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Web Technology
Unit-3 - (Style Sheets)
CSS :
Cascading Style Sheets, fondly referred to as CSS, is a simply designed language intended to
simplify the process of making web pages presentable. CSS allows you to apply styles to web
pages. More importantly, CSS enables you to do this independently of the HTML that makes up
each web page. It describes how a webpage should look: it prescribes colours, fonts, spacing,
and much more. In short, you can make your website look however you want. CSS lets
developers and designers define how it behaves, including how elements are positioned in the
browser.
o CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheet.
o CSS is used to design HTML tags.
o CSS is a widely used language on the web.
o HTML, CSS and JavaScript are used for web designing. It helps the web designers to
apply style on HTML tags.
Why CSS ?
CSS saves time: You can write CSS once and reuse the same sheet in multiple HTML
pages.
Easy Maintenance: To make a global change simply change the style, and all elements in
all the webpages will be updated automatically.
Search Engines: CSS is considered a clean coding technique, which means search
engines won’t have to struggle to “read” its content.
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.
Offline Browsing: CSS can store web applications locally with the help of an offline
cache. Using this we can view offline websites.
CSS Syntax
A CSS rule set contains a selector and a
declaration block.
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Selector: Selector indicates the HTML element you want to style. It could be any tag like <h1>,
<title> etc.
Declaration Block: The declaration block can contain one or more declarations separated by a
semicolon. For the above example, there are two declarations:
1. color: yellow;
2. font-size: 11 px;
Each declaration contains a property name and value, separated by a colon.
Property: A Property is a type of attribute of HTML element. It could be color, border etc.
Value: Values are assigned to CSS properties. In the above example, value "yellow" is assigned
to color property.
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
Types of CSS :
1. Inline CSS
We can apply CSS in a single element by inline CSS technique.
The inline CSS is also a method to insert style sheets in HTML document. This method mitigates
some advantages of style sheets so it is advised to use this method sparingly.
If you want to use inline CSS, you should use the style attribute to the relevant tag.
Syntax:
<htmltag style="cssproperty1:value; cssproperty2:value;"> </htmltag>
Example:
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1. <h2 style="color:red;margin-left:40px;">Inline CSS is applied on this heading.</h2>
2. <p>This paragraph is not affected.</p>
2. Internal CSS
The internal style sheet is used to add a unique style for a single document. It is defined in
<head> section of the HTML page inside the <style> tag.
Example:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style>
body {
background-color: linen;
}
h1 {
color: red;
margin-left: 80px;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>The internal style sheet is applied on this heading.</h1>
<p>This paragraph will not be affected.</p>
</body>
</html>
3. External CSS
The external style sheet is generally used when you want to make changes on multiple pages. It
is ideal for this condition because it facilitates you to change the look of the entire web site by
changing just one file.
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It uses the <link> tag on every pages and the <link> tag should be put inside the head section.
Example:
<head>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="mystyle.css">
</head>
The external style sheet may be written in any text editor but must be saved with a .css
extension. This file should not contain HTML elements.
Let's take an example of a style sheet file named "mystyle.css".
File: mystyle.css
body {
background-color: lightblue;
}
h1 {
color: navy;
margin-left: 20px;
}
CSS Selectors:
CSS selectors are used to select the content you want to style. Selectors are the part of CSS rule
set. CSS selectors select HTML elements according to its id, class, type, attribute etc.
There are several different types of selectors in CSS.
1. CSS Element Selector
2. CSS Id Selector
3. CSS Class Selector
4. CSS Universal Selector
1) CSS Element Selector
The element selector selects the HTML element by name.
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<style>
p{
text-align: center;
color: blue;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<p>This style will be applied on every paragraph.</p>
<p id="para1">Me too!</p>
<p>And me!</p>
</body>
</html>
2) CSS Id Selector
The id selector selects the id attribute of an HTML element to select a specific element. An id is
always unique within the page so it is chosen to select a single, unique element.
It is written with the hash character (#), followed by the id of the element.
Let’s take an example with the id "para1".
1. <!DOCTYPE html>
2. <html>
3. <head>
4. <style>
5. #para1 {
6. text-align: center;
7. color: blue;
8. }
9. </style>
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10. </head>
11. <body>
12. <p id="para1">Hello Javatpoint.com</p>
13. <p>This paragraph will not be affected.</p>
14. </body>
15. </html>
3) CSS Class Selector
The class selector selects HTML elements with a specific class attribute. It is used with a period
character . (full stop symbol) followed by the class name.
