It’s been a long time coming, but I’m thrilled to finally share a new developer tool that emerged from my constant need for better CSS property organisation: Old Fashioned CSS Formatter — a professional-grade Visual Studio Code extension designed to fill a very real and long-standing gap in modern front-end development.
If you’ve ever used CSSComb in the past, you know how much it helped maintain order in stylesheets. However, a vacuum was left with the project, which is no longer maintained, and this new tool steps in.
The Problem CSSComb Left Behind
When CSSComb stopped receiving updates, it left a hole for many developers, including me. It had a simple job: sorting CSS properties meaningfully. But it did it well. With tools like Stylelint and Prettier becoming more prevalent, it seemed like no one focused anymore on logical property ordering—just formatting and linting.
I missed the simplicity, customisation, and workflow integration. Sorting CSS by hand or relying on rigid alphabetic sorters wasn’t cutting it—something needed to be done.
Old Fashioned – Order with Style
Old Fashioned CSS Formatter was built as a modern replacement for CSSComb. But it’s not just a rehash — it’s a reimagining.
With three sorting strategies built in:
- Alphabetical – for teams who want consistency with simplicity.
- Concentric – sort properties based on visual impact, from outer layout to inner typography.
- Idiomatic – for those who follow industry-standard conventions like SMACSS or guidelines from large frameworks.
You don’t have to choose one method for everything — sort individual blocks with different strategies if you like.
Smarter than Your Average Sorter
Old Fashioned doesn’t just shuffle lines around:
- It supports SCSS deeply with the help of PostCSS.
- It groups related properties logically and even adds visual separation between them.
- It works with your existing VS Code formatting preferences — it formats before sorting.
- It handles @media, @property, and custom syntax like a native.
This isn’t just for perfectionists. It’s for teams who care about code quality and maintainability.
Why Not Just Use Stylelint or Prettier?
Both are great tools — I use them myself. But they focus on different things:
- Stylelint is a linter. It can help enforce rules, but it cannot do advanced sorting.
- Prettier is a formatter. It adjusts whitespace and indentation but ignores the logic of property order.
Old Fashioned fills that very specific but important role CSSComb used to own.
See how this works:
Available Now in Visual Studio Code
The extension is open-source and available now at:
This tool will help restore order to your workflow, whether you’re building large UI systems, maintaining a growing SCSS codebase, or teaching CSS fundamentals.
Give It a Try
You can install it directly from the VS Code marketplace, configure your preferred strategy, and format like 2025 (because it is).
As always, I’d love your feedback or contributions on GitHub.
Happy formatting 👔
— Stefan
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