Educational

Category: Basic

  • Introduction

    CSS is acronym of Cascading Style Sheets. It helps to define the presentation of HTML elements as a separate file known as CSS file having .css extension.

    What is CSS?

    • CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets, used to describe the presentation and design of a web pages.
    • Using CSS, you can control the color of the text, the style of fonts, the spacing between paragraphs, how columns are sized and laid out, what background images or colors are used.
    • CSS can control the layout of multiple web pages all at once.

    CSS Styling Example

    Following is layout of a webpage, click the button below to add CSS styling to the page and see difference between a webpage with and without CSS.Add CSS

    Webpage Layout

    Sidebar

    Sidebar content here.

    Click to Add Style

    You can toggle between styled version and unstyled version of this page using above button.

    © 2024 Webpage Layout. All rights reserved.

    Why Use CSS?

    • CSS Saves Time: You can write CSS once and then reuse same sheet in multiple HTML pages.
    • Pages Load Faster: If you are using CSS, you do not need to write HTML tag or attributes every time. Just write one CSS rule of a tag and apply it to all the occurrences of that tag.
    • Easy Maintenance: To make a global change, simply change the style, and all elements in all the web pages will be updated automatically.
    • Superior Styles to HTML: CSS has a much wider array of attributes than HTML, so you can get a far better look to your HTML page.
    • Multiple Device Compatibility: For the same HTML document, different versions of a website can be presented for different screen widths
    • Global Web Standards: Now most of the HTML attributes are being deprecated and it is being recommended to use CSS.

    CSS Syntax

    Syntax of CSS consist of selectors and declaration used to apply styles to HTML elements.

    selector{property: value;}
    • The selector targets the HTML element/elements that you want to style.
    • The declaration block contains one or more declarations enclosed in curly braces {}.
    • Each declaration consists of a property and a value separated by a colon :. Declarations are separated by semicolons ;.

    There are several types of selectors available in CSS, commonly used selectors are classes, IDs and tags. To know complete list of selectors visit CSS Selectors article.

    CSS History and Versions

    Current version of CSS3 and early versions were CSS1 and CSS2. As of now CSS is continuesly evolving and adapting new capabilities that full fills the current website’s requirements.

    CSS-versions

    Cascading Style Sheets level 1 (CSS1) came out of W3C as a recommendation in December 1996. This version describes the CSS language as well as a simple visual formatting model for all the HTML tags.

    CSS2 became a W3C recommendation in May 1998 and builds on CSS1. This version adds support for media-specific style sheets e.g. printers and aural devices, downloadable fonts, element positioning and tables.

    CSS3 was became a W3C recommendation in June 1999 and builds on older versions CSS. It has divided into documentations is called as Modules and here each module having new extension features defined in CSS2.

    CSS3 Modules

    CSS3 Modules are having old CSS specifications as well as extension features.

    • Selectors
    • Box Model
    • Backgrounds and Borders
    • Image Values and Replaced Content
    • Text Effects
    • 2D and 3D Transformations
    • Animations
    • Multiple Column Layout
    • User Interface

    For a quick guide on types of style used in CSS, visit our CSS cheat-sheet

  • Roadmap

    This Roadmao provides you the complete steps to use CSS styles to build web applications. This will helps you to learn the core concepts of CSS. You will learn core concepts, advanced techniques, and best practices by following mentioned topics.

    What is a Tutorial Roadmap?

    Tutorial Roadmap typically covers the journey from beginner to advanced user, including key concepts, practical applications, and best practices.

    CSS Roadmap

    Master CSS from beginner to expert with our comprehensive 2024 roadmap. Learn essential concepts, modern techniques, and best practices. Includes practical examples, learning resources, and a structured timeline for becoming a CSS expert.

    CSS Roadmap

    CSS Introduction

    CSS Selectors

    CSS Colors

    CSS Opacity

    CSS Backgrounds

    CSS Box Model

    CSS Syntax

    CSS Inclusion

    CSS Text

    CSS Fonts

    CSS Styling Lists

    CSS Display

    CSS Visibility

    CSS Positioning

    CSS Float

    CSS Flexbox

    CSS Grid

    CSS Media Queries

    CSS Transition

    CSS Transformation

    CSS Animation

    CSS Units

    Types of Selectors

    CSS Comments

    CSS Color Reference

    CSS Background Color

    CSS Background Image

    Background Image Properties

    CSS Margins

    CSS Paddings

    CSS Borders

    CSS Dimension

    Text Properties

    Font Properties

    List Style Properties

    Display Property Values

    Position Properties

    Flex Container Properties

    Flex Items Properties

    Grid Properties

    How this Roadmap Can help you?

