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.
Styles Solved a Big Problem

 HTML was never intended to contain tags for formatting a document.

 HTML was intended to define the content of a document, 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 web sites, 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.
In HTML 4.0, all formatting could be removed from the HTML document, and stored in a separate CSS file.
All browsers support CSS today.
 CSS Saves a Lot of Work!

• CSS defines HOW HTML elements are to be displayed.
• Styles are normally saved in external .css files. External style sheets enable you to change the
appearance and layout of all the pages in a Web site, just by editing one single file!

CSS Syntax
A CSS rule set consists of a selector and a declaration block:

h1{color: blue; font-size: 2px; border:2px solid red;}

selector Property value

 Cont…
• 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 property name and a value, separated by a colon.
CSS Selectors
CSS selectors allow you to select and manipulate HTML element(s).
CSS selectors are used to "find" (or select) HTML elements based on their id, classes, types, attributes,
values of attributes and much more.
The element Selector
• The element selector selects elements based on the element name.
• You can select all <p> elements on a page like this: (all <p> elements will be center-aligned, with a red
text color).
Example
p

{

text-align: center;

color: red;

}
The id Selector

• The id selector uses the id attribute of an HTML tag to find the specific element.
• An id should be unique within a page, so you should use the id selector when you want to find a single,
unique element.
• To find an element with a specific id, write a hash character, followed by the id of the element.
• The style rule below will be applied to the HTML element with id="para1":
Example
#para1

{

text-align: center;

color: red;

}
NOTE: Do NOT start an ID name with a number!
 The class Selector

• The class selector finds elements with the specific class.

• The class selector uses the HTML class attribute.
• To find elements with a specific class, write a period character, followed by the name of the
class:
• In the example below, all HTML elements with class="center" will be center-aligned:
Example
.center

{

text-align: center;

color: red;

}
• You can also specify that only specific HTML elements should be affected by a class.
• In the example below, all p elements with class="center" will be center-aligned:
Cont..
Example
p.center

{

text-align: center;

color: red;

}
• NOTE: Do NOT start a class name with a number!
Grouping Selectors
• In style sheets there are often elements with the same style:
h1

{

text-align:center;

color:red;

}

 Cont…
• h2

{

text-align:center;

color:red;

}




p

{

text-align:center;

color:red;

}
• To minimize the code, you can group selectors.
• To group selectors, separate each selector with a comma.
• In the example below we have grouped the selectors from the code above:
Example
h1,h2,p

{

text-align:center;

color:red;

}
Cont…
• If we want to give a style to our web page we can use three ways. These
are:
1. External style sheet
2. Internal style sheet
3. Inline style
1. 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 f ile.
Each page must link to the style sheet using the <link> tag. The <link> tag goes inside
the head section as follows:
<head>
<link rel=“stylesheet” href=“techno.css” type=“text/css”>
</head>
Cont..
• The file should not contain any html tags. Your style sheet should be saved with a .css extension.
Example
hr {
color: sienna;
}

p
{
margin-left:20px;
}

body
{
background-image:url("images/background.gif");
}
Cont..
• NOTE: Do not add a space between the property value and the unit (such as margin-
left:20 px). The correct way is: margin-left:20px
2. Internal style sheet
An internal style sheet should be used when a single document has a unique style. You
def ine internal styles in the head section of an HTML page, by using the <style> tag, like
this:
<head>

<style>

hr {
color:sienna;
}

p{
margin-left:20px;
}

body {background-image:url("images/background.gif");}

</style>

</head>
3. Inline Styles

• 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>
Cascading order
• What style will be used when there is more than one style specified for an HTML element?
Answer:
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:
• Browser default
• External style sheet
• Internal style sheet (in the head section)
• Inline style (inside an HTML element)
Cont…
• 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:
Example
body {
background-color:#b0c4de;
}
With CSS, a color is most often specified by:
a HEX value - like "#ff0000"
an RGB value - like "rgb(255,0,0)"
a color name - like "red"
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:
Example
body {
background-image:url("paper.gif");
}
 Background Image - Repeat Horizontally or Vertically

• By default, the background-image property repeats an image both horizontally and vertically.
• Some images should be repeated only horizontally or vertically, or they will look strange, like this:
Example
body

{

background-image:url("gradient2.png");

}
• If the image is repeated only horizontally (repeat-x), the background will look better:
body

{

background-image:url("gradient2.png");

background-repeat:repeat-x;

}
 Background Image - Set position and no-repeat
• Note: 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:
Example
body

{

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

background-repeat:no-repeat;

}
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;

}
Cont…
Property Description

background Sets all the background properties in one declaration

Sets whether a background image is fixed or scrolls with

background-attachment
the rest of the page

background-color Sets the background color of an element

background-image Sets the background image for an element

background-position Sets the starting position of a background image

background-repeat Sets how a background image will be repeated

CSS Text

Text Color
• The color property is used to set the color of the text.
• With CSS, a color is most often specified by:
a HEX value - like "#ff0000"
an RGB value - like "rgb(255,0,0)"
a color name - like "red"
• The default color for a page is defined in the body selector.
Example
body {
color:blue;
}

h1 {
color:#00ff00;
}

h2 {
color:rgb(255,0,0);
}
 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).
Example
h1 {
text-align:center;
}

p.date {
text-align:right;
}

p.main {
text-align:justify;
}
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:
Example
a{
text-decoration:none;
}
It can also be used to decorate text:
Example
h1 {text-decoration:overline;}

h2 {text-decoration:line-through;}

h3 {text-decoration:underline;}
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-indent property is used to specify the indentation of the first line of a text.
Example
p{
text-indent:50px;
}
CSS Font
CSS font properties define the font family, boldness, size, and the style of a text.
CSS Font Families
In CSS, there are two types of font family names:
generic family - a group of font families with a similar look (like "Serif" or "Monospace")
font family - a specific font family (like "Times New Roman" or "Arial")
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.
 Cont…
Note: If the name of a font family is more than one word, it must be in quotation marks, like: "Times New
Roman".
More than one font family is specified in a comma-separated list:
Example
p{font-family:"Times New Roman", Times, serif;}
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.
Note: 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;
}
Set Font Size with Em
To avoid the resizing problem with older versions of 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 */
 CSS Links

