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What Is CSS?: CSS Stands For Cascading Style Sheets

The document provides information on CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) including what CSS is, CSS syntax, CSS selectors like id and class selectors, ways to insert CSS like external, internal and inline styles, CSS background properties, and how to set a fixed background image. Key points covered include that CSS is used to style and lay out HTML elements, the basic CSS syntax of selectors and declarations, and that CSS rules can cascade from multiple sources with inline styles having the highest priority.

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42 views

What Is CSS?: CSS Stands For Cascading Style Sheets

The document provides information on CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) including what CSS is, CSS syntax, CSS selectors like id and class selectors, ways to insert CSS like external, internal and inline styles, CSS background properties, and how to set a fixed background image. Key points covered include that CSS is used to style and lay out HTML elements, the basic CSS syntax of selectors and declarations, and that CSS rules can cascade from multiple sources with inline styles having the highest priority.

Uploaded by

صهوة المجد
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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CSS

What is CSS?

 CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets


 Styles define how to display HTML elements
 Styles were added to HTML 4.0 to solve a problem
 External Style Sheets can save a lot of work
 External Style Sheets are stored in CSS files

CSS Syntax

A CSS rule has two main parts: a selector, and one or more declarations:

The selector is normally the HTML element you want to style.

Each declaration consists of a property and a value.

The property is the style attribute you want to change. Each property has a value.

CSS Example

CSS declarations always ends with a semicolon, and declaration groups are surrounded by curly brackets:

p {color:red;text-align:center;}

To make the CSS more readable, you can put one declaration on each line, like this:

Example
p
{
color:red;
text-align:center;
}

CSS Comments

Comments are used to explain your code, and may help you when you edit the source code at a later date. Comments are
ignored by browsers.
A CSS comment begins with "/*", and ends with "*/", like this:

/*This is a comment*/
p
{
text-align:center;
/*This is another comment*/
color:black;
font-family:arial;
}

The id and class Selectors

In addition to setting a style for a HTML element, CSS allows you to specify your own selectors called "id" and "class".

The id Selector

The id selector is used to specify a style for a single, unique element.

The id selector uses the id attribute of the HTML element, and is defined with a "#".

The style rule below will be applied to the element with id="para1":

Example
#para1
{
text-align:center;
color:red;
}

Do NOT start an ID name with a number! It will not work in Mozilla/Firefox.

<html>

<head>

<style type="text/css">

#para1

text-align:center;

color:red;

</style>

</head>

<body>

<p id="para1">Hello World!</p>


<p>This paragraph is not affected by the style.</p>

</body>

</html>

The class Selector

The class selector is used to specify a style for a group of elements. Unlike the id selector, the class selector is most often
used on several elements.

This allows you to set a particular style for any HTML elements with the same class.

The class selector uses the HTML class attribute, and is defined with a "."

In the example below, all HTML elements with class="center" will be center-aligned:

Example
.center {text-align:center;}

You can also specify that only specific HTML elements should be affected by a class.

<html>

<head>

<style type="text/css">

.center

text-align:center;

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h1 class="center">Center-aligned heading</h1>

<p class="center">Center-aligned paragraph.</p>

</body>

</html>
In the example below, all p elements with class="center" will be center-aligned:

Example
p.center {text-align:center;}

Do NOT start a class name with a number! This is only supported in Internet Explorer.

<html>

<head>

<style type="text/css">

p.center

text-align:center;

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h1 class="center">This heading will not be affected</h1>

<p class="center">This paragraph will be center-aligned.</p>

</body>

</html>

Three Ways to Insert CSS

There are three ways of inserting a style sheet:

 External style sheet


 Internal style sheet
 Inline style

External Style Sheet

An external style sheet is ideal when the style is applied to many pages. With an external style sheet, you can change the
look of an entire Web site by changing one file. Each page must link to the style sheet using the <link> tag. The <link>
tag goes inside the head section:

<head>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="mystyle.css" />
</head>
An external style sheet can be written in any text editor. The file should not contain any html tags. Your style sheet should be
saved with a .css extension. An example of a style sheet file is shown below:

hr {color:sienna;}
p {margin-left:20px;}
body {background-image:url("images/1.jpg");}

Do not leave spaces between the property value and the units! "margin-left:20 px" (instead of "margin-
left:20px") will work in IE, but not in Firefox or Opera.

