CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is a language used to describe the presentation of HTML documents. It is used to apply styles such as fonts, colors, and layouts to webpages.
CSS is a style sheet language used to describe the presentation of HTML documents. It is most often used to style webpages, but can also be used to style other documents, such as XML files. CSS is a declarative language, meaning that it is used to describe how a document should be presented, rather than specifying how it should be presented.
CSS is made up of a set of rules, which are called selectors. Selectors are used to select elements in an HTML document, and then apply styles to them. Styles are applied to the selected elements using declarations, which are made up of a property and a value. For example, a declaration might be color: blue
, which would set the color of the selected element to blue.
CSS can also be used to create responsive webpages, which are webpages that are able to adjust their layout for different screen sizes. This is done by using media queries, which allow styles to be applied to elements based on the size of the screen.
CSS was first introduced in 1996 as a way to separate the content and presentation of HTML documents. Prior to CSS, HTML documents were often difficult to maintain, as all of the styling had to be done within the HTML document itself.
CSS was created by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), and has since been adopted by all major web browsers. It is now the most widely used styling language on the web.
CSS has a wide range of features, including:
The following example shows how to use CSS to style a webpage:
body {
font-family: sans-serif;
background-color: #f5f5f5;
}
h1 {
font-size: 24px;
color: #333;
}
p {
font-size: 18px;
color: #666;
}
CSS has many advantages, including:
However, CSS also has some drawbacks, such as:
CSS has been the subject of some controversy, particularly its use of vendor prefixes. Vendor prefixes are used to ensure that certain styles are applied correctly in different browsers. However, they can make CSS difficult to read and maintain.
CSS is often used in conjunction with other technologies, such as HTML and JavaScript. HTML is a markup language used to structure webpages, and JavaScript is a programming language used to create dynamic webpages.
CSS is also used to style documents other than webpages, such as e-books and PDFs.
CSS is an open source language, meaning that anyone can contribute to its development. It is currently maintained by the W3C, and is regularly updated with new features and improvements.