Pico CSS
A small CSS framework that styles plain HTML elements by default. Archived and no longer maintained.picocss/pico
- Stars
- 16.8k
- Forks
- 516
- Licence
- MIT
- Language
- CSS
- Last update
- 1 months ago
- Type
- Library
This repository is archived and no longer maintained.
What it is
Pico CSS is a stylesheet you link into an HTML page so that standard elements like headings, forms, buttons and tables look reasonable and responsive without adding many classes. It is offered as a precompiled CSS file, an npm package, or Sass source, and includes light and dark color schemes. The project is archived: the maintainers say v2.1.1 is the final release and no new issues, pull requests or releases will be accepted.
- Link pico.min.css into a single HTML page and get styled headings, forms and buttons
- Use the classless version so that header, main and footer tags act as the page layout
- Customize colors and variables through CSS variables or Sass
- Fork the MIT-licensed code as a starting point for your own design system, under a different name
Great for
- Developers who want a quick, clean look for a small static page or prototype
- People comfortable writing plain HTML who want minimal class names
- Teams that want an existing, MIT-licensed base to fork and extend
- Anyone who needs light and dark mode support out of the box
Not ideal for
- Teams starting a new project that needs long-term updates, since the project is archived and receives no further releases
- Large applications needing utility classes or helpers, because the README says Pico includes none and needs SCSS or CSS knowledge
- Projects that must support Internet Explorer, which the README says is unsupported
How to get it
- 1
See the README
Install with npm
npm install @picocss/picoInstall with Composer
composer require picocss/pico - 2
Run it
- Add a link tag pointing to css/pico.min.css, either from a downloaded copy or from the jsDelivr CDN, in the head of your HTML
- Wrap your page content in a main element with the class container
- Write standard HTML headings, paragraphs and form elements and open the page in a browser
- 3
Get the most out of it
- Use the classless version (pico.classless.min.css) if you want layout from header, main and footer tags alone
- Add the color-scheme meta tag with light dark values to enable both themes
- Customize with CSS variables or by importing the Sass package with @use "pico"
- Use the version picker or color themes documented at picocss.com for alternative palettes
Downloads
Strengths
- Styles plain semantic HTML elements with very little or no class markup
- Supports light and dark color schemes and has a classless option
- MIT licensed, so forking and reuse are permitted
Trade-offs
- Archived; the README states there will be no new issues, PRs or releases
- Designed for the latest stable browsers only, per the README
- Does not include utility classes, so larger projects need custom CSS or Sass work
How it compares
| Project | Stars | Type | Level | Updated | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| pico (this) | 16.8k | Library | beginner | 1 months ago | Developers who want a quick, clean look for a small static page or prototype |
| bootstrap | 175k | Library | beginner | 4 days ago | Developers building responsive websites or web app interfaces quickly |
| NES.css | 21.9k | Library | beginner | 2.8 years ago | Developers building a retro or game-themed web page or demo |
| spectre | 11.3k | Library | beginner | 2.6 years ago | Developers who want a small, ready-made base for a simple website or web app |
| milligram | 10.2k | Library | beginner | 2 months ago | Developers who want a light starting point for a simple website or prototype |
| tailwindcss | 98.3k | Library | intermediate | 4 days ago | Web developers who build their own interfaces and want to avoid writing large custom stylesheets |
Stats synced from GitHub. The assessment above was drafted with AI from the project's README on 2026-10-29 and may miss recent changes — check the README before relying on a command. MIT licence: free to use, modify and distribute, including commercially, as long as you keep the copyright notice.