Internal Style Sheet

An internal style sheet should be used when a single document has a unique style. You define internal styles in the head
section of an HTML page, by using the <style> tag, like this:

<head>
<style type="text/css">
hr {color:sienna;}
p {margin-left:20px;}
body {background-image:url("images/back40.gif");}
</style>
</head>

Inline Styles

An inline style loses many of the advantages of style sheets by mixing content with presentation. Use this method sparingly!

To use inline styles you use the style attribute in the relevant tag. The style attribute can contain any CSS property. The
example shows how to change the color and the left margin of a paragraph:

<p style="color:sienna;margin-left:20px">This is a paragraph.</p>

Multiple Style Sheets

If some properties have been set for the same selector in different style sheets, the values will be inherited from the more
specific style sheet. 

For example, an external style sheet has these properties for the h3 selector:

h3
{
color:red;
text-align:left;
font-size:8pt;
}

And an internal style sheet has these properties for the h3 selector:

h3
{
text-align:right;
font-size:20pt;
}

If the page with the internal style sheet also links to the external style sheet the properties for h3 will be:

color:red;
text-align:right;
font-size:20pt;

The color is inherited from the external style sheet and the text-alignment and the font-size is replaced by the internal style
sheet.

Multiple Styles Will Cascade into One

Styles can be specified:

 inside an HTML element


 inside the head section of an HTML page
 in an external CSS file

Tip: Even multiple external style sheets can be referenced inside a single HTML document.

Cascading order

What style will be used when there is more than one style specified for an HTML element?

Generally speaking we can say that all the styles will "cascade" into a new "virtual" style sheet by the following rules, where
number four has the highest priority:

1. Browser default
2. External style sheet
3. Internal style sheet (in the head section)
4. Inline style (inside an HTML element)

So, an inline style (inside an HTML element) has the highest priority, which means that it will override a style defined inside
the <head> tag, or in an external style sheet, or in a browser (a default value).

Note: If the link to the external style sheet is placed after the internal style sheet in HTML <head>, the external style
sheet will override the internal style sheet!

CSS Background
CSS background properties are used to define the background effects of an element.

CSS properties used for background effects:

 background-color
 background-image
 background-repeat
 background-attachment
 background-position

Background Color

The background-color property specifies the background color of an element.

The background color of a page is defined in the body selector:


<html>

<head>

<style type="text/css">

body

background-color:#b0c4de;

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h1>My CSS web page!</h1>

<p>Hello world!.</p>

</body>
</html>

The background color can be specified by:

 name - a color name, like "red"


 RGB - an RGB value, like "rgb(255,0,0)"
 Hex - a hex value, like "#ff0000"

In the example below, the h1, p, and div elements have different background colors:
<html>

<head>

<style type="text/css">

h1

background-color:#6495ed;

background-color:#e0ffff;

div

background-color:#b0c4de;

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h1>CSS background-color example!</h1>

<div>

This is a text inside a div element.

<p>This paragraph has it's own background color.</p>

We are still in the div element.

</div>

</body>

</html>
Background Image

The background-image property specifies an image to use as the background of an element.

By default, the image is repeated so it covers the entire element.

The background image for a page can be set like this:

<html>

<head>

<style type="text/css">

body {background-image:url('paper.gif');}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h1>Hello World!</h1>

</body>

</html>

Background Image - Repeat Horizontally or Vertically

By default, the background-image property repeats an image both horizontally and vertically.

body
{
background-image:url('gradient2.png');
background-repeat:repeat-x;
}

Background Image - Set position and no-repeat

When using a background image, use an image that does not disturb the text.

