Updated June 28, 2023
Introduction To CSS
Cascading Style Sheets, better known as CSS, is a very simple process to make web pages much more presentable. CSS allows you to put styles to customize your web pages. The best part about using this styling feature is that the CSS is independent of the HTML way of creating web pages. The Hypertext Markup Language and the Cascading Style Sheets have a basic difference. CSS primarily structures the web page’s landscape while offering powerful color coding and styling techniques. It actively controls the layout of more than one web page simultaneously. All the CSS files store the external stylesheets.
Main Components of CSS
In the Above Section, we have studied Introduction to CSS, So now we are going ahead with the main components of CSS as below:
1. Easily maintainable: If you are intended to make any global change, change the styling, and you can see all other elements in all other web pages getting automatically updated.
2. CSS is time-saving: You can write the script once and reuse the same sheet as much time as you want.
3. Superior styles to the native front end: CSS has a much wider array of attributes and lists than HTML. Therefore the HTML page can have a brighter look and feel than the normal HTML attributes.
4. Ease with Search Engines: CSS is a convenient and easy-to-read styling sheet. This means that search engines don’t have to put in much effort trying to read the text.
5. Efficient cache storing: CSS can store web applications locally with the help of an offline cache mechanism that can be used to view offline websites.
Characteristics of CSS
As we discussed the introduction to CSS and Its component. Now we are going to learn about the characteristics of CSS. The client browser interprets and applies styling rules to various elements in your document, which are among the major characteristics of CSS. Major characteristics include:
- A style rule consists of a selector component and a declaration block component.
- The selector points to the HTML component that you want to style.
- The declaration block contains one or more declarations, along with semicolons.
- Every declaration has a CSS property name, a semicolon, and a value. For example, the color is the property, and the value is red. Font size is the property, and the 15px is the value.
- CSS declaration ends with a semicolon, and curly braces surround these blocks.
- CSS selectors are the ones that are used to find HTML elements that are based on the element name, id, attribute, class, and more.
- The ID of an element will select a unique component.
- If you wish to select a particular element with a specific id, the # function, and the id attribute should be used.
- If you wish to select the elements with a specific class, the period character and the name class should be written.
- Universal selector: If you do not wish to select elements of a particular type, you can use the universal selector, which matches the element name.
- Element selector: These selectors choose the element based on the element name.
- Descendent selector: The descendent selector refers to a situation where a particular element is inside another.
- ID selector: This selector uses the id of the HTML element to select a specific element.
- Class selectors: It selects the element with a specific class attribute.
- Grouping selectors: It will be a good option to group the selectors to minimize the code. Each selector and a comma should be used to group the selectors.
Applications of CSS
After learning the Introduction to CSS and the characteristics of CSS, we are going to learn the application of CSS. There are three ways of HTML accessing CSS:
1. Inline
An inline style sheet only affects the tag it is in. This essentially means that you can change the small details on the page without altering the overall layout or everything on the page. This is advantageous as if you had everything on the external pages. In that case, you must add additional tags to modify the details. Inline overrules external, which means that the small details can be changed. It also overrules the internal.
2. Internal
Web developers typically utilize internal styling to make small changes within a single tag. Inline styling affects only the specific tag to which it is applied, while internal styling is placed within the head of the HTML document. This means that if you wish to customize the page, all the required changes would be seen by just scrolling. The internal styling is placed inside the tags. Comparatively, this looks neater, simple, elegant, and organized because of the separate styling and tagging.
3. External
External stylesheets allow people to format and recreate their web pages on different documents. This effectively means you can have two or more workplaces, as more than one stylesheet can be embedded inside the document, providing you with a much cleaner workspace. In this case, the external stylesheet’s easy accessibility provides a significant advantage. However, it’s important to note that any changes to the external sheet would impact all the parent sheets it is linked to.
Advantages And Disadvantages Of CSS
Below are the advantages and disadvantages:
Advantages
Below are the advantages:
- Device Compatibility
- Faster website speed
- Easily maintainable
- Consistent and spontaneous changes
- Ability to re-position
- Enhances search engine capabilities to crawl the web pages
Disadvantages
Below are the disadvantages:
- Cross-browser related issues
- Vulnerable
- Issues due to multiple levels
- Lack of security
- Fragmentation
Conclusion
CSS empowers the web designer to apply extensive changes to the web layout of all pages within a single website using a single file. It helps design a light and creative website with high responsiveness, which impresses the audience when displayed. Therefore, it is an integral part of today’s websites that should not be overlooked.
Recommended Articles
We hope that this EDUCBA information on “Introduction to CSS” was beneficial to you. You can view EDUCBA’s recommended articles for more information.
