CSS Introduction

CSS is the language we use to style a Web page.

What is CSS?
 CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets
 CSS describes how HTML elements are to be displayed on screen,
paper, or in other media
 CSS saves a lot of work. It can control the layout of multiple web pages
all at once
 External stylesheets are stored in CSS files

Why Use CSS?

CSS is used to define styles for your web pages, including the design, layout
and variations in display for different devices and screen sizes.

CSS Example
body {
background-color: lightblue;
}

h1 {
color: white;
text-align: center;
}

p {
font-family: verdana;
font-size: 20px;
}

CSS Solved a Big Problem

HTML was NEVER intended to contain tags for formatting a web page!

HTML was created to describe the content of a web page, like:

<h1>This is a heading</h1>

<p>This is a paragraph.</p>
When tags like <font>, and color attributes were added to the HTML 3.2
specification, it started a nightmare for web developers. Development of large
websites, where fonts and color information were added to every single page,
became a long and expensive process.

To solve this problem, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) created CSS.

CSS removed the style formatting from the HTML page!

CSS Saves a Lot of Work!

The style definitions are normally saved in external .css files.

With an external stylesheet file, you can change the look of an entire website
by changing just one file!

CSS Syntax
A CSS rule consists of a selector and a declaration block.

CSS Syntax

The selector points to the HTML element you want to style.

The declaration block contains one or more declarations separated by

semicolons.

Each declaration includes a CSS property name and a value, separated by a

colon.

Multiple CSS declarations are separated with semicolons, and declaration

blocks are surrounded by curly braces.
Example
In this example all <p> elements will be center-aligned, with a red text color:

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

Example Explained

 p is a selector in CSS (it points to the HTML element you want to style:
<p>).
 color is a property, and red is the property value
 text-align is a property, and center is the property value

CSS Selectors
A CSS selector selects the HTML element(s) you want to style.

CSS Selectors
CSS selectors are used to "find" (or select) the HTML elements you want to
style.

We can divide CSS selectors into five categories:

 Simple selectors (select elements based on name, id, class)

 Combinator selectors (select elements based on a specific relationship
between them)
 Pseudo-class selectors (select elements based on a certain state)
 Pseudo-elements selectors (select and style a part of an element)
 Attribute selectors (select elements based on an attribute or attribute
value)

This page will explain the most basic CSS selectors.

The CSS element Selector

The element selector selects HTML elements based on the element name.
Example
Here, all <p> elements on the page will be center-aligned, with a red text
color:

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

The CSS id Selector

The id selector uses the id attribute of an HTML element to select a specific
element.

The id of an element is unique within a page, so the id selector is used to

select one unique element!

To select an element with a specific id, write a hash (#) character, followed
by the id of the element.

Example
The CSS rule below will be applied to the HTML element with id="para1":

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

Note: An id name cannot start with a number! The CSS class

Selector
The class selector selects HTML elements with a specific class attribute.

To select elements with a specific class, write a period (.) character, followed
by the class name.

Example
In this example all HTML elements with class="center" will be red and center-
aligned:
.center {
text-align: center;
color: red;
}

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

Example
In this example only <p> elements with class="center" will be red and
center-aligned:

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

HTML elements can also refer to more than one class.

Example
In this example the <p> element will be styled according to class="center"
and to class="large":

<p class="center large">This paragraph refers to two classes.</p>

Note: A class name cannot start with a number!

The CSS Universal Selector

The universal selector (*) selects all HTML elements on the page.

Example
The CSS rule below will affect every HTML element on the page:

* {
text-align: center;
color: blue;
}
The CSS Grouping Selector
The grouping selector selects all the HTML elements with the same style
definitions.

Look at the following CSS code (the h1, h2, and p elements have the same
style definitions):

h1 {
text-align: center;
color: red;
}

h2 {
text-align: center;
color: red;
}

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

It will be better to group the selectors, to minimize the code.

To group selectors, separate each selector with a comma.

Example
In this example we have grouped the selectors from the code above:

h1, h2, p {
text-align: center;
color: red;
}

Exercise:
Set the color of all <p> elements to red.

<style>
{
red;
}
</style>

Exercise:
Set the color of the element with id="para1", to red.

<style>
{
red;
}
</style>

<body>
<h1>This is a heading</h1>
<p id="para1">This is a paragraph</p>
</body>

Exercise:
Set the color of all elements with the class colortext, to red.

<style>
{
red;
}
</style>

<body>
<h1>This is a heading</h1>
<p>This is a paragraph</p>
<p class="colortext">This is a paragraph</p>
<p class="colortext">This is a paragraph</p>
</body>
Exercise:
Change the color of all <p> and <h1> elements, to "red". Group the
selectors to minimize code.

