HTML4
HTML4
CSS saves a lot of work. It can control the layout of multiple web pages all at
once.
What is CSS?
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is used to format the layout of a webpage.
With CSS, you can control the color, font, the size of text, the spacing between
elements, how elements are positioned and laid out, what background images or
background colors are to be used, different displays for different devices and
screen sizes, and much more!
Tip: The word cascading means that a style applied to a parent element will also
apply to all children elements within the parent. So, if you set the color of the
body text to "blue", all headings, paragraphs, and other text elements within the
body will also get the same color (unless you specify something else)!
Using CSS
CSS can be added to HTML documents in 3 ways:
Inline CSS
An inline CSS is used to apply a unique style to a single HTML element.
The following example sets the text color of the <h1> element to blue, and the text
color of the <p> element to red:
Example
<h1 style="color:blue;">A Blue Heading</h1>
Internal CSS
An internal CSS is used to define a style for a single HTML page.
An internal CSS is defined in the <head> section of an HTML page, within a <style>
element.
The following example sets the text color of ALL the <h1> elements (on that page)
to blue, and the text color of ALL the <p> elements to red. In addition, the page
will be displayed with a "powderblue" background color:
Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style>
body {background-color: powderblue;}
h1 {color: blue;}
p {color: red;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>This is a heading</h1>
<p>This is a paragraph.</p>
</body>
</html>
External CSS
An external style sheet is used to define the style for many HTML pages.
To use an external style sheet, add a link to it in the <head> section of each HTML
page:
Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="styles.css">
</head>
<body>
<h1>This is a heading</h1>
<p>This is a paragraph.</p>
</body>
</html>
The external style sheet can be written in any text editor. The file must not
contain any HTML code, and must be saved with a .css extension.
"styles.css":
body {
background-color: powderblue;
}
h1 {
color: blue;
}
p {
color: red;
}
Tip: With an external style sheet, you can change the look of an entire web site,
by changing one file!
Example
Use of CSS color, font-family and font-size properties:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style>
h1 {
color: blue;
font-family: verdana;
font-size: 300%;
}
p {
color: red;
font-family: courier;
font-size: 160%;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>This is a heading</h1>
<p>This is a paragraph.</p>
</body>
</html>
CSS Border
The CSS border property defines a border around an HTML element.
Tip: You can define a border for nearly all HTML elements.
Example
Use of CSS border property:
p {
border: 2px solid powderblue;
}
CSS Padding
The CSS padding property defines a padding (space) between the text and the border.
Example
Use of CSS border and padding properties:
p {
border: 2px solid powderblue;
padding: 30px;
}
CSS Margin
The CSS margin property defines a margin (space) outside the border.
Example
Use of CSS border and margin properties:
p {
border: 2px solid powderblue;
margin: 50px;
}
Link to External CSS
External style sheets can be referenced with a full URL or with a path relative to
the current web page.
Example
This example uses a full URL to link to a style sheet:
Example
This example links to a style sheet located in the html folder on the current web
site:
Example
This example links to a style sheet located in the same folder as the current page:
You can read more about file paths in the chapter HTML File Paths.
Chapter Summary
Use the HTML style attribute for inline styling
Use the HTML <style> element to define internal CSS
Use the HTML <link> element to refer to an external CSS file
Use the HTML <head> element to store <style> and <link> elements
Use the CSS color property for text colors
Use the CSS font-family property for text fonts
Use the CSS font-size property for text sizes
Use the CSS border property for borders
Use the CSS padding property for space inside the border
Use the CSS margin property for space outside the border
Tip: You can learn much more about CSS in our CSS Tutorial.
HTML Exercises
Test Yourself With Exercises
Exercise:
Use CSS to set the background color of the document (body) to yellow.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style>
:yellow;
</style>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>
Start the Exercise