Stylish is a user style manager that can change the appearance of web pages in a user's browser without changing their content by including user-supplied CSS style sheets with those supplied by the web site itself. The Stylish

browser extension A browser extension is a small software module for customizing a web browser. Browsers typically allow a variety of extensions, including user interface modifications, cookie management, ad blocking, and the custom scripting and styling of web ...

includes tools with which to write user styles, and can install user styles written by other Stylish users from a companion website. These user styles may be more or less selective, targeting just one web page, or all of the pages on a

domain Domain may refer to: Mathematics *Domain of a function, the set of input values for which the (total) function is defined ** Domain of definition of a partial function ** Natural domain of a partial function **Domain of holomorphy of a function * ...

, or every page on the web. Stylish was originally developed by Jason Barnabe as an

XUL XUL ( ), which stands for XML User Interface Language, is a user interface markup language developed by Mozilla. XUL is an XML dialect for writing graphical user interfaces, enabling developers to write user interface elements in a manner sim ...

XPCOM Cross Platform Component Object Model (XPCOM) is a cross-platform component model from Mozilla. It is similar to Microsoft Component Object Model (COM) and Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA). It features multiple language bindings ...

add-on for

Mozilla Mozilla (stylized as moz://a) is a free software community founded in 1998 by members of Netscape. The Mozilla community uses, develops, spreads and supports Mozilla products, thereby promoting exclusively free software and open standards, wi ...

Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements current and ...

. A

Chrome extension Google Chrome is a cross-platform web browser developed by Google. It was first released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, built with free software components from Apple WebKit and Mozilla Firefox. Versions were later released for Linux, macOS ...

followed in 2010, which was released for

Blink Blinking is a bodily function; it is a semi-autonomic rapid closing of the eyelid. A single blink is determined by the forceful closing of the eyelid or inactivation of the levator palpebrae superioris and the activation of the palpebral portio ...

-based

Opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

15 in 2013 and as a Firefox

WebExtension Add-on is the Mozilla term for software modules that can be added to the Firefox web browser and related applications. Mozilla hosts them on its official add-on website. Browser extensions are the primary type of add-on. In 2017, Mozilla enacted ...

in 2017. Similar extensions for

Safari A safari (; ) is an overland journey to observe wild animals, especially in eastern or southern Africa. The so-called "Big Five" game animals of Africa – lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and Cape buffalo – particularly form an importa ...

and for Presto-based Opera are distributed as 'Stylish' by other developers with Barnabe's approval.

Technical details

User styles are CSS code designed to alter the appearance of one, some, or all sites. Stylish for Firefox can additionally style the skin of the browser itself, but the Android version does not support this because the user interface is built in native Android code. The styles are applied only to the targets specified. Individual user styles can be enabled or disabled without having to restart the browser. User styles are added to the CSS rules provided by the site, but can also override the site's styling (often requiring the !important keyword for each replacement rule). The most common uses are

ad blocking Ad blocking or ad filtering is a software capability for blocking or altering online advertising in a web browser, an application or a network. This may be done using browser extensions or other methods. Technologies and native countermeasures ...

, applying a new color scheme, and eliminating unwanted page elements. There are three classes of user styles. Site styles change the appearance of a particular web site. Global styles change the appearance of all web sites. App styles change the appearance of the Firefox user interface, only supported on Firefox. It is similar to the userChrome.css CSS file used by Firefox and Mozilla-based browsers.

Privacy issues

In September 2016 Jason Barnabe, the creator of Stylish and userstyles.org, announced that, having lost interest in the project, he had "chosen Justin Hindman as the next leader of Stylish and userstyles.org." Hindman had no prior connection to either Stylish or userstyles.org, and it soon became clear that Barnabe had simply sold them to Hindman in a

straw purchase A straw purchase or nominee purchase is any purchase wherein an agent agrees to acquire a good or service for someone who is often unable or unwilling to purchase the good or service themselves, and the agent transfers the goods or services to t ...

for Israeli

analytics Analytics is the systematic computational analysis of data or statistics. It is used for the discovery, interpretation, and communication of meaningful patterns in data. It also entails applying data patterns toward effective decision-making. It ...

company

SimilarWeb SimilarWeb Ltd. is an Israeli web analytics company specializing in web traffic and performance. Headquartered in Tel Aviv, the company has 12 offices worldwide. Similarweb went public on the New York Stock Exchange in May 2021. History The c ...

. In December 2016 Hindman began releasing updates to Stylish for Chrome which returned a perfect replica of the user's browsing activity to Userstyles. On 3 January 2017 he announced a "partnership" with SimilarWeb in which "Stylish users

ould Ould is an English surname and an Arabic name ( ar, ولد). In some Arabic dialects, particularly Hassaniya Arabic, ولد‎ (the patronymic, meaning "son of") is transliterated as Ould. Most Mauritanians have patronymic surnames. Notable p ...

be joining SimilarWeb’s market research panel.". A Firefox web extension (3.0.1) was released on 10 November, after a final update (2.1.1) to the Stylish XUL+XPCOM add-on on 31 October to migrate user styles to a webextension-compatible database. In July 2018, after these issues were publicized by a software engineer, Stylish was pulled from both the

Chrome Web Store Chrome Web Store is Google's online store for its Chrome web browser. As of 2019, Chrome Web Store hosts about 190,000 extensions and web apps. History Chrome Web Store was publicly unveiled in December 2010, and was opened on February 11, 2011 ...

and

Mozilla Add-ons Add-on is the Mozilla term for software modules that can be added to the Firefox web browser and related applications. Mozilla hosts them on its official add-on website. Browser extensions are the primary type of add-on. In 2017, Mozilla enacted ...

, as well as being automatically uninstalled for all existing users. Stylish returned to Mozilla Add-ons on 16 August and to the Chrome Web Store on 5 November with the same logic but sporting a new opt-in page asking users to agree to the data collection when the extension was installed. Firefox now reports fewer users of Stylish than its more popular alternative,

Stylus A stylus (plural styli or styluses) is a writing utensil or a small tool for some other form of marking or shaping, for example, in pottery. It can also be a computer accessory that is used to assist in navigating or providing more precision w ...

Alternatives to Stylish

userscript manager {{Unreferenced, date=May 2019, bot=noref (GreenC bot) A userscript manager is a type of browser extension and augmented browsing technology that provides a user interface to manage userscripts. The main purpose of a userscript manager is to execute ...

such as

Greasemonkey Greasemonkey is a userscript manager made available as a Mozilla Firefox extension. It enables users to install scripts that make on-the-fly changes to web page content after or before the page is loaded in the browser (also known as augmen ...

Tampermonkey Tampermonkey is a donationware userscript manager that is available as a browser extension. This software enables the user to add and use userscripts, which are JavaScript programs that can be used to modify web pages. History Tampermonkey was ...

can add a local style sheet to a web page by adding the style sheet content to an HTML tag and adding the tag to the page. User styles from Userstyles.org can be downloaded as user scripts for use with a userscript manager. Alternative user style managers include

and xStyle, which are derived from Stylish for Chrome, aStyle, reStyle, and Website Theme Manager. In Firefox, user styles for web sites and browser chrome can be added to local files userContent.css or userChrome.css, respectively. As of Firefox 69, user must switch the toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets preference to true in about:config in order to load these files.

References

External links

*{{Official website Free Firefox WebExtensions Google Chrome extensions Cascading Style Sheets 2005 software Spyware

Technical details

Privacy issues

Alternatives to Stylish

See also

References

External links