Who maintains and governs CSS?

CSS was invented by Håkon Wium Lie on October 10, 1994, and is maintained by a group of people within the W3C called the CSS Working Group. The CSS Working Group creates documents called specifications. When a specification has been discussed and officially ratified by W3C members, it becomes a recommendation.

These ratified specifications are called recommendations because the W3C has no control over the actual implementation of the language. Independent companies and organizations create that software.

The CSS Working Group

The CSS Working Group consists of representatives from major browser vendors (like Google, Mozilla, Apple, and Microsoft), web developers, and CSS experts. They meet regularly to discuss new features, resolve issues, and evolve the CSS specification.

How CSS Standards Evolve

The process typically follows these stages:

• Working Draft: Initial proposal for discussion
• Candidate Recommendation: Feature is stable and ready for implementation
• Proposed Recommendation: Final review stage
• W3C Recommendation: Official standard

Implementation by Browser Vendors

Once the W3C publishes a recommendation, browser vendors like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge implement these features in their rendering engines. This is why some CSS features may work differently across browsers or require vendor prefixes during development.

Conclusion

CSS governance involves the W3C's CSS Working Group creating specifications, which browser vendors then implement. This collaborative approach ensures CSS continues to evolve while maintaining web compatibility.