This is preliminary documentation and is subject to change.

With each new release of Windows Internet Explorer, support for the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) standard has steadily improved. Internet Explorer 6 was the first fully CSS Level 1-compliant version of Internet Explorer. Windows Internet Explorer 8 is planned to be a fully CSS Level 2.1-compliant browser, and will support some features of CSS 3.

If your Web site targets browsers that include earlier versions of Internet Explorer, you want to know the level of CSS compliance for those versions. This article provides an at-a-glance look at CSS compliance across recent versions of Internet Explorer, including support in Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 and planned support in the final version of Internet Explorer 8.

This article's organization is loosely based on that of the CSS reference documentation on MSDN. It contains the following sections:

• Introduction
• At-rules
• Selectors
  • Element Selectors
  • Attribute Selectors
  • Combinators
  • Pseudo-classes
  • Pseudo-elements
• Attributes
  • Lists
  • Color and Background
  • Font and Text
  • Generated Content
  • Border and Layout
  • Positioning
  • Printing
  • User Interface
  • Multi-column Layout
  • Speech
  • Media Queries
• Values
  • Numbers
  • Strings
  • Shapes
  • Functions
  • Colors
  • Keywords
• Units

Introduction

Each table lists support status information for grouped CSS features across recent versions of Internet Explorer. In each section, the first table represents features introduced in CSS 2.1 or earlier, and the second table represents features planned for CSS 3.

A value of "Yes" in a cell indicates that that feature is implemented in that version of Internet Explorer. (For the "IE 8.0" column, a value of "Yes" indicates that the feature is currently planned for implementation in Internet Explorer 8.)

A value of "Partial" in a cell indicates that that feature is only partially implemented in that version of Internet Explorer. For more information, click the link to view that feature's reference page on MSDN.

A value of "No" in a cell indicates that that feature is not implemented in that version of Internet Explorer.

At-rules

CSS 2.1:

	IE 5.0	IE 5.5	IE 6.0	IE 7.0	IE8 Beta 1	IE8 Beta 2	IE 8.0
@charset	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
@import	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
@media	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
@page	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No*	Yes

CSS 3:

	IE 5.0	IE 5.5	IE 6.0	IE 7.0	IE8 Beta 1	IE8 Beta 2	IE 8.0
@font-face	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
@namespace	No	No	No	No	No	No	No

Selectors

Element Selectors

CSS 2.1:

		IE 5.0	IE 5.5	IE 6.0	IE 7.0	IE8 Beta 1	IE8 Beta 2	IE 8.0
.value { sRules }	Class (see Note)	Partial	Partial	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
#value { sRules }	ID	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
E { sRules }	Type	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
* { sRules }	Universal	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Note   Prior to Internet Explorer 7, there was a two-class selector limit per element.

CSS 3:

		IE 5.0	IE 5.5	IE 6.0	IE 7.0	IE8 Beta 1	IE8 Beta 2	IE 8.0
ns|E { sRules }	Namespaced	No	No	No	No	No	No	No

Attribute Selectors

CSS 2.1:

		IE 5.0	IE 5.5	IE 6.0	IE 7.0	IE8 Beta 1	IE8 Beta 2	IE 8.0
[att=val] { sRules }	Equality [=]	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
[att] { sRules }	Existence []	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
[att|=val] { sRules }	Hyphen [|=]	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
[att~=val] { sRules }	Whitespace [~=]	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

CSS 3:

		IE 5.0	IE 5.5	IE 6.0	IE 7.0	IE8 Beta 1	IE8 Beta 2	IE 8.0
[ns|attr] { sRules }	Namespaced	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
[att^=val] { sRules }	Prefix [^=]	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
[att*=val] { sRules }	Substring [*=]	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
[att$=val] { sRules }	Suffix [$=]	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Combinators

CSS 2.1:

		IE 5.0	IE 5.5	IE 6.0	IE 7.0	IE8 Beta 1	IE8 Beta 2	IE 8.0
E + F { sRules }	Adjacent Sibling (+)	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
E > F { sRules }	Child (>)	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
E F { sRules }	Descendant	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

CSS 3:

		IE 5.0	IE 5.5	IE 6.0	IE 7.0	IE8 Beta 1	IE8 Beta 2	IE 8.0
E ~ F { sRules }	General Sibling (~)	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Pseudo-classes

CSS 2.1:

		IE 5.0	IE 5.5	IE 6.0	IE 7.0	IE8 Beta 1	IE8 Beta 2	IE 8.0
:active { sRules }	:active	No	No	No	Partial	Partial	Partial	Yes
:first-child { sRules }	:first-child	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
:focus { sRules }	:focus	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
:hover { sRules }	:hover	Partial	Partial	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
:lang(C) { sRules }	:lang()	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
:link { sRules }	:link	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
:visited { sRules }	:visited	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
@page :first { sRules }	@page :first	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
@page :left { sRules }	@page :left	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
@page :right { sRules }	@page :right	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes

CSS 3:

