Why optimize your CSS at all? In a nutshell: for faster loading pages. Because, really, anything that can speed up the loading of your site is a good thing. Here, my favorite four tools for CSS optimization and compression:

Clean CSS

A free online service, and what a service it is: this tool, based on CSS Tidy, also helps you with CSS shorthand, in case you haven’t got it memorized yet. A worthy bookmark.

CSS Compressor

CSS Drive’s CSS Compressor does just that: compresses your CSS in either Light, Normal or Super Compact modes. I personally prefer their Advanced Tool (also free), which allows you to get specific (e.g. whether or not to leave spaces between selectors and properties, etc.)

CSS Analyser

This one not only verifies your CSS with the W3C, it also tests your color contrast. Which, if you read my last post, is pretty awesome.

CSS Redundancy Checker

Finally, because redundancy is just not cool, especially when you’re trying to optimize your CSS, this nifty little tool is quick, easy to use, and simple to understand.

How do you optimize your CSS code?