The initial value given in our summary of the definition of each CSS property has different meanings for inherited and non-inherited properties.
For inherited properties, the initial value is used, for the root element only, when no value is specified for the element.
For non-inherited properties the initial value is used, for any element, when no value is specified for the element.
The initial keyword has been added in CSS3 to allow authors to explicitly specify this initial value.
See also
- CSS Reference
- CSS Key Concepts: CSS syntax, at-rule, comments, specificity and inheritance, the box, layout modes and visual formatting models, and margin collapsing, or the initial, computed, resolved, specified, used, and actual values. Definitions of value syntax, shorthand properties and replaced elements.
initial