Something like this seems to be what you are looking for, no?

Also, at least in the case of PHP, the CSS file would need to be parsed by the server in order to pick up the variable, therefore contributing to the overall speed of the pages’ delivery. This of course is only a theoretical loss in speed and relative to your particular requirements and/or server load, but none-the-less is something to take into consideration.

There are certainly a number of ‘hacks’ (for want of a better word) that can be implemented to achieve variables in CSS. If you are really keen (and don’t mind offending a few very old browsers) you can even GZIP your css after the server parses it to save a little time in page delivery.

However, all of these points take away from what CSS is all about, at least for me anyhow.

The beauty of CSS is it’s simplicity and portability, and to complicate your stylesheets with server-side tags and PHP variables as well as restrict its portability negates the whole reason for me wanting native CSS variables in the first place – simplicity!

When the solution creates more work than the problem, then it is not really a solution. I think the dream result here would be basic, native, and entirely client-side CSS variable support. But I am not about to hold my breath.

<MTSetVar name="color" value="#025a9e">

And then I use it like:

.someClass { color: <MTGetVar name="color">; }

When the stylesheet rebuilds, the color comes out as static text. It seems a decent, if a non-portable, solution.