    This Roadmap will help you to calculate the time will be required to complete this tutorial by visualizing the steps when you can implement a strategic plan and to better understand the concepts. After completing the mentioned topics keep practicing to improve yourself.

  • CSS Tutorial

    What is CSS

    CSS is the acronym for “Cascading Style Sheet”. It’s a style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in a markup language like HTML. CSS helps the web developers to control the layout and other visual aspects of the web pages. CSS plays a crucial role in modern web development by providing the tools necessary to create visually appealing, accessible, and responsive websites.

    CSS Versions

    Since the inception of CSS, several versions have came into existence. Some of the notable versions include:

    • CSS1 (Cascading Style Sheets Level1) – The initial version of CSS, released in December 1996. CSS1 provided basic styling capabilities for HTML documents, including properties for text, colors, backgrounds, margins, and borders.
    • CSS2 (Cascading Style Sheets Level2) – Released in May 1998, CSS2 introduced new features such as positioning, z-index, media types, and more advanced selectors like attribute selectors and child selectors.
    • CSS2.1 – The version 2.1, published as a W3C Recommendation in June 2011, clarified and refined CSS2, addressing inconsistencies and ambiguities in the specification. CSS2.1 focused on improving interoperability among web browsers.
    • CSS3 (Cascading Style Sheets Level 3) – CSS3 is a collection of modules that extend the capabilities of CSS. It introduces numerous new features and enhancements, including advanced selectors, multiple column layouts, animations, transformations, gradients, shadows, and more.
    • CSS4 (Cascading Style Sheets Level 4) – CSS4 is an ongoing effort to extend CSS3 with new features and enhancements.

    Each version of CSS builds upon the previous ones, adding new features and refining existing capabilities to meet the evolving needs of web developers and designers. CSS is referred as just CSS now, without a version number.

    Types of CSS

    1. Inline CSS: Inline CSS is applied directly to an HTML element using the style attribute. It has the highest priority among the three methods.
      Example
    2. <p style=”color: blue; font-size: 16px;”> This line is an inline-styled paragraph. </p>
    3. Internal CSS: Internal CSS is defined within the <style> tag inside the <head> section of an HTML document.
      Example
    4. <head><style> p { color: green; font-size: 18px; } </style></head><body><p>This line is styled using internal CSS.</p></body>
    5. External CSS: External CSS is written in a separate .css file and linked to the HTML document using the <link> tag. This is the recommended method for large projects as it improves maintainability.
      Example<!– HTML file –><head><link rel=”stylesheet” href=”styles.css”></head><body><p>This line is styled using external CSS.</p></body>/* styles.css */ p { color: red; font-size: 20px; }

    Advantages of Using CSS

    • Responsive design – CSS offers features like media queries that enable developers to create responsive layouts that adapt to different screen sizes and devices, ensuring a consistent user experience.
    • Flexibility and Control – CSS provides precise control over the presentation of HTML elements, allowing developers to customize layout, typography, colors, and other visual properties.
    • Consistency and Reusability – Developers can ensure consistency across the entire website, by defining styles in a central CSS file. Styles can be reused across multiple pages, reducing redundancy and making updates easier.
    • Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – CSS can be used to structure content in a way that improves search engine visibility.
    • Ease of Maintenance – Centralized CSS files make it easier to maintain and update styles across a website. Changes can be applied globally, ensuring uniformity and reducing the risk of inconsistencies.
    • Faster Page Loading – External CSS files can be cached by browsers, resulting in faster page loading times for subsequent visits to a website. This caching mechanism reduces server load and bandwidth consumption.

    Components of CSS

    CSS works by associating rules with HTML elements. A CSS rule contains two main parts:

    • a selector which specifies the HTML element(s) to style.
    • a declaration block which contains one or more declarations separated by semicolons.

    Each declaration includes a property name and a value, specifying the aspect of the element’s presentation to control.