Showing the image only once is specified by the background-repeat property:


<html>

<head>

<style type="text/css">

body

background-image:url('img_tree.png');

background-repeat:no-repeat;

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h1>Hello World!</h1>

<p>W3Schools background image example.</p>

<p>The background image is only showing once, but it is disturbing the reader!</p>

</body>

</html>

In the example above, the background image is shown in the same place as the text. We want to change the position of the
image, so that it does not disturb the text too much.

The position of the image is specified by the background-position property:

Example
body
{
background-image:url('img_tree.png');
background-repeat:no-repeat;
background-position:right top;
}
How to set a fixed background image
This example demonstrates how to set a fixed background image. The image will not scroll with the rest of the page.

<html>

<head>

<style type="text/css">

body

background-image:url('smiley.gif');

background-repeat:no-repeat;

background-attachment:fixed;

</style>

</head>

<body>

<p>The background-image is fixed. Try to scroll down the page.</p>

<p>The background-image is fixed. Try to scroll down the page.</p>

<p>The background-image is fixed. Try to scroll down the page.</p>

<p>The background-image is fixed. Try to scroll down the page.</p>

<p>The background-image is fixed. Try to scroll down the page.</p>

<p>The background-image is fixed. Try to scroll down the page.</p>

<p>The background-image is fixed. Try to scroll down the page.</p>

<p>The background-image is fixed. Try to scroll down the page.</p>

<p>The background-image is fixed. Try to scroll down the page.</p>

<p>The background-image is fixed. Try to scroll down the page.</p>

<p>The background-image is fixed. Try to scroll down the page.</p>

<p>The background-image is fixed. Try to scroll down the page.</p>

<p>The background-image is fixed. Try to scroll down the page.</p>

<p>The background-image is fixed. Try to scroll down the page.</p>

<p>The background-image is fixed. Try to scroll down the page.</p>

</body>

</html>
CSS Text

Text Color

The color property is used to set the color of the text. The color can be specified by:

 name - a color name, like "red"


 RGB - an RGB value, like "rgb(255,0,0)"
 Hex - a hex value, like "#ff0000"

The default color for a page is defined in the body selector.

<html>

<head>

<style type="text/css">

body {color:red;}

h1 {color:#00ff00;}

p.ex {color:rgb(0,0,255);}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h1>This is heading 1</h1>

<p>This is an ordinary paragraph. Notice that this text is red. The default text-color for a page is defined in the
body selector.</p>

<p class="ex">This is a paragraph with class="ex". This text is blue.</p>

</body>
</html>

For W3C compliant CSS: If you define the color property, you must also define the background-color property.

Text Alignment

The text-align property is used to set the horizontal alignment of a text.

Text can be centered, or aligned to the left or right, or justified.

When text-align is set to "justify", each line is stretched so that every line has equal width, and the left and right margins are
straight (like in magazines and newspapers).
<html>

<head>

<style type="text/css">

h1 {text-align:center;}

p.date {text-align:right;}

p.main {text-align:justify;}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h1>CSS text-align Example</h1>

<p class="date">May, 2009</p>

<p class="main">In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been
turning over in my mind ever since. 'Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,' he told me, just remember
that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.'</p>

<p><b>Note:</b> Resize the browser window to see how the value "justify" works.</p>

</body>

</html>

Text Decoration

The text-decoration property is used to set or remove decorations from text.