Note: A class name should not be started with a number.
Let's take an example with a class "center".
1. <!DOCTYPE html>
2. <html>
3. <head>
4. <style>
5. .center {
6. text-align: center;
7. color: blue;
8. }
9. </style>
10. </head>
11. <body>
12. <h1 class="center">This heading is blue and center-aligned.</h1>
13. <p class="center">This paragraph is blue and center-aligned.</p>
14. </body>
15. </html>
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4) CSS Universal Selector
The universal selector is used as a wildcard character. It selects all the elements on the pages.
1. <!DOCTYPE html>
2. <html>
3. <head>
4. <style>
*{
5. color: green;
6. font-size: 20px;
7. }
8. </style>
9. </head>
10. <body>
11. <h2>This is heading</h2>
12. <p>This style will be applied on every paragraph.</p>
13. <p id="para1">Me too!</p>
14. <p>And me!</p>
15. </body>
16. </html>
CSS Properties
align-content Specifies the alignment between the lines inside a flexible
container when the items do not use all available space
align-items Specifies the alignment for items inside a flexible container
align-self Specifies the alignment for selected items inside a flexible
container
all Resets all properties (except unicode-bidi and direction)
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aspect-ratio Specifies preferred aspect ratio of an element
backdrop-filter Defines a graphical effect to the area behind an element
backface-visibility Defines whether or not the back face of an element should be
visible when facing the user
background A shorthand property for all the background-* properties
background-clip Defines how far the background (color or image) should
extend within an element
background-color Specifies the background color of an element
background-image Specifies one or more background images for an element
background-origin Specifies the origin position of a background image
background-position Specifies the position of a background image
background-position-x Specifies the position of a background image on x-axis
background-position-y Specifies the position of a background image on y-axis
background-repeat Sets if/how a background image will be repeated
background-size Specifies the size of the background images
block-size Specifies the size of an element in block direction
border A shorthand property for border-width, border-
style and border-color
border-block A shorthand property for border-block-width, border-block-
style and border-block-color
border-bottom A shorthand property for border-bottom-width, border-
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bottom-style and border-bottom-color
border-bottom-color Sets the color of the bottom border
border-bottom-left- Defines the radius of the border of the bottom-left corner
radius
border-bottom-right- Defines the radius of the border of the bottom-right corner
radius
border-bottom-style Sets the style of the bottom border
border-bottom-width Sets the width of the bottom border
border-collapse Sets whether table borders should collapse into a single
border or be separated
border-color Sets the color of the four borders
border-image A shorthand property for all the border-image-* properties
border-image-outset Specifies the amount by which the border image area extends
beyond the border box
border-image-repeat Specifies whether the border image should be repeated,
rounded or stretched
border-image-width Specifies the width of the border image
border-inline A shorthand property for border-inline-width, border-inline-
style and border-inline-color
border-inline-color Sets the color of the borders at start and end in the inline
direction
border-left A shorthand property for all the border-left-* properties
border-left-color Sets the color of the left border
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border-left-style Sets the style of the left border
border-left-width Sets the width of the left border
border-radius A shorthand property for the four border-*-radius properties
border-right A shorthand property for all the border-right-* properties
border-right-color Sets the color of the right border
border-right-style Sets the style of the right border
border-right-width Sets the width of the right border
border-spacing Sets the distance between the borders of adjacent cells
border-style Sets the style of the four borders
border-top A shorthand property for border-top-width, border-top-
style and border-top-color
border-top-color Sets the color of the top border
border-top-left-radius Defines the radius of the border of the top-left corner
border-top-right-radius Defines the radius of the border of the top-right corner
border-top-style Sets the style of the top border
border-top-width Sets the width of the top border
border-width Sets the width of the four borders
bottom Sets the elements position, from the bottom of its parent
element
box-shadow Attaches one or more shadows to an element
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box-sizing Defines how the width and height of an element are
calculated: should they include padding and borders, or not
break-after Specifies whether or not a page-, column-, or region-break
should occur after the specified element
break-before Specifies whether or not a page-, column-, or region-break
should occur before the specified element
break-inside Specifies whether or not a page-, column-, or region-break
should occur inside the specified element
color Sets the color of text
column-count Specifies the number of columns an element should be
divided into
column-fill Specifies how to fill columns, balanced or not
column-gap Specifies the gap between the columns
