CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. It is a language that allows you to style and format the appearance of your web pages. CSS can help you create beautiful and responsive websites that impress your visitors and boost your online success.
What is CSS and how does it work?
CSS is a language that allows you to style and format the appearance of your web pages. CSS works together with HTML, which is the language that defines the structure and content of your web pages.
HTML uses tags, such as <p>
, <h1>
, <img>
, to create elements on your web pages. These elements can contain text, images, links, forms, etc.
How CSS Work
CSS uses rules, such as p {color: red;}
, h1 {font-size: 36px;}
, img {border: 1px solid black;}
, to apply styles to these elements. These styles can change the color, size, position and shape of these elements.
CSS rules consist of two parts:
- selector: A selector is the part that specifies which element or elements you want to style
- declaration: A declaration is the part that specifies what style or styles you want to apply
A declaration consists of two parts:
- property: A property is the part that specifies what aspect of the element you want to change
- value: A value is the part that specifies how you want to change it.
Example: This is how a CSS rule looks like:
p {
color: red;
font-size: 18px; }
This rule has a selector (p
) that targets all paragraph elements on the web page. It has a declaration (color: red;
) that changes the color of the text inside these elements to red. It also has another declaration (font-size: 18px;
) that changes the size of the text inside these elements to 18 pixels.
You can write multiple declarations for one selector by separating them with semicolons (;). You can also write multiple rules for different selectors by separating them with new lines.
NOTE: CSS rules are usually written in a separate file with a .css extension.
Example: This is how a CSS file looks like:
/* This is a comment */
p {
color: red;
font-size: 18px;
}
h1 {
font-family: Arial, sans-serif;
font-weight: bold;
}
You can use comments (/* … */) to explain or document your code. Comments are ignored by the browsers and do not affect the appearance of your web pages.
You can link your CSS file to your HTML file by using the <link> tag in the <head> section of your HTML file. For example, this is how you would link a CSS file named style.css to your HTML file:
<head>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css">
</head>
- The
rel
attribute specifies the relationship between the HTML file and the linked file. - The
href
attribute specifies the location or URL of the linked file.
Example
HTML Code File:
CSS Code File:
Code Directory:
RESULT:
When you link your CSS file to your HTML file, the browser will read both files and apply the styles defined in the CSS file to the elements defined in the HTML file. The result will be a styled web page that looks like this:
This is how CSS works in a nutshell. Of course, there is much more to CSS than this, but this is the basic concept that you need to understand before moving on to the next sections.
Why is CSS Important and what are its Benefits
CSS is important because it allows you to style and format the appearance of your web pages. CSS has many benefits, such as:
- Separation of content and presentation: CSS allows you to separate the content and presentation of your web pages. This means that you can write your HTML code to define the structure and content of your web pages and write your CSS code to define the style and appearance of your web pages. This makes your code more organized, modular and maintainable. It also allows you to reuse your CSS code for multiple web pages, which reduces the file size and loading time of your web pages.
- Consistency and uniformity: CSS allows you to create consistent and uniform styles for your web pages. This means that you can apply the same style to multiple elements or web pages, which ensures that your web pages look professional. It also allows you to change or update the style of your web pages easily by modifying only one CSS file, which saves you time and effort.
- Customization and flexibility: CSS allows you to customize and adapt the appearance of your web pages according to your design needs. This means that you can create different styles for different elements or web pages, which gives you more control and creativity over your web design. It also allows you to adjust the style of your web pages based on different screen sizes or devices, which improves the responsiveness and usability of your web pages.
- Accessibility and compatibility: CSS allows you to improve the accessibility and compatibility of your web pages. This means that you can make your web pages more accessible and user-friendly for people with disabilities or special needs by using proper colors, fonts, sizes, etc. It also means that you can make your web pages more compatible and cross-browser friendly by using standard and valid CSS code, which ensures that your web pages look good and function well on different browsers and platforms.