• Links can be styled in different ways.
Styling Links
Links can be styled with any CSS property (e.g. color, font-family, background, etc.).
In addition, links 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.
Let’s 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;
}
cont
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:
 Cont…
Example
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;
}
Some of the values are for unordered lists, and some for ordered lists.
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');

}
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 and the th/td
elements have separate borders.
• To display a single border for the table, use the border-collapse property.
 Collapse Borders

• The border-collapse property sets whether the table borders are collapsed into a single border or
separated:
Example
table

{

border-collapse:collapse;
}

table, th, td

{

border: 1px solid black;
}

}

table, th, td

{

border: 1px solid black;

}
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:
 Cont…
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;

}
 Cont…
• 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;

}
 CSS Border

CSS Border Properties
The CSS border properties allow you to specify the style and color of an element's border.
Border Style
The border-style property specifies what kind of border to display.
Border Width
• The border-width property is used to set the width of the border.
• The width is set in pixels, or by using one of the three pre-defined values: thin, medium, or thick.
• Note: The "border-width" property does not work if it is used alone. Use the "border-style" property to set
the borders first.
Example
p.one

{

border-style:solid;

border-width:5px;

}

p.two

{

border-style:solid;

border-width:medium;

}
 Border Color

• The border-color property is used to set the color of the border. The color can be set by:
name - specify a color name, like "red"
RGB - specify a RGB value, like "rgb(255,0,0)"
Hex - specify a hex value, like "#ff0000“
You can also set the border color to "transparent".
Note: The "border-color" property does not work if it is used alone. Use the "border-style" property to set
the borders first.
Example
p.one

{

border-style:solid;

border-color:red;

}

p.two

{

border-style:solid;

border-color:#98bf21;

}
 Border - Individual sides

• In CSS it is possible to specify different borders for different sides:
Example
p

{

border-top-style:dotted;

border-right-style:solid;

border-bottom-style:dotted;

border-left-style:solid;

}
The border-style property can have from one to four values.
• border-style:dotted solid double dashed;
• top border is dotted
• right border is solid
• bottom border is double
• left border is dashed
• border-style:dotted solid double;
• top border is dotted
• right and left borders are solid
• bottom border is double
• border-style:dotted solid;
• top and bottom borders are dotted
• right and left borders are solid
• border-style:dotted;
• all four borders are dotted
 Cont…
• The border-style property is used in the example above. However, it also works with border-width and border-
color.
Border - Shorthand property
As you can see from the examples above, there are many properties to consider when dealing with borders.
To shorten the code, it is also possible to specify all the individual border properties in one property. This is
called a shorthand property.
The border property is a shorthand for the following individual border properties:
• border-width
• border-style (required)
• border-color
Example
• border:5px solid red;
CSS Margin
• The CSS margin properties define the space around elements.
• The margin clears an area around an element (outside the border).
• The margin does not have a background color, and is completely transparent.
 Cont…
• The top, right, bottom, and left margin can be changed independently using separate properties.
• A shorthand margin property can also be used, to change all margins at once.
Possible Values

Value Description
auto The browser calculates a margin

length Specifies a margin in px, pt, cm, etc.

Default value is 0px
% Specifies a margin in percent of the
width of the containing element.

inherit Specifies that the margin should be

inherited from the parent element.
 Cont…
Note: It is also possible to use negative values, to overlap content.
The margin property can have from one to four values.
• margin:25px 50px 75px 100px;
• top margin is 25px
• right margin is 50px
• bottom margin is 75px
• left margin is 100px
• margin:25px 50px 75px;
• top margin is 25px
• right and left margins are 50px
• bottom margin is 75px
• margin:25px 50px;
• top and bottom margins are 25px
• right and left margins are 50px
• margin:25px;
• all four margins are 25px
 Cont…
CSS Padding
• The CSS padding properties define the space between the element border and the element content.
Padding
• The padding clears an area around the content (inside the border) of an element.
• The padding is affected by the background color of the element.
• The top, right, bottom, and left padding can be changed independently using separate properties.
• A shorthand padding property can also be used, to change all paddings at once.
Possible Values

Value Description
length Defines a fixed padding (in pixels, pt, em, etc.)

% Defines a padding in % of the containing element

 Padding - Individual sides

In CSS, it is possible to specify different padding for different sides:
• Example
padding-top:25px;

padding-bottom:25px;
padding-right:50px;

padding-left:50px;
• The padding property can have from one to four values.
• padding:25px 50px 75px 100px;
• top padding is 25px
• right padding is 50px
• bottom padding is 75px
• left padding is 100px
• padding:25px 50px 75px;
• top padding is 25px
• right and left paddings are 50px
• bottom padding is 75px
 Cont…
• padding:25px 50px;
• top and bottom paddings are 25px
• right and left paddings are 50px
• padding:25px;
• all four paddings are 25px