# CSS for new syntax highlighter - really necessary?

**URL:** <https://zola.discourse.group/t/css-for-new-syntax-highlighter-really-necessary/2965>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [August 11, 2026, 3:27pm UTC](https://zola.discourse.group/t/css-for-new-syntax-highlighter-really-necessary/2965 "2026-08-11T15:27:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mrec](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/zola.discourse.group/mrec/32/1485_2.png) [@mrec](https://zola.discourse.group/u/mrec)\
**Post date:** [August 11, 2026, 3:27pm UTC](https://zola.discourse.group/t/css-for-new-syntax-highlighter-really-necessary/2965/1 "2026-08-11T15:27:23Z")

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I had to tweak the blog recently and ran into the syntax highlighting breaking change in 22.1. The docs at [Syntax Highlighting | Zola](https://www.getzola.org/documentation/content/syntax-highlighting/) say

> you will need to add the following CSS to your site CSS for things to display correctly:

but even without doing so the new highlighting looked fine. (Well, the structure changes did break stuff, but nothing this CSS would have fixed.) Am I missing some potential for subtle breakage here, or is that new CSS only needed if you’re going to be enabling line numbers?

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**Author:** ![keats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/34f0e0/32.png) [@keats](https://zola.discourse.group/u/keats)\
**Post date:** [August 11, 2026, 7:44pm UTC](https://zola.discourse.group/t/css-for-new-syntax-highlighter-really-necessary/2965/2 "2026-08-11T19:44:47Z")

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It’s mostly for the line numbers. If it’s looking good for you, no need to add them