What is CSS?
Cascading Style Sheets, fondly referred to as CSS, is a simple design language intended to transform the presentation of a Web Pages as well as many ostensibly nonweb environments. CSS handles the look and feel part of a web page. Using CSS, you can control the color of the text, the style of fonts, the spacing between paragraphs, how columns are sized and laid out, what background images or colors are used, layout designs,variations in display for different devices and screen sizes as well as a variety of other effects. CSS is easy to learn and understand but it provides powerful control over the presentation of an HTML document. Most commonly, CSS is combined with the markup languages HTML or XHTML.
Benefits of Using CSS
- SEO: For many businesses and individuals, utilizing organic search engine optimization (SEO) is an important way of connecting people with content. Using CSS to stylize gives you an easy SEO boost. When your site runs more efficiently, Google ranks you higher.
- Lean code: The code for CSS is lightweight and not bulky. Bulky HTML can slow down webpage download times.
- Variety of formatting options: CSS has numerous formatting options, more than are available with HTML alone.
- Design consistency: In a digital era driven by user experience, design consistency is important. CSS gives developers greater control over design elements and how they appear to users.
- Ease of maintenance: CSS is easier to maintain, use and monitor than HTML, which makes it a more efficient way to stylize a web document.
- Allows for dynamic styling: Developers can program CSS to change according to who is viewing it.
- Greater accessibility: Because it's easier to learn, CSS can be used by almost anyone with basic technical skills.
Using CSS has several advantages over HTML that developers benefit from. Because CSS is the standard, not the exception, developers entering the field will be expected to know about CSS.
Types of CSS
- External CSS consists of a separate file. The web page file (HTML) will link to this separate file. In this, a set of rules for decoration and formatting is specified, and any HTML file using this style sheet will follow this standard set of rules. Any HTML file may link to an external CSS file with a simple command at the beginning of the HTML file.
- Internal CSS occurs at the beginning of an HTML file. This code will apply to only the file in which it is inserted. This is popular for specifying page-specific formatting.
- Inline CSS occurs inside the HTML file at the element level. If a developer wants to apply unique decoration to a single element (e.g., a heading or an image), they can specify the desired CSS properties in the same line as the HTML element declaration.