The text-decoration property is mostly used to remove underlines from links for design purposes:
<html>

<head>

<style type="text/css">

a {text-decoration:none;}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<p>Link to: <a href="http://www.yahoo.com">yahoo</a></p>

</body>

</html>

It can also be used to decorate text:


<html>

<head>

<style type="text/css">

h1 {text-decoration:overline;}

h2 {text-decoration:line-through;}

h3 {text-decoration:underline;}

h4 {text-decoration:blink;}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h1>This is heading 1</h1>

<h2>This is heading 2</h2>

<h3>This is heading 3</h3>

<h4>This is heading 4</h4>

<p><b>Note:</b> The "blink" value is not supported in IE, Chrome, or Safari.</p>

</body>

</html>

It is not recommended to underline text that is not a link, as this often confuses users.

Text Transformation

The text-transform property is used to specify uppercase and lowercase letters in a text.

It can be used to turn everything into uppercase or lowercase letters, or capitalize the first letter of each word.

Example
p.uppercase {text-transform:uppercase;}
p.lowercase {text-transform:lowercase;}
p.capitalize {text-transform:capitalize;}

Text Indentation

The text-indentation property is used to specify the indentation of the first line of a text.
Example
p {text-indent:50px;}

Specify the space between characters


This example demonstrates how to increase or decrease the space between characters.

h1 {letter-spacing:2px;}

h2 {letter-spacing:-3px;}

Specify the space between lines


This example demonstrates how to specify the space between the lines in a paragraph.

<html>

<head>

<style type="text/css">

p.small {line-height:90%;}

p.big {line-height:200%;}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<p>

This is a paragraph with a standard line-height.

The default line height in most browsers is about 110% to 120%.

This is a paragraph with a standard line-height.

</p>

<p class="small">

This is a paragraph with a smaller line-height.

This is a paragraph with a smaller line-height.

This is a paragraph with a smaller line-height.

</p>
<p class="big">

This is a paragraph with a bigger line-height.

This is a paragraph with a bigger line-height.

This is a paragraph with a bigger line-height.

</p>

</body>

</html>

Set the text direction of an element


This example demonstrates how to change the text direction of an element.

<html>

<head>

<style type="text/css">

div.ex1 {direction:rtl;}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<div>Some text. Default writing direction.</div>

<div class="ex1">Some text. Right-to-left direction.</div>

</body>

</html>

Increase the white space between words


This example demonstrates how to increase the white space between words in a paragraph.

word-spacing:30px;

Disable text wrapping inside an element


This example demonstrates how to disable text wrapping inside an element.

Vertical alignment of an image


This example demonstrates how to set the vertical align of an image in a text.

Font Family

The font family of a text is set with the font-family property.

The font-family property should hold several font names as a "fallback" system. If the browser does not support the first font,
it tries the next font.

Start with the font you want, and end with a generic family, to let the browser pick a similar font in the generic family, if no
other fonts are available.

Note: If the name of a font family is more than one word, it must be in quotation marks, like font-family: "Times New
Roman".

More than one font family is specified in a comma-separated list:

Example
p{font-family:"Times New Roman", Times, serif;}

For more commonly used font combinations, look at our Web Safe Font Combinations.

Font Style

The font-style property is mostly used to specify italic text.

This property has three values:

 normal - The text is shown normally


 italic - The text is shown in italics
 oblique - The text is "leaning" (oblique is very similar to italic, but less supported)

Example
p.normal {font-style:normal;}
p.italic {font-style:italic;}
p.oblique {font-style:oblique;}

Font Size

The font-size property sets the size of the text.

Being able to manage the text size is important in web design. However, you should not use font size adjustments to make
paragraphs look like headings, or headings look like paragraphs.
Always use the proper HTML tags, like <h1> - <h6> for headings and <p> for paragraphs.

The font-size value can be an absolute, or relative size.

Absolute size:

 Sets the text to a specified size


 Does not allow a user to change the text size in all browsers (bad for accessibility reasons)
 Absolute size is useful when the physical size of the output is known

Relative size:

 Sets the size relative to surrounding elements


 Allows a user to change the text size in browsers

If you do not specify a font size, the default size for normal text, like paragraphs, is 16px (16px=1em).

