Minimal CSS Framework for Semantic HTML

Fully compatible and actively maintained successor to Pico CSS.

Introduces float labels, breakout container and other modern, opt-out helpers. Simply switch pico.css to blades.css OR use blades.standalone.css with other frameworks.

Story From Pico to Blades CSS

Sep 3, 2026

Blades CSS v3 released.

Sep One
11ty / Build Awesome One kit for Blades released.
August
Web Awesome opened a channel for #blades — join now!
FastHTML switched to our underlying Pico CSS fork.
July
Blades hit 300 stars 🌟 — consider giving one too!
June
Flask & Jinja community website switched to Blades.
Grav CMS v2 chose Blades.
May 11, 2026

Blades CSS v2.2 emerged.

From standalone CSS helpers ...
Apr 2026
Standalone Blades CSS v0 released.
Dec 2025
Standalone CSS helpers consolidation started.
Breakout CSS v1 released.
 
Mar 2018
Atomic Carousel v0, Gallery v0 and Modal v0 released.
Oct 2016
Float Label CSS v1 released.
... and original Pico CSS fork:
Apr 2026
Fork of Pico CSS v2.2 released.
... no updates for 1 year
Mar 2025
Pico CSS v2.1.1 updated for the last time.
 
Dec 2019
Pico CSS v1 released.

Documentation

If you know Pico — you already know Blades:

Credits