Part of Bootstrap's job is to provide an elegant, consistent, and simple baseline to build upon. We use Reboot, a collection of element-specific CSS changes in a single file, to kickstart that.
Reboot builds upon Normalize, providing many HTML elements with somewhat opinionated styles using only element selectors. Additional styling is done only with classes. For example, we reboot some `<table>` styles for a simpler baseline and later provide `.table`, `.table-bordered`, and more.
- Avoid `margin-top`. Vertical margins can collapse, yielding unexpected results. More importantly though, a single direction of `margin` is a simpler mental model.
- For easier scaling across device sizes, block elements should use `rem`s for `margin`s.
- The `box-sizing` is globally set on every element—including `*:before` and `*:after`, to `border-box`. This ensures that the declared width of element is never exceeded due to padding or border.
- No base `font-size` is declared on the `<html>`, but `16px` is assumed (the browser default). `font-size: 1rem` is applied on the `<body>` for easy responsive type-scaling via media queries while respecting user preferences and ensuring a more accessible approach.
The default web fonts (Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, and Arial) have been dropped in Bootstrap 4 and replaced with a "native font stack" for optimum text rendering on every device and OS. Read more about [native font stacks in this *Smashing Magazine* article](https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2015/11/using-system-ui-fonts-practical-guide/).
This `font-family` is applied to the `<body>` and automatically inherited globally throughout Bootstrap. To switch the global `font-family`, update `$font-family-base` and recompile Bootstrap.
All heading elements—e.g., `<h1>`—and `<p>` are reset to have their `margin-top` removed. Headings have `margin-bottom: .5rem` added and paragraphs `margin-bottom: 1rem` for easy spacing.
<divclass="bd-example">
{% markdown %}
# h1 heading
Curabitur blandit tempus porttitor. Aenean eu leo quam. Pellentesque ornare sem lacinia quam venenatis vestibulum.
## h2 heading
Curabitur blandit tempus porttitor. Aenean eu leo quam. Pellentesque ornare sem lacinia quam venenatis vestibulum.
### h3 heading
Curabitur blandit tempus porttitor. Aenean eu leo quam. Pellentesque ornare sem lacinia quam venenatis vestibulum.
#### h4 heading
Curabitur blandit tempus porttitor. Aenean eu leo quam. Pellentesque ornare sem lacinia quam venenatis vestibulum.
##### h5 heading
Curabitur blandit tempus porttitor. Aenean eu leo quam. Pellentesque ornare sem lacinia quam venenatis vestibulum.
###### h6 heading
Curabitur blandit tempus porttitor. Aenean eu leo quam. Pellentesque ornare sem lacinia quam venenatis vestibulum.
{% endmarkdown %}
</div>
## Lists
All lists—`<ul>`, `<ol>`, and `<dl>`—have their `margin-top` removed and a `margin-bottom: 1rem`. Nested lists have no `margin-bottom`.
<divclass="bd-example">
{% markdown %}
* Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
* Consectetur adipiscing elit
* Integer molestie lorem at massa
* Facilisis in pretium nisl aliquet
* Nulla volutpat aliquam velit
* Phasellus iaculis neque
* Purus sodales ultricies
* Vestibulum laoreet porttitor sem
* Ac tristique libero volutpat at
* Faucibus porta lacus fringilla vel
* Aenean sit amet erat nunc
* Eget porttitor lorem
1. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
2. Consectetur adipiscing elit
3. Integer molestie lorem at massa
4. Facilisis in pretium nisl aliquet
5. Nulla volutpat aliquam velit
6. Faucibus porta lacus fringilla vel
7. Aenean sit amet erat nunc
8. Eget porttitor lorem
{% endmarkdown %}
</div>
For simpler styling, clear hierarchy, and better spacing, description lists have updated `margin`s. `<dd>`s reset `margin-left` to `0` and add `margin-bottom: .5rem`. `<dt>`s are **bolded**.