column-span Specifies how many columns an element should span across
column-width Specifies the column width
columns A shorthand property for column-width and column-count
content Used with the :before and :after pseudo-elements, to insert
generated content
cursor Specifies the mouse cursor to be displayed when pointing
over an element
direction Specifies the text direction/writing direction
display Specifies how a certain HTML element should be displayed
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empty-cells Specifies whether or not to display borders and background on empty
cells in a table
filter Defines effects (e.g. blurring or color shifting) on an element before
the element is displayed
flex A shorthand property for the flex-grow, flex-shrink, and the flex-
basis properties
flex-basis Specifies the initial length of a flexible item
flex-direction Specifies the direction of the flexible items
flex-flow A shorthand property for the flex-direction and the flex-
wrap properties
flex-grow Specifies how much the item will grow relative to the rest
flex-shrink Specifies how the item will shrink relative to the rest
flex-wrap Specifies whether the flexible items should wrap or not
float Specifies whether an element should float to the left, right, or not at all
font A shorthand property for the font-style, font-variant, font-weight, font-
size/line-height, and the font-family properties
@font-face A rule that allows websites to download and use fonts other than the
"web-safe" fonts
font-family Specifies the font family for text
font-feature- Allows control over advanced typographic features in OpenType fonts
settings
font-size Specifies the font size of text
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font-size-adjust Preserves the readability of text when font fallback occurs
font-stretch Selects a normal, condensed, or expanded face from a font family
font-style Specifies the font style for text
font-synthesis Controls which missing typefaces (bold or italic) may be synthesized by
the browser
font-variant Specifies whether or not a text should be displayed in a small-caps font
font-weight Specifies the weight of a font
gap A shorthand property for the row-gap and the column-gap properties
grid A shorthand property for the grid-template-rows, grid-template-
columns, grid-template-areas, grid-auto-rows, grid-auto-columns, and
the grid-auto-flow properties
grid-area Either specifies a name for the grid item, or this property is a
shorthand property for the grid-row-start, grid-column-start, grid-row-
end, and grid-column-end properties
grid-auto- Specifies a default column size
columns
grid-auto-flow Specifies how auto-placed items are inserted in the grid
grid-auto-rows Specifies a default row size
grid-column A shorthand property for the grid-column-start and the grid-column-
end properties
grid-column- Specifies where to end the grid item
end
grid-column- Specifies the size of the gap between columns
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gap
grid-column- Specifies where to start the grid item
start
grid-template A shorthand property for the grid-template-rows, grid-template-
columns and grid-areas properties
height Sets the height of an element
hyphens Sets how to split words to improve the layout of paragraphs
inline-size Specifies the size of an element in the inline direction
inset Specifies the distance between an element and the parent
element
justify-content Specifies the alignment between the items inside a flexible container
when the items do not use all available space
justify-items Is set on the grid container. Specifies the alignment of grid items in the
inline direction
justify-self Is set on the grid item. Specifies the alignment of the grid item in the
inline direction
letter-spacing Increases or decreases the space between characters in a text
line-break Specifies how/if to break lines
line-height Sets the line height
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list-style Sets all the properties for a list in one declaration
list-style-image Specifies an image as the list-item marker
list-style- Specifies the position of the list-item markers (bullet points)
position
list-style-type Specifies the type of list-item marker
margin Sets all the margin properties in one declaration
margin-block Specifies the margin in the block direction
margin-block- Specifies the margin at the end in the block direction
end
margin-block- Specifies the margin at the start in the block direction
start
margin-bottom Sets the bottom margin of an element
margin-inline Specifies the margin in the inline direction
margin-inline- Specifies the margin at the end in the inline direction
end
margin-inline- Specifies the margin at the start in the inline direction
start
margin-left Sets the left margin of an element
margin-right Sets the right margin of an element
margin-top Sets the top margin of an element
mask Hides parts of an element by masking or clipping an image at specific
places
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mask-clip Specifies the mask area
mask- Represents a compositing operation used on the current mask layer
composite with the mask layers below it
max-height Sets the maximum height of an element
max-width Sets the maximum width of an element
min-height Sets the minimum height of an element
min-width Sets the minimum width of an element
mix-blend- Specifies how an element's content should blend with its direct parent
mode background
offset Is a shorthand, and specifies how to animate an element along a path
opacity Sets the opacity level for an element
order Sets the order of the flexible item, relative to the rest