		IE 5.0	IE 5.5	IE 6.0	IE 7.0	IE8 Beta 1	IE8 Beta 2	IE 8.0
:root { sRules }	:root	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
:nth-child() { sRules }	:nth-child()	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
:nth-last-child() { sRules }	:nth-last-child()	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
:nth-of-type() { sRules }	:nth-of-type()	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
:nth-last-of-type() { sRules }	:nth-last-of-type()	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
:last-child { sRules }	:last-child	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
:first-of-type { sRules }	:first-of-type	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
:last-of-type { sRules }	:last-of-type	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
:only-child { sRules }	:only-child	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
:only-of-type { sRules }	:only-of-type	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
:empty { sRules }	:empty	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
:target { sRules }	:target	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
:not(X) { sRules }	:not()	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
:enabled { sRules }	:enabled	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
:disabled { sRules }	:disabled	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
:checked { sRules }	:checked	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
:indeterminate { sRules }	:indeterminate	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
:default { sRules }	:default	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
:valid { sRules }	:valid	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
:invalid { sRules }	:invalid	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
:in-range { sRules }	:in-range	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
:out-of-range { sRules }	:out-of-range	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
:required { sRules }	:required	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
:optional { sRules }	:optional	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
:read-only { sRules }	:read-only	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
:read-write { sRules }	:read-write	No	No	No	No	No	No	No

Pseudo-elements

CSS 2.1:

		IE 5.0	IE 5.5	IE 6.0	IE 7.0	IE8 Beta 1	IE8 Beta 2	IE 8.0
:after { sRules }	:after	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
:before { sRules }	:before	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
:first-letter { sRules }	:first-letter	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
:first-line { sRules }	:first-line	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

CSS 3:

		IE 5.0	IE 5.5	IE 6.0	IE 7.0	IE8 Beta 1	IE8 Beta 2	IE 8.0
::before { sRules }	::before	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
::after { sRules }	::after	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
::first-letter { sRules }	::first-letter	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
::first-line { sRules }	::first-line	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
::selection { sRules }	::selection	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
::value { sRules }	::value	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
::choices { sRules }	::choices	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
::repeat-item { sRules }	::repeat-item	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
::repeat-index { sRules }	::repeat-index	No	No	No	No	No	No	No

Attributes

CSS 2.1:

		IE 5.0	IE 5.5	IE 6.0	IE 7.0	IE8 Beta 1	IE8 Beta 2	IE 8.0
{ sRule!important  }	!important Declaration	Partial	Partial	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Lists

CSS 2.1:

		IE 5.0	IE 5.5	IE 6.0	IE 7.0	IE8 Beta 1	IE8 Beta 2	IE 8.0
{ list-style : sStyle }	list-style	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
{ list-style-image : sStyle }	list-style-image	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
{ list-style-position : sStyle }	list-style-position	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
{ list-style-type : sStyle }	list-style-type	No	No	No	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes

Color and Background

CSS 2.1:

		IE 5.0	IE 5.5	IE 6.0	IE 7.0	IE8 Beta 1	IE8 Beta 2	IE 8.0
{ color : sColor }	color	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
{ background : sBackground }	background	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
{ background-attachment : sAttachment }	background-attachment	Partial	Partial	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
{ background-color : sColor }	background-color	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
{ background-image : sLocation }	background-image	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
{ background-position : sPosition }	background-position	Partial	Partial	Partial	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes
{ background-repeat : sRepeat }	background-repeat	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

CSS 3:

		IE 5.0	IE 5.5	IE 6.0	IE 7.0	IE8 Beta 1	IE8 Beta 2	IE 8.0
{ color-profile : sProfile }	color-profile	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
{ rendering-intent : sIntent }	rendering-intent	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
{ background : sBackground1, sBackground2, etc. }	background (multiple)	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
{ background-clip : sClip }	background-clip	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
{ background-origin : sOrigin }	background-origin	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
{ background-break : sBreak }	background-break	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
{ background-size : sSize }	background-size	No	No	No	No	No	No	No

Font and Text

CSS 2.1:

		IE 5.0	IE 5.5	IE 6.0	IE 7.0	IE8 Beta 1	IE8 Beta 2	IE 8.0
{ direction : sDirection }	direction	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
{ font : sFont }	font	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
{ font-family : sFamily }	font-family	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
{ font-size : sSize }	font-size	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
{ font-style : sStyle }	font-style	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
{ font-variant : sVariant }	font-variant	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
{ font-weight : sWeight }	font-weight	Partial	Partial	Partial	Partial	Partial	Yes	Yes
{ letter-spacing : sSpacing }	letter-spacing	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
{ line-height : sHeight }	line-height	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
{ text-align : sAlign }	text-align	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
{ text-decoration : sDecoration }	text-decoration	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
{ text-indent : sIndent }	text-indent	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
{ text-transform : sTransform }	text-transform	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
{ unicode-bidi : sAlign }	unicode-bidi	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
{ vertical-align : sAlign }	vertical-align	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
{ white-space : sWrap }	white-space	Partial	Partial	Partial	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes
{ word-spacing : sSpacing }	word-spacing	Partial	Partial	Partial	Partial	No	Yes	Yes

CSS 3:

		IE 5.0	IE 5.5	IE 6.0	IE 7.0	IE8 Beta 1	IE8 Beta 2	IE 8.0
{ font-effect : sEffect }	font-effect	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
{ font-emphasize : sEmphasize }	font-emphasize	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
{ font-size-adjust : sSizeAdjust }	font-size-adjust	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
{ font-smooth : sSmooth }	font-smooth	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
{ font-stretch : sStretch }	font-stretch	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
{ hanging-punctuation : sHangingPunctuation }	hanging-punctuation	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
{ punctuation-trim : sTrim }	punctuation-trim	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
{ ruby-align : sRubyAlign }	ruby-align	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
{ ruby-overhang : sRubyOverhang }	ruby-overhang	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
{ ruby-position : sRubyPlacement }	ruby-position	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
{ ruby-span : sRubySpan }	ruby-span	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
{ text-align-last : sAlignLast }	text-align-last	Partial	Partial	Partial	Partial	Partial	Partial	Partial
{ text-emphasis : sEmphasis }	text-emphasis	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
{ text-justify : sJustify }