Combining CSS

[casper434]

One recommendation from a page speed analysis of my site was to combine CSS (external style sheets) but after reading more on the topic others say that this is not always best. Any thoughts on either approach?

[Matthew_Edgar]

Hi Brett,

The reasoning behind combining CSS files is to reduce the number of files that need to be requested when the page is loaded. If you load one CSS file instead of five CSS files, your page should load somewhat faster. This is especially true when dealing with larger CSS files (for example, five large CSS files combined to one really large CSS file will usually make the site load faster). I'd recommend combining CSS files if you can. Depending on what system you are working with, and how much control you have over the code, you may not be able to. What reasons were given to not combine files?

Matthew