<style>
{
red;
}
</style>

<body>
<h1>This is a heading</h1>
<h2>This is a smaller heading</h2>
<p>This is a paragraph</p>
<p>This is a paragraph</p>
</body>

All CSS Simple Selectors

Selector Example Example description

#id #firstname Selects the element with id="firstname"

.class .intro Selects all elements with class="intro"

element.class p.intro Selects only <p> elements with class="intro"

* * Selects all elements

 element p Selects all <p> elements

element,element,.. div, p Selects all <div> elements and all <p> elements

How To Add CSS

When a browser reads a style sheet, it will format the HTML document according
to the information in the style sheet.

Three Ways to Insert CSS

There are three ways of inserting a style sheet:

 External CSS
 Internal CSS
 Inline CSS

External CSS
With an external style sheet, you can change the look of an entire website by
changing just one file!

Each HTML page must include a reference to the external style sheet file
inside the <link> element, inside the head section.

Example
External styles are defined within the <link> element, inside the <head>
section of an HTML page:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="mystyle.css">
</head>
<body>

<h1>This is a heading</h1>
<p>This is a paragraph.</p>

</body>
</html>

An external style sheet can be written in any text editor, and must be saved
with a .css extension.

The external .css file should not contain any HTML tags.

Here is how the "mystyle.css" file looks:

"mystyle.css"
body {
background-color: lightblue;
}

h1 {
color: navy;
margin-left: 20px;
}

Note: Do not add a space between the property value and the unit:
Incorrect (space): margin-left: 20 px;
Correct (nospace): margin-left: 20px;

Internal CSS
An internal style sheet may be used if one single HTML page has a unique
style.

The internal style is defined inside the <style> element, inside the head
section.

Example
Internal styles are defined within the <style> element, inside the <head>
section of an HTML page:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style>
body {
background-color: linen;
}
h1 {
color: maroon;
margin-left: 40px;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>

<h1>This is a heading</h1>
<p>This is a paragraph.</p>

</body>
</html>

Inline CSS
An inline style may be used to apply a unique style for a single element.

To use inline styles, add the style attribute to the relevant element. The style
attribute can contain any CSS property.

Example
Inline styles are defined within the "style" attribute of the relevant element:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>

<h1 style="color:blue;text-align:center;">This is a heading</h1>

<p style="color:red;">This is a paragraph.</p>

</body>
</html>

Multiple Style Sheets

If some properties have been defined for the same selector (element) in
different style sheets, the value from the last read style sheet will be used.

Assume that an external style sheet has the following style for the <h1>
element:
h1 {
color: navy;
}

Then, assume that an internal style sheet also has the following style for
the <h1> element:

h1 {
color: orange;
}

Example
If the internal style is defined after the link to the external style sheet, the
<h1> elements will be "orange":

<head>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="mystyle.css">
<style>
h1 {
color: orange;
}
</style>
</head>

Example
However, if the internal style is defined before the link to the external style
sheet, the <h1> elements will be "navy":

<head>
<style>
h1 {
color: orange;
}
</style>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="mystyle.css">
</head>

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

All the styles in a page will "cascade" into a new "virtual" style sheet by the
following rules, where number one has the highest priority:

1. Inline style (inside an HTML element)

 2. External and internal style sheets (in the head section)
3. Browser default

So, an inline style has the highest priority, and will override external and
internal styles and browser defaults.

Exercise:
Add an external style sheet with the URL: "mystyle.css".

<head>

</head>

<body>
<h1>This is a heading</h1>
<p>This is a paragraph</p>
<p>This is a paragraph</p>
</body>

Exercise:
Set the page's background color to red.

<style>
{
red;
}
</style>

<body>
<h1>This is a heading</h1>
<p>This is a paragraph</p>
<p>This is a paragraph</p>
</body>

Exercise:
Set the page's background color to red, by using an inline style.

<body ="background-color: red">

<h1>This is a heading</h1>
<p>This is a paragraph</p>
<p>This is a paragraph</p>
</body>

Exercise:
Insert the missing parts to make the CSS code correct.

<style>
p
color red;

</style>

CSS Backgrounds
The CSS background properties are used to add background effects for
elements.

In these chapters, you will learn about the following CSS background
properties:

 background-color
 background-image
 background-repeat
 background-attachment
 background-position
 background (shorthand property)
CSS background-color
The background-color property specifies the background color of an element.

Example
The background color of a page is set like this:

body {
background-color: lightblue;
}

Other Elements
You can set the background color for any HTML elements:

Example
Here, the <h1>, <p>, and <div> elements will have different background
colors:

h1 {
background-color: green;
}

div {
background-color: lightblue;
}

p {
background-color: yellow;
}