CSS Tutorial

CSS is used to control the style of a web document in a simple and easy way.

CSS is the acronym for "Cascading Style Sheet". This tutorial covers both the versions CSS1,CSS2 and CSS3, and gives a complete understanding of CSS, starting from its basics to advanced concepts.

You should be familiar with:

Basic word processing using any text editor.
How to create directories and files.
How to navigate through different directories.
Internet browsing using popular browsers like Internet Explorer or Firefox.
Developing simple Web Pages using HTML or XHTML.
If you are new to HTML and XHTML, then we would suggest you to go through our HTML Tutorial or XHTML Tutorial first.
What is CSS?

Cascading Style Sheets, fondly referred to as CSS, is a simple design language intended to simplify the process of making web pages presentable.

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, and 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 mark-up languages HTML or XHTML.

Advantages of CSS

·        CSS saves time − you can write CSS once and then reuse same sheet in multiple HTML pages. You can define a style for each HTML element and apply it to as many Web pages as you want.

·        Pages load faster − If you are using CSS, you do not need to write HTML tag attributes every time. Just write one CSS rule of a tag and apply it to all the occurrences of that tag. So less code means faster download times.

·        Easy maintenance − To make a global change, simply change the style, and all elements in all the web pages will be updated automatically.

·        Superior styles to HTML − CSS has a much wider array of attributes than HTML, so you can give a far better look to your HTML page in comparison to HTML attributes.

·        Multiple Device Compatibility − Style sheets allow content to be optimized for more than one type of device. By using the same HTML document, different versions of a website can be presented for handheld devices such as PDAs and cell phones or for printing.

·        Global web standards − Now HTML attributes are being deprecated and it is being recommended to use CSS. So its a good idea to start using CSS in all the HTML pages to make them compatible to future browsers.

·        Offline Browsing − CSS can store web applications locally with the help of an offline catche.Using of this, we can view offline websites.The cache also ensures faster loading and better overall performance of the website.

·        Platform Independence − The Script offer consistent platform independence and can support latest browsers as well.

Who Creates and Maintains CSS?

CSS was invited by Håkon Wium Lie on October 10, 1994 and maintained through a group of people within the W3C called the CSS Working Group. The CSS Working Group creates documents called specifications. When a specification has been discussed and officially ratified by W3C members, it becomes a recommendation.

These ratified specifications are called recommendations because the W3C has no control over the actual implementation of the language. Independent companies and organizations create that software.

NOTE − The World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C is a group that makes recommendations about how the Internet works and how it should evolve.