CSS Naked Day: What It Is and How to Take Part (April 9)

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) make websites look good, but what would your site look like with every bit of styling removed? That is the idea behind CSS Naked Day. The first one happened on April 5, 2006, when we wrote about it, and twenty years later web designers still strip their sites bare once a year. Here is what CSS Naked Day is, when it happens and how to take part.

Quick answer: CSS Naked Day is an annual event, now held on April 9, when website owners remove all CSS from their sites for the day. It shows off clean, semantic HTML that still works without styling. To join, switch off your stylesheets on April 9 and optionally add a note linking to the official CSS Naked Day site.

What is CSS Naked Day?

Web developer Dustin Diaz started CSS Naked Day in 2006 to promote web standards: proper use of HTML, semantic markup and a good heading structure. If a site is built well, its content should still be readable and usable as a plain document when the CSS is gone. On the day, hundreds of designers remove their style sheets and display a short message explaining why their site suddenly looks like 1995.

The event moved from its first April 5 date to April 9 and has run almost every year since. Dustin Diaz organized it until 2009, Taylor Satula hosted it from 2010 to 2014, and Fabien Basmaison and Jens Oliver Meiert have kept it going since 2015 at css-naked-day.org. We covered the second annual CSS Naked Day on April 5, 2007 too. That year WordPress bloggers could join with plugins: a “48 hour naked day” plugin stripped linked stylesheets, embedded styles and inline styles without touching the theme, and Guff’s WP: Naked Day plugin switched the stylesheet off automatically on the day. Those plugins are long gone, but the same automatic approach works with the snippet below.

When is CSS Naked Day?

CSS Naked Day is on April 9 every year. To give every time zone a full April 9, the “day” lasts 50 hours: from midnight at the start of April 9 in the first time zone (UTC+14) until midnight at the end of April 9 in the last one (UTC-12).

Why take part?

• Test your HTML. Without CSS, you see whether your headings, lists, links and reading order make sense.
• Check accessibility. Screen readers and some text browsers ignore much of your styling, so a naked page is closer to what they experience.
• Find hidden problems. Content that only makes sense because of colors or positioning, or images without alt text, stand out at once.
• Have fun and get noticed. Visitors who land on a bare site and read your note often learn something about web standards.

How to take part in CSS Naked Day

1. Plan it for April 9, ideally automatically so you don’t forget.
2. Remove all styling: linked stylesheets, <style> blocks and style attributes where you can.
3. Add a short notice at the top of the page, such as “Where did the design go? It’s CSS Naked Day”, linking to css-naked-day.org.
4. Get listed on the official site if you like, by following the instructions there (it is maintained as an open project).
5. Bring the CSS back after the day ends, or let your automatic rule do it.

Turning off CSS on a WordPress site

On WordPress, a small code snippet can stop the theme’s style sheets from loading on April 9 only. For example, added with a code snippets plugin:

add_action( 'wp_print_styles', function () { if ( gmdate( 'm-d' ) === '04-09' ) { wp_styles()->queue = array(); } }, 100 );

This uses the server’s UTC date, so it covers one 24-hour April 9 rather than the full 50 hours. Inline styles added by the theme or plugins may remain, so look at the result in a private window first, and clear any page cache afterwards, or visitors may keep seeing the naked version. Our guide to forcing a CSS refresh in WordPress helps when browsers hold on to old styles.

Try it on your own site today

You don’t have to wait for April 9 to see your site naked. In Firefox, choose View > Page Style > No Style. In Chrome or Edge, open the developer tools and disable the style sheets, or use a web developer extension that turns CSS off. If the page is still clear and usable, your markup is in good shape. For more design basics, see these essential web design elements and our list of free web design tools.

FAQ

What date is CSS Naked Day?

April 9 every year, running for 50 hours so that every time zone gets the whole day.

Who started CSS Naked Day?

Dustin Diaz started it in 2006. It is now maintained by Fabien Basmaison and Jens Oliver Meiert.

Is there a WordPress plugin for CSS Naked Day?

The original 2006-2007 plugins are no longer maintained. Use the short code snippet in this post, added with a code snippets plugin, to switch off your theme’s styles on April 9 automatically.

Will CSS Naked Day hurt my SEO?

No. Search engines read your HTML content, which doesn’t change. One day without styling won’t affect rankings.

Is there a JavaScript version?

Yes, some developers also hold a similar day for switching off JavaScript, in the same spirit of building pages that work without extras.

Will your site go naked next April 9? Tell us in the comments.