Set Font Size With Pixels

Setting the text size with pixels, gives you full control over the text size:

Example
h1 {font-size:40px;}
h2 {font-size:30px;}
p {font-size:14px;}

The example above allows Firefox, Chrome, and Safari to resize the text, but not Internet Explorer.

The text can be resized in all browsers using the zoom tool (however, this resizes the entire page, not just the text).

Set Font Size With Em

To avoid the resizing problem with Internet Explorer, many developers use em instead of pixels.

The em size unit is recommended by the W3C.

1em is equal to the current font size. The default text size in browsers is 16px. So, the default size of 1em is 16px.

The size can be calculated from pixels to em using this formula: pixels/16=em

Example
h1 {font-size:2.5em;} /* 40px/16=2.5em */
h2 {font-size:1.875em;} /* 30px/16=1.875em */
p {font-size:0.875em;} /* 14px/16=0.875em */

In the example above, the text size in em is the same as the previous example in pixels. However, with the em size, it is
possible to adjust the text size in all browsers.
Unfortunately, there is still a problem with IE. When resizing the text, it becomes larger than it should when made larger, and
smaller than it should when made smaller.

Use a Combination of Percent and Em

The solution that works in all browsers, is to set a default font-size in percent for the body element:

Example
body {font-size:100%;}
h1 {font-size:2.5em;}
h2 {font-size:1.875em;}
p {font-size:0.875em;}

Our code now works great! It shows the same text size in all browsers, and allows all browsers to zoom or resize the text!

Set the boldness of the font


This example demonstrates how to set the boldness of a font.

p.normal {font-weight:normal;}

p.light {font-weight:lighter;}

p.thick {font-weight:bold;}

p.thicker {font-weight:900;}

CSS Links

Styling Links

Links can be styled with any CSS property (e.g. color, font-family, background, etc.).

Special for links are that they can be styled differently depending on what state they are in.

The four links states are:

 a:link - a normal, unvisited link


 a:visited - a link the user has visited
 a:hover - a link when the user mouses over it
 a:active - a link the moment it is clicked

Example
a:link {color:#FF0000;}      /* unvisited link */
a:visited {color:#00FF00;}  /* visited link */
a:hover {color:#FF00FF;}  /* mouse over link */
a:active {color:#0000FF;}  /* selected link */

When setting the style for several link states, there are some order rules:
 a:hover MUST come after a:link and a:visited
 a:active MUST come after a:hover

Common Link Styles

In the example above the link changes color depending on what state it is in.

Lets go through some of the other common ways to style links:

Text Decoration

The text-decoration property is mostly used to remove underlines from links:

Example
a:link {text-decoration:none;}
a:visited {text-decoration:none;}
a:hover {text-decoration:underline;}
a:active {text-decoration:underline;}

Background Color

The background-color property specifies the background color for links:

Example
a:link {background-color:#B2FF99;}
a:visited {background-color:#FFFF85;}
a:hover {background-color:#FF704D;}
a:active {background-color:#FF704D;}

CSS Lists
The CSS list properties allow you to:

 Set different list item markers for ordered lists


 Set different list item markers for unordered lists
 Set an image as the list item marker

List

In HTML, there are two types of lists:

 unordered lists - the list items are marked with bullets


 ordered lists - the list items are marked with numbers or letters

With CSS, lists can be styled further, and images can be used as the list item marker.
Different List Item Markers

The type of list item marker is specified with the list-style-type property:
<html>

<head>

<style type="text/css">

ul.a {list-style-type:circle;}

ul.b {list-style-type:square;}

ol.c {list-style-type:upper-roman;}

ol.d {list-style-type:lower-alpha;}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<p>Example of unordered lists:</p>

<ul class="a">

<li>Coffee</li>

<li>Tea</li>

<li>Coca Cola</li>

</ul>

<ul class="b">

<li>Coffee</li>

<li>Tea</li>

<li>Coca Cola</li>

</ul>

<p>Example of ordered lists:</p>

<ol class="c">

<li>Coffee</li>

<li>Tea</li>

<li>Coca Cola</li>

</ol>
<ol class="d">

<li>Coffee</li>

<li>Tea</li>

<li>Coca Cola</li>

</ol>

</body>

Some of the property values are for unordered lists, and some for ordered lists.

