Posted on Aug 13
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language that allows authors and users to attach style (e.g., from fonts and spacing to filter effects and style animations) to structured documents (e.g., HTML documents and XML applications). By separating the presentation style of documents from the content of documents, CSS simplifies Web authoring and site maintenance. It supports media-specific style so that authors may tailor the presentation of their documents to visual browsers, aural devices, printers, braille devices, handheld devices, etc.
Cascading Style Sheets
Introduction
CSS is the language we use to style an HTML document. CSS describes how HTML elements should be displayed.
It helps to define the presentation of HTML elements as a separate file known as CSS file.
Meaning of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a programming design language that includes all relevant information relating to the display of a webpage. CSS defines the style and formatting of a website or page, including the layout, colors, fonts, padding (the space around each element) and more.
CSS (cascading style sheets) is a style sheet language. It is similar to a programming language, except instead of telling a computer what to do, it tells a web browser how to display elements on a website. We use CSS to manipulate the styles of elements on a webpage. Make this button purple and give it rounded corners.
Scope of CSS
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language that allows authors and users to attach style (e.g., from fonts and spacing to filter effects and style animations) to structured documents (e.g., HTML documents and XML applications). By separating the presentation style of documents from the content of documents, CSS simplifies Web authoring and site maintenance. It supports media-specific style so that authors may tailor the presentation of their documents to visual browsers, aural devices, printers, braille devices, handheld devices, etc.
The CSS WG develops the following, somewhat independent technologies, all of which are in scope for the CSS Working Group:
- A syntax for associating information with elements in a structured resource, in particular HTML and SVG documents. The main part of the syntax consists of rules that associate properties + values with selectors where the selectors are expressions that match elements in the structured document, based on their position in the document or based on other information about the elements (their type, what the user has done with them, etc.)
- A processing model, referred to as “cascading and inheritance,” that ensures that, given one or more style sheets and a structured document, each element in the document is associated with the full set of properties and values, no matter how short the style sheets or how long the document.
- A rendering model, part of which is a model of typography, i.e., a layout model for text documents, possibly with embedded other objects and possibly involving several documents simultaneously. The model describes blocks and lines of text, characters, columns, colors, dynamic effects, etc. Another part is rendering to speech. It also includes the presentation and behavior of UI widgets. CSS's influence over UI controls is limited to defining shortcut keys, the look of controls in various states during interaction (valid/invalid, required, inactive, etc.), hiding/unhiding, and other local behaviors, but CSS does not itself change the state of elements and does not define how (form) elements interact with a server. (The general principle is that CSS can enhance the user's interaction with a document, but the document is functional without it.)
- The CSS Object Model, a set of standard APIs, to which libraries can be written for manipulating style sheets and documents with associated style information.
Advantages/Relevance of CSS
Faster loading time: The more code your site has, the heavier it is and the longer it takes to load. With CSS, you’re only writing the code once, instead of adding code in many places in your HTML - so your website is lighter and faster.
Easy to maintain and reuse: All your styling is in one place, so you can reuse it across many pages. If you decide to change anything later - like the font used across all paragraphs in your site - you can change this once in your CSS file and it would apply across all pages automatically.
More styling options: CSS gives you many advanced features, allowing control over more aspects of your website’s visual appearance than in markup languages.
Mobile optimization: With CSS, you can change the display of your website for different devices, such as phones and tablets. This same feature is also beneficial for your site’s accessibility, as it allows for more control over how screen readers interact with your site.
Future-proof your site: Many features in HTML are already deprecated, and its likely this trend will continue. If you use CSS for styling, you won’t be affected in case these features are one day removed from HTML.
How to Learn CSS
1. The Basics
If you are just starting web development, learn some basics of HTML before starting CSS. In CSS, first read the theory on what CSS is, how it works in the browser, and its basic syntax and usage.
2. CSS Box Model
Understand the basics of CSS box model and the properties associated with it such as margin, border, padding etc.
3. Images and Background
Images make the webpage come alive. There are many ways to add an image such as image tags, adding background colours/gradients and background images to various other tags.
4. Display and Position
These two are some of the most import properties in CSS where you need to pay attention to understand them correctly.
5. Colours, Fonts, lists and Tables
Understand different colour formats such as HEX code, rgb, rgba, hsl, hsla, transparent etc.
6. Pseudo-classes and Combinators
A CSS pseudo-class is a keyword added to a selector that specifies a special state of the selected element(s).
7. Debugging and Dev tools
CSS doesn't throw any errors. It silently breaks the UI if you don’t get the styles correct, so learning how to use Dev tools is very important.
8. Practice! Practice!! Practice!!!
9. Responsive Web Design
After learning web development for desktop there are a lot of other devices through which the websites are accessed.
Jobs That Require CSS Skills
These Are The Jobs You Can Get With Just HTML And CSS:
Junior Developer
Technical Virtual Assistant
Technical Virtual Assistant
Website Editor
HTML Email Developer
HTML Email Developer
Digital Marketing Coordinator
Content Editor
Content Producer
Digital Production Coordinator
Website Project Manager
Website Support Specialist
HTML and CSS Production Specialist
Conclusion
CSS was created to work in conjunction with other markup languages like HTML. It is used to stylize a page. There are three styles of implementing CSS, and you can use the External style to accord multiple pages at once. You won’t go far without seeing some kind of CSS implementation nowadays since it’s as much of a requirement as the markup language itself.
Remote Jobs for CSS
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Internet Software & Services Company
Senior Frontend EngineerWho We AreWe are a key driver of digital transformation, providing a holistic tech ecosystem that en
Dec 19
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Internet Software & Services Company
SEO Specialist (Part-Time)Who we are;We are enabling a key partner organization to grow their tech teams while focusing on AI.
Dec 19
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Internet Software & Services Company
Full Stack Engineer III (with WordPress expertise)About us:We are is an award-winning, technology-enabled digital marketing agency, recognized for our
Dec 17
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Financial Services / FinTech Company
Junior Digital DesignerAbout usWe are a leading fintech company that’s redefining digital payments in South Africa and beyo
Dec 17
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Education / E-learning Company
Technical Support Specialist (Night Shift)About usOur mission is to transform the way people learn and grow at work. Since launching in 2008,
Dec 04
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