outline-color Sets the color of an outline
outline-offset Offsets an outline, and draws it beyond the border edge
outline-style Sets the style of an outline
overflow-wrap Specifies whether or not the browser can break lines with long words,
if they overflow the container
overflow-x Specifies whether or not to clip the left/right edges of the content, if it
overflows the element's content area
overflow-y Specifies whether or not to clip the top/bottom edges of the content, if
it overflows the element's content area
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padding A shorthand property for all the padding-* properties
padding- Sets the bottom padding of an element
bottom
padding-left Sets the left padding of an element
padding-right Sets the right padding of an element
padding-top Sets the top padding of an element
pointer-events Defines whether or not an element reacts to pointer events
position Specifies the type of positioning method used for an element (static,
relative, absolute or fixed)
resize Defines if (and how) an element is resizable by the user
right Specifies the right position of a positioned element
rotate Specifies the rotation of an element
row-gap Specifies the gap between the grid rows
tab-size Specifies the width of a tab character
table-layout Defines the algorithm used to lay out table cells, rows, and
columns
text-align Specifies the horizontal alignment of text
text-align-last Describes how the last line of a block or a line right before a
forced line break is aligned when text-align is "justify"
text-combine-upright Specifies the combination of multiple characters into the
space of a single character
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text-decoration Specifies the decoration added to text
text-decoration-color Specifies the color of the text-decoration
text-decoration-line Specifies the type of line in a text-decoration
text-decoration-style Specifies the style of the line in a text decoration
text-justify Specifies the justification method used when text-align is
"justify"
text-orientation Defines the orientation of characters in a line
text-overflow Specifies what should happen when text overflows the
containing element
text-shadow Adds shadow to text
text-transform Controls the capitalization of text
text-underline-position Specifies the position of the underline which is set using the
text-decoration property
top Specifies the top position of a positioned element
transform Applies a 2D or 3D transformation to an element
transform-origin Allows you to change the position on transformed elements
transform-style Specifies how nested elements are rendered in 3D space
transition A shorthand property for all the transition-* properties
transition-delay Specifies when the transition effect will start
translate Specifies the position of an element
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vertical-align Sets the vertical alignment of an element
visibility Specifies whether or not an element is visible
white-space Specifies how white-space inside an element is handled
width Sets the width of an element
word-break Specifies how words should break when reaching the end of a
line
word-spacing Increases or decreases the space between words in a text
word-wrap Allows long, unbreakable words to be broken and wrap to the
next line
writing-mode Specifies whether lines of text are laid out horizontally or
vertically
z-index Sets the stack order of a positioned element
CSS Box-Model
The CSS box model is a container that contains multiple properties including borders, margins,
padding, and the content itself. It is used to create the design and layout of web pages. It can
be used as a toolkit for customizing the layout of different elements. The web browser renders
every element as a rectangular box according to the CSS box model.
The CSS box model is essentially a box that wraps around every HTML element. It consists of:
margins, borders, padding, and the actual content. The image below illustrates the box model:
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Explanation of the different parts:
Content - The content of the box, where text and images appear
Padding - Clears an area around the content. The padding is transparent
Border - A border that goes around the padding and content
Margin - Clears an area outside the border. The margin is transparent
CSS 3 - CSS3 is a latest standard of css earlier versions(CSS2). The main difference between
css2 and css3 is follows −
Media Queries
Namespaces
Selectors Level 3
Color
CSS3 modules
CSS3 is collaboration of CSS2 specifications and new specifications, we can called this
collaboration is module. Some of the modules are shown below −
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Selectors
Box Model
Backgrounds
Image Values and Replaced Content
Text Effects
2D Transformations
3D Transformations
Animations
Multiple Column Layout
User Interface
CSS3 features
CSS3 new features are used in designing better layouts and attractive web pages easily.
It makes the html elements look more appealing to the eyes. Now, let us study the
application of each feature in detail.
New Selectors: More ways to target HTML Elements
CSS3 has introduced new selectors to target HTML elements to create more efficient
stylesheets. Examples of new Selectores are:
Attribute Selectors: These selectors help you to target elements based on attributes like
class or id.
Adjacent Sibling Selectors: The adjacent Sibling Selectors allow you to target a
component that is the immediate successor of another element. To target the first
paragraph after a heading, we can use the “h1+p” selector.