Values for Unordered Lists


Value Description

none No marker

disc Default. The marker is a filled circle

circle The marker is a circle

square The marker is a square

Values for Ordered Lists


Value Description

armenian The marker is traditional Armenian numbering

decimal The marker is a number

decimal-leading-zero The marker is a number padded by initial zeros (01, 02, 03, etc.)

georgian The marker is traditional Georgian numbering (an, ban, gan, etc.)

lower-alpha The marker is lower-alpha (a, b, c, d, e, etc.)

lower-greek The marker is lower-greek (alpha, beta, gamma, etc.)

lower-latin The marker is lower-latin (a, b, c, d, e, etc.)

lower-roman The marker is lower-roman (i, ii, iii, iv, v, etc.)

upper-alpha The marker is upper-alpha (A, B, C, D, E, etc.) 

upper-latin The marker is upper-latin (A, B, C, D, E, etc.)

upper-roman The marker is upper-roman (I, II, III, IV, V, etc.)

Note: IE8, and earlier, support the property values "decimal-leading-zero", "lower-greek", "lower-latin", "upper-latin",
"armenian", "georgian", or "inherit" only if a DOCTYPE is specified!
An Image as The List Item Marker

To specify an image as the list item marker, use the list-style-image property:

Example
ul
{
list-style-image: url('sqpurple.gif');
}

The example above does not display equally in all browsers. IE and Opera will display the image-marker a little bit higher
than Firefox, Chrome, and Safari.

If you want the image-marker to be placed equally in all browsers, a crossbrowser solution is explained below.

Crossbrowser Solution

The following example displays the image-marker equally in all browsers:

Example
ul
{
list-style-type: none;
padding: 0px;
margin: 0px;
}
li
{
background-image: url(sqpurple.gif);
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-position: 0px 5px;
padding-left: 14px;
}

Example explained:

 For ul:
o Set the list-style-type to none to remove the list item marker
o Set both padding and margin to 0px (for cross-browser compatibility)
 For li:
o Set the URL of the image, and show it only once (no-repeat)
o Position the image where you want it (left 0px and down 5px)
o Position the text in the list with padding-left

When using the shorthand property, the order of the values are:

 list-style-type
 list-style-position (for a description, see the CSS properties table below)
 list-style-image

It does not matter if one of the values above are missing, as long as the rest are in the specified order.
CSS Tables

Table Borders

To specify table borders in CSS, use the border property.

The example below specifies a black border for table, th, and td elements:

Example
table, th, td
{
border: 1px solid black;
}

Notice that the table in the example above has double borders. This is because both the table, th, and td elements have
separate borders.

To display a single border for the table, use the border-collapse property.

Table Width and Height

Width and height of a table is defined by the width and height properties.

The example below sets the width of the table to 100%, and the height of the th elements to 50px:

Example
table
{
width:100%;
}
th
{
height:50px;
}

Table Text Alignment

The text in a table is aligned with the text-align and vertical-align properties.

The text-align property sets the horizontal alignment, like left, right, or center:
Example
td
{
text-align:right;
}

The vertical-align property sets the vertical alignment, like top, bottom, or middle:

Example
td
{
height:50px;
vertical-align:bottom;
}

Table Padding

To control the space between the border and content in a table, use the padding property on td and th elements:

Example
td
{
padding:15px;
}

Table Color

The example below specifies the color of the borders, and the text and background color of th elements:
Example
table, td, th
{
border:1px solid green;
}
th
{
background-color:green;
color:white;
}

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