DOES CSS4 EXIST?
Tags: css, specs, drafts, web
Published: 2018-10-03 18:36:47

---
title: DOES CSS4 EXIST?
published: true
description: Let take, for instance, we have CSS Selectors level 4 which is being confused with CSS4, but it is just a module which is still in working draft and that some modern browsers already have implemented some parts of this specification
tags: CSS, specs, drafts, web, 
---

![CSS 4](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/jv5izolsa4bf8eflldju.png)




Why am I talking about that? Isn't it obvious? Yeah. It may seem obvious but it's not. This confusion occurred to me when I was watching the video of Chrome 69 launch when I suddenly heard [... and a few new CSS4 features] which means that there are new features of CSS4 which are already supported by the latest version of Chrome. And I was like "**WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT**? CSS4?.

I sought to know from friends and devs what they know about CSS4, some said that it doesn't exist, others heard that is still a working draft. I am not saying that is impossible but is a bit confusing to me that some CSS3 specs are still working drafts and we already thinking of CSS4, to me it doesn't make sense. Let me know your opinion on the comments.

I think the media spoilt us, not everything will be versioned in the same way as we have Chrome 69, makes a lot of sense to wait for a version 70 right?  but it doesn't always work that way, especially when we're talking about CSS or other things.

## CSS4 doesn't exist.

Why?

The CSS appeared in version 1 and years later launched the version 2 that came as a review of the first version. And we need to highlight here that the CSS2 took 9 years to be strongly recommended, that is, from August 2002 to June 2011 [Read more](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/CSS30). 

In order to speed up the standardization of features supported by browsers, the CSS Working Group of the W3C split the CSS into smaller components called modules. And we must highlight that the CSS3 does not exist formally, is an extension of CSS 2.1. The term CSS3 refers to everything that was published after CSS 2.1.

All are just modules independently standardized improved and added to the CSS 2.1 when they are complete, this doesn't mean that they're all on the same version. Let take, for instance, we have CSS Selectors level 4 which is being confused with CSS4, but it is just a module which is still in working draft and that some modern browsers already have implemented some parts of this specification.

And another thing is, would imagine the mess that it would be? Me for example, I'm still learning CSS3, to suddenly have to be aware of CSS4? Is horrible just to think about it.

> The CSS Grid example is perhaps the most illustrative of how the future of upcoming CSS features and updates will be. **Working in modules is always a good idea**,
> it allows you to play with different cycles and working speeds depending on the level of use or difficulty of implementing one or another feature by browsers. [Read more](https://www.silocreativo.com/en/css4-the-new-version-of-css-that-will-never-exist/)

The CSS Working Group found that launching a new version of something still under development would not be the right choice, it would be difficult to maintain and would take so long to develop. Makes a lot of sense to divide this "version" in modules containing small features. I think it's easier to learn in modules than all at once.

Let me know your opinions on the comments.