<divclass="bd-example">
{% markdown %}
<dl>
<dt>Description lists</dt>
<dd>A description list is perfect for defining terms.</dd>
<dt>Euismod</dt>
<dd>Vestibulum id ligula porta felis euismod semper eget lacinia odio sem.</dd>
<dd>Donec id elit non mi porta gravida at eget metus.</dd>
<dt>Malesuada porta</dt>
<dd>Etiam porta sem malesuada magna mollis euismod.</dd>
Tables are slightly adjusted to style `<caption>`s, collapse borders, and ensure consistent `text-align` throughout. Additional changes for borders, padding, and more come with [the `.table` class]({{ site.baseurl }}/content/tables/).
-`<input>`s, `<select>`s, `<textarea>`s, and `<button>`s are mostly addressed by Normalize, but Reboot removes their `margin` and sets `line-height: inherit`, too.
The `<address>` element is updated to reset the browser default `font-style` from `italic` to `normal`. `line-height` is also now inherited, and `margin-bottom: 1rem` has been added. `<address>`s are for presenting contact information for the nearest ancestor (or an entire body of work). Preserve formatting by ending lines with `<br>`.
HTML5 adds [a new global attribute named `[hidden]`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Global_attributes/hidden), which is styled as `display: none` by default. Borrowing an idea from [PureCSS](http://purecss.io), we improve upon this default by making `[hidden] { display: none !important; }` to help prevent its `display` from getting accidentally overridden. While `[hidden]` isn't natively supported by IE10, the explicit declaration in our CSS gets around that problem.
`[hidden]` is not compatible with jQuery's `$(...).hide()` and `$(...).show()` methods. This could potentially change in jQuery 3, but we're not holding our breath. Therefore, we don't currently especially endorse `[hidden]` over other techniques for managing the `display` of elements.
To merely toggle the visibility of an element, meaning its `display` is not modified and the element can still affect the flow of the document, use [the `.invisible` class]({{ site.baseurl }}/utilities/invisible-content/) instead.
Traditionally, browsers on touchscreen devices have a delay of approximately 300ms between the end of a "tap" – the moment when a finger/stylus is lifted from screen – and the [`click` event](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Events/click) being fired. This delay is necessary for these browsers to correctly handle "double-tap to zoom" gestures without prematurely triggering actions or links after the first "tap", but it can make your site feel slightly sluggish and unresponsive.
Most mobile browsers automatically optimize away this 300ms delay for sites that use the `width=device-width` property as part of their [responsive meta tag]({{ site.baseurl }}/getting-started/introduction/#responsive-meta-tag) (as well as for sites that disable zooming, for instance with `user-scalable=no`, though this practice is strongly discouraged for accessibility and usability reasons). The biggest exceptions here are IE11 on Windows Phone 8.1, and iOS Safari (and any other iOS WebView-based browser) [prior to iOS 9.3](https://webkit.org/blog/5610/more-responsive-tapping-on-ios/).
On touch-enabled laptop/desktop devices, IE11 and Microsoft Edge are currently the only browsers with "double-tap to zoom" functionality. As the [responsive meta tag]({{ site.baseurl }}/getting-started/introduction/#responsive-meta-tag) is ignored by all desktop browsers, using `width=device-width` will have no effect on the 300ms delay here.
To address this problem in IE11 and Microsoft Edge on desktop, as well as IE11 on Windows Phone 8.1, Bootstrap explicitly uses the [`touch-action:manipulation` CSS property](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/touch-action) on all interactive elements (such as buttons and links). This property essentially disables double-tap functionality on those elements, eliminating the 300ms delay.
In the case of old iOS versions (prior to 9.3), the suggested approach is to use additional scripts such as [FastClick](https://github.com/ftlabs/fastclick) to explicitly work around the delay.
For further details, see the compatibility table for [suppressing 300ms delay for touchscreen interactions](https://patrickhlauke.github.io/touch/tests/results/#suppressing-300ms-delay).
