload a file, specify CSS file url, or just paste the CSS code into the form field. Also offers enough options to choose from in order to produce best result.
CSS Compressor at flumpcakes.co.uk
CSS Compressor at flumpcakes.co.uk
Other than looking at chained girl silhouette in the website header, here you can specify some options and choose whether you want your CSS code loaded from url, or you will paste it into the form field. No file upload option.
CSS Compressor at arrantius.com
CSS Compressor at arrantius.com
This one is pretty slim with options allowing only to choose whether you want to strip comments, and make one rule per line. It does, however, strip white spaces, and it is written in Javascript, which means no code transfer to unknown servers.
CSS Compressor at lotterypost.com
CSS Compressor at lotterypost.com
This one offers no options at all. All you have to do is paste the CSS code into the form field and collect the result. It doe’s, however, explain what will be removed, and compressed in How it works section in the middle of the page.
CSS Compressor at peterbe.com
CSS Compressor at peterbe.com
Offers no options but to choose whether the source is XHTML, HTML, or CSS code. Just paste the code into the form field and press Compress. Don’t forget to collect the result.
CSS Compressor at ebiene.de
CSS Compressor at ebiene.de
Paste the code into the form field, and choose between basic and powerful compress. Second one should be more effective. There are no options offered, and also you can not upload a file or specify CSS file url.
CSS Compressor at askapache.com
CSS Compressor at askapache.com
Here you can upload a CSS file, specify CSS file url, or just paste the CSS code into the form field. Whichever you choose, you don’t get any options to select from but to press the button and collect the result.
CSS Compressor at pingates.com
CSS Compressor at pingates.com
This CSS compressor offers a bunch of options to play with. You can specify options for color, measurements, selectors, and even choose information you want to see afterward. You can also specify CSS file url, or past the code into the form field, while file upload was left out.
CSS Compressor at refresh-sf.com
CSS Compressor at refresh-sf.com
This one is based on YUI Compressor which stands for Yahoo! User Interface. The YUI Library is a set of utilities and controls, written with JavaScript and CSS, for building richly interactive web applications. It also offers file uploading along with traditional paste the code into the form field, and a few options to play with.
CSS Compressor at pagecolumn.com
CSS Compressor at pagecolumn.com
No fancy options, and no possibility to specify a CSS file, or CSS file url. It does, however, offer you to find and remove unused classes and ids, which is not a common option amongst other compressors.
CSS Compressor at sevenforty.com
CSS Compressor at sevenforty.com
Another compressor based on YUI Compressor. It only offers you to upload your CSS file and you will get result in a zip archive. No place to paste the code or specify CSS file url.
CSS Compressor at phpinsider.com
CSS Compressor at phpinsider.com
Pretty simple one, which does not mean it is not a useful one. No fancy options, no file uploading, no specifying CSS file urls. Just paste the code and collect the result.
CSS Compressor at mabblog.com
CSS Compressor at mabblog.com
Specify CSS file url, or paste CSS code into the form field, and collect the results. No fancy options, no file upload. Simple as that.
CSS Compressor at cleancss.com
CSS Compressor at cleancss.com
This one is based on CSSTidy, which is an open source CSS parser and optimizer. Lots of options to choose from, and you can specify CSS file url or paste the code. No file upload, but you can specify if you want to save output as a file.
CSS Compressor at creativyst.com
CSS Compressor at creativyst.com
This CSS compressor might be confusing at first until you spot the place where you need to paste your CSS code. When that is done, all you need to do is to push the Compress button. No other options, no file upload, and no way to specify the CSS file url.
CSS Compressor at artiss.co.uk
CSS Compressor at artiss.co.uk
This one offers only file upload, and you can choose whether you want to remove comments or not. It uses lots of different techniques in order to maximize the compression and keep the valid code at the same time.
CSS Compressor at homepage-performance.de
CSS Compressor at homepage-performance.de
Offers some options like to delete white spaces, replace colors, delete empty rules etc. You can only paste the CSS code which means no file upload, and you can not specify CSS file url.
CSS Compressor at codebeautifier.com
CSS Compressor at codebeautifier.com
Another one based on CSSTidy which we already mentioned. Also has some problems with own CSS styles so if it wasn’t based on CSSTidy, we would not know what to think about it.
CSS Compressor at devtrench.com
CSS Compressor at devtrench.com
Yet another CSSTidy based compressor. We all know what that means.
CSS Compressor at cssportal.com
CSS Compressor at cssportal.com
CSSTidy all the way. Nothing more to add here.
CSS Compressor at generateit.net
CSS Compressor at generateit.net
Did we already mention CSSTidy? We must have…
CSS Compressor at isnoop.net
CSS Compressor at isnoop.net
Last, but not least, this compressor is probably best described if you look at the picture. Paste the CSS file url and press Submit. Nothing more, and nothing less to do here.
At the end we can summarize and say that most compressors offer you to paste the code and collect results. Some also offer you to specify the CSS file url, or to upload your CSS file along with more or less options to choose from. Which ever method you choose, they all should give some results. You need to experiment and see which one will suit your needs the best. We didn’t test them yet. Of course, there are probably more compressors out there, and they were not included into this list simply because we didn’t find them. If you know about such places, please share them with us so we can expand and complement the list.
designfollow on November 25, 2009
great collection
thank you