Child Selectors: These target elements that are direct children of another element. For
example, to target the lists of an ordered list, we use the selector “ol>li.”
Nth-child selectors: These are used depending on their position within a parent
element. For example, “li: nth-child (even).”
Rounded Corners
With the earlier versions of CSS, it was pretty challenging to have rounded corners for
images and elements. The CSS3 feature of “border-radius” to create rounded corners
has simplified this issue. We can have more appealing HTML components with rounded
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corners by specifying a value greater than 0 to the border-radius. Today, we can see
rounded corners to most of the web content, all thanks to CSS3.
Example:
{
border-radius: 12px;
}
2D and 3D transformations for shapes and text
CSS3 comes with a critical transform property that can be applied to rotate, translate,
skew, flip, zoom, shrink, and scale HTML elements.
For 2D transformations CSS3 provides rotate(), scale(), skew() and translate() functions.
While for 3D transformations, we have rotateX(), rotateY(), and rotateZ(). These
functions can be used to create more interactive and stunning web designs.
rotate(): To rotate an element clockwise and counterclockwise around the z axis, we use
the rotate() function in CSS3.
scale(): To resize any HTML element on a 2D plane, we use the scale() function inCSS3.
skew(): To give a shear transformation to a specific angle, we use the skew() function in
CSS3.
translate(): To change the position of any HTML element along the horizontal or vertical
direction, we use the translate() function in CSS3.
Shadow effect
The CSS3 has an important box-shadow property to add shadows to text and shapes,
thus adding a sense of depth to them. Along with the box shadow, we can add a
horizontal and vertical offset, blur amount, shadow color, shadow spread, and inset.
This makes the web pages visually more engaging.
Example:
.container{
box-shadow : 1.5px 1.5px 5px #312577;
}
Transitions and Animations: Smooth and Dynamic Visual Effects
CSS3 transitions and animations are an advanced styling feature that allows web
developers to add smooth and dynamic visual effects to their web pages. While the
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transition property is used to create gradual changes in CSS property, with animations,
you can create more complex effects by specifying the keyframes, which in turn target
the values of CSS properties at specific time stamps. Both transitions and animations can
be used to create interactive web pages.
Example:
HTML
<div class=”container”></div>
CSS
.container {
width: 50px;
height: 50px;
background-color: yellow;
transition: width 1s ease-in-out;
animation: rotate 4s linear infinite;
}
@keyframes rotate {
from {
transform: rotate(0deg);
}
to {
transform: rotate(360deg);
}
}
Setting Opacity
Using rgba colors, the CSS3 opacity property can be applied to alter the opacity of HTML
elements. Instead of editing the picture with the required opacity and adding it to the
HTML file, we can simply write a single line of code in CSS.
Example:
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div{
opacity: 0.7;
}
Flexbox: Powerful Layout Capabilities for Responsive Design
CSS3 comes with a very versatile and powerful flexbox property to organize the contents
within an HTML element in an efficient way to create a responsive layout. The features
of Flexbox include the following:
Flexible container: The HTML component containing the flex items can be adjusted to
fill the entire space or shrink as per the requirement.
Flexible items: The flex items can also be positioned as needed.
Alignment: Flexbox provides alignment options to align its items center, spaced, or
wrapped.
Responsive design: This property enables us to create flexible layouts for different
screen sizes.
Direction control: We can change the direction of the Flexbox from column to row and
vice versa using the direction control feature of the Flexbox.
Media queries: Conditional styling for different screen sizes
The contribution of media query properties toward the responsive design of a webpage
is worth mentioning. This CSS3 feature allows conditional styling to create designs and
layouts for different screen sizes like laptops, desktops, tablets, mobiles, etc. Thus a
consistent user experience across different screens is achieved through media queries.
Word Wrapping
CSS3 word wrapping feature allows developers to control and manage long words when
they exceed the container's width.
We can have two values with the word-wrap property: normal and break-word. While
the normal value allows lengthy words to extend beyond the container's width, the
word-break value breaks long words and wraps them to the following line.
Example:
.box {
width: 150px;
border: 1px solid red;
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word-wrap: break-word;
}
Font Flexibility
CSS3 has introduced many new font-related features, including font flexibility. This
feature allows us to specify the range of font styles, thus giving us absolute control over
how the text appears on the web page. We can also add our own variations to the font
styles using the font-stretch property.