    CSS Example

    Just to give you a little excitement about CSS, here is a sample CSS snippet for your reference.

    <html><head><title>CSS Tutorial</title><style>

      h1 {
     color: #36CFFF; 
  }
    

      p {
     font-size: 1.5em;
     color: white;
  }
    

      div {
     border: 5px inset gold;
     background-color: black;
     width: 300px;
     text-align: center;
  }
       </style></head><body><div><h1>Hello World!</h1><p>This is a sample CSS code.</p></div></body></html>

    In the above CSS snippet:

    • h1, p, and div are the selectors that target the <h1>, <p>, and <div> elements.
    • color, font-size, border, background-color, width, and text-align are the properties.
    • #36CFFF, 1.5em, white, 5px inset gold, black, 300px, and center are the corresponding values passed to these properties.

    For a quick glance of CSS properties and features, check our CSS Reference page.

    Getting Started with CSS

    Below listed topics are most important to learn in CSS from basics to advance, after completing these topics you will able to style your HTML document as you want. We highly recommend you to do practice with CSS by modifying the provided code in this tutorial.

    CSS Basics

    Understanding the basics is important whenever you are learning something new. So before diving deep into CSS please know fundamentals of CSS.

    • CSS Introduction
    • CSS Syntax
    • CSS Selectors
    • CSS Inclusion
    • CSS Comments

    CSS Properties

    CSS properties and selectors are the main thing in CSS, without the properties there is no ways to define the styling of any HTML element. So better to know most frequently used properties in one go will help you to work with CSS.

    • CSS Background
    • CSS Border
    • CSS Display
    • CSS Float
    • CSS Font
    • CSS Line Height
    • CSS Margin
    • CSS Opacity
    • CSS Overflow
    • CSS Padding
    • CSS Position
    • CSS Align
    • CSS White Space
    • CSS Width
    • CSS Height
    • CSS Outline
    • CSS Visibility
    • CSS Counter

    You can get complete list of CSS Properties on the attached link.

    CSS Advanced

    After completing the above two section you can proceed with the advance part of this tutorial, these topics will helps you to make an actual website layout.

    • CSS Animation
    • CSS Gradient
    • CSS Transition
    • CSS Tooltips
    • CSS Arrow
    • CSS Grid
    • CSS FlexBox
    • CSS Responsive Design
    • CSS @Media Query
    • CSS 2D Transforms
    • CSS 3D Transforms
    • CSS Pseudo Classes

    CSS Practice

    The following are some of the important links to practice CSS:

    • CSS Interview Questions
    • CSS Online Quiz
    • CSS Online Test
    • CSS Mock Test
    • CSS Cheatsheet

    Prerequisites to Learn CSS

    Before using CSS extensively, it is essential to have a baisc understanding of the following prerequisites:

    • HTML – A fundamental understanding of HTML markup is necessary. This includes knowledge of HTML elements, attributes, tags, and their hierarchical structure.
    • Text Editors or Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) – In order to write to write your CSS code, a text editor or an IDE is required. Popular choices include Visual Studio Code, Sublime Text, Atom, or integrated editors within IDEs like IntelliJ IDEA or Eclipse.
    • Browser Developer Tools – Familiarizing yourself with browser developer tools can help you understand how styles are applied and troubleshoot layout issues.
    • Basic Environment Setup – Basic understanding of creating and managing files, along with saving and organizing them on your computer.

    If you are new to HTML and XHTML, then we would suggest you to go through our HTML or XHTML Tutorial first.

    Target Audience: Who Should Learn CSS?

    This tutorial has been prepared for beginners and professionals to help them understand the basics to advanced concepts of CSS. After completing this tutorial, you will find yourself at a great level of expertise in CSS, from where you can take your web design skills to the next level.

    Frequently Asked Questions about CSS

    There are some very Frequently Asked Questions(FAQ) about CSS, this section tries to answer them briefly.What is the Full form of CSS?

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    What is the purpose of CSS?

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    Is there any alternative of CSS?

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    What is the current version of CSS?

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    Is there any disadvantage of CSS?

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    Yes, CSS can’t provide maximum security, or you can say the purpose is not to provide that kind of security for your website. Lots of browsers required different properties for the same functionality(cross-browser issue).