CSS minification removes whitespace, comments, and redundant characters without changing how the CSS functions. On average, minification reduces CSS file size by 20–40%. For large stylesheets, that's hundreds of kilobytes that your users don't have to download. Here's what actually happens during minification and how to integrate it into your workflow. What minification removes Whitespace : spaces, tabs, and newlines between rules, selectors, and declarations. CSS parsers don't need whitespace — a{color:red} is identical to the multi-line version. Comments : /* ... */ blocks are removed entirely. For source maps, comments are typically moved to a separate .css.map file rather than stripped. Trailing semicolons : the last declaration in a rule doesn't require a semicolon. {color:red;font-size:14px} can be minified to {color:red;font-size:14px} — the trailing semicolon after 14px is optional.…