Specificity is king. Only time would need to use !important
would be when inline style is present and the library does not expose a way to toggle the property off in some way (poor architecture choice).
The following list of selector types increases by specificity:
Type selectors (e.g., h1) and pseudo-elements (e.g., ::before).
Class selectors (e.g., .example), attributes selectors (e.g.,
[type="radio"]) and pseudo-classes (e.g., :hover).
ID selectors (e.g.,
#example).
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Specificity
Take a look at the first UI Button for Semantic UI here, is comprised of the following HTML:
<button class="ui button">Click Here</button>
CSS is attached via semantic.min.css:
.ui.button {
cursor: pointer;
display: inline-block;
min-height: 1em;
outline: 0;
border: none;
vertical-align: baseline;
background: #e0e1e2 none;
color: rgba(0,0,0,.6);
font-family: Lato,'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;
margin: 0 .25em 0 0;
padding: .78571429em 1.5em .78571429em;
text-transform: none;
text-shadow: none;
font-weight: 700;
line-height: 1em;
font-style: normal;
text-align: center;
text-decoration: none;
border-radius: .28571429rem;
-webkit-box-shadow: 0 0 0 1px transparent inset, 0 0 0 0 rgba(34,36,38,.15) inset;
box-shadow: 0 0 0 1px transparent inset, 0 0 0 0 rgba(34,36,38,.15) inset;
-webkit-user-select: none;
-moz-user-select: none;
-ms-user-select: none;
user-select: none;
-webkit-transition: opacity .1s ease,background-color .1s ease,color .1s ease,background .1s ease,-webkit-box-shadow .1s ease;
transition: opacity .1s ease,background-color .1s ease,color .1s ease,background .1s ease,-webkit-box-shadow .1s ease;
transition: opacity .1s ease,background-color .1s ease,color .1s ease,box-shadow .1s ease,background .1s ease;
transition: opacity .1s ease,background-color .1s ease,color .1s ease,box-shadow .1s ease,background .1s ease,-webkit-box-shadow .1s ease;
will-change: '';
-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;
}
To override say, the font color, all we have to do is write a selector that is more specific than this selector. We can achieve this by combining their two class selectors (equally specific) with a type selector (additional specificity).
This would look like:
button.ui.button {
color: red;
}
Now since button.ui.button
is more specific in describing the location of the element in the page (DOM), than say just .ui.button
, this signals to the browser that this style should override the previous declaration. This is a common way to customize a theme.
Great docs here:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/CSS/Introduction_to_CSS
.ui.button {
cursor: pointer;
display: inline-block;
min-height: 1em;
outline: 0;
border: none;
vertical-align: baseline;
background: #e0e1e2 none;
color: rgba(0,0,0,.6);
font-family: Lato,'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;
margin: 0 .25em 0 0;
padding: .78571429em 1.5em .78571429em;
text-transform: none;
text-shadow: none;
font-weight: 700;
line-height: 1em;
font-style: normal;
text-align: center;
text-decoration: none;
border-radius: .28571429rem;
-webkit-box-shadow: 0 0 0 1px transparent inset, 0 0 0 0 rgba(34,36,38,.15) inset;
box-shadow: 0 0 0 1px transparent inset, 0 0 0 0 rgba(34,36,38,.15) inset;
-webkit-user-select: none;
-moz-user-select: none;
-ms-user-select: none;
user-select: none;
-webkit-transition: opacity .1s ease,background-color .1s ease,color .1s ease,background .1s ease,-webkit-box-shadow .1s ease;
transition: opacity .1s ease,background-color .1s ease,color .1s ease,background .1s ease,-webkit-box-shadow .1s ease;
transition: opacity .1s ease,background-color .1s ease,color .1s ease,box-shadow .1s ease,background .1s ease;
transition: opacity .1s ease,background-color .1s ease,color .1s ease,box-shadow .1s ease,background .1s ease,-webkit-box-shadow .1s ease;
will-change: '';
-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;
}
button.ui.button {
color: red;
}
<button class="ui button">Click Here</button>