CSS Notes
What is CSS?
CSS is the language we use to style a Web page.
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 Syntax
A CSS rule consists of a selector and a declaration block:
selector declaration declaration
(h1) {color:blue;font-size:12px}
property: value property: value
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
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;
}
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;
}
Example
In this example we have grouped the selectors from the code above:
h1, h2, p {
text-align: center;
color: red;
}
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.
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="[Link]">
</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 "[Link]" file looks:
"[Link]"
body {
background-color: lightblue;
}
h1 {
color: navy;
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="[Link]">
<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="[Link]">
</head>