What is CSS?

 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


 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;
}

CSS Selectors
❮ PreviousNext ❯

A CSS selector selects the HTML element(s) you want to style.

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;
}

Try it Yourself »

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;
}

Try it Yourself »

Note: An id name cannot start with a number!

 ADVERTISEMENT

The CSS class Selector

The class selector selects HTML elements with a specific class attribute.

To select elements with a specific class, write a period (.) character, followed by
the class name.

Example
In this example all HTML elements with class="center" will be red and center-
aligned:

.center {
text-align: center;
color: red;
}

Try it Yourself »

You can also specify that only specific HTML elements should be affected by a
class.

Example
In this example only <p> elements with class="center" will be red and center-
aligned:

p.center {
text-align: center;
color: red;
}

Try it Yourself »

HTML elements can also refer to more than one class.

Example
In this example the <p> element will be styled according to class="center" and
to class="large":

<p class="center large">This paragraph refers to two classes.</p>

Try it Yourself »

Note: A class name cannot start with a number!

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;
}

Try it Yourself »

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;
}

It will be better to group the selectors, to minimize the code.

To group selectors, separate each selector with a comma.

Example
In this example we have grouped the selectors from the code above:

h1, h2, p {
text-align: center;
color: red;
}

Three Ways to Insert CSS

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="mystyle.css">
</head>
<body>

<h1>This is a heading</h1>
<p>This is a paragraph.</p>

</body>
</html>
Try it Yourself »

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 "mystyle.css" file looks:

"mystyle.css"
body {
background-color: lightblue;
}

h1 {
color: navy;
margin-left: 20px;
}
Note: Do not add a space between the property value (20) and the unit (px):
Incorrect (space): margin-left: 20 px;
Correct (no space): margin-left: 20px;

ADVERTISEMENT
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>
Try it Yourself »

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="mystyle.css">
<style>
h1 {
color: orange;
}
</style>
</head>

CSS Comments
❮ PreviousNext ❯

CSS comments are not displayed in the browser, but they can help
document your source code.

CSS Comments
Comments are used to explain the code, and may help when you edit the
source code at a later date.

Comments are ignored by browsers.

A CSS comment is placed inside the <style> element, and starts with /* and
ends with */:

Example
/* This is a single-line comment */
p {
color: red;
}
Try it Yourself »

You can add comments wherever you want in the code:

Example
p {
color: red; /* Set text color to red */
}

Try it Yourself »

Comments can also span multiple lines:

Example
/* This is
a multi-line
comment */

p {
color: red;
}

CSS Background Color

You can set the background color for HTML elements:

Hello World

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy
nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi
enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis
nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

Example
<h1 style="background-color:DodgerBlue;">Hello World</h1>
<p style="background-color:Tomato;">Lorem ipsum...</p>

Try it Yourself »

CSS Text Color

You can set the color of text:

Hello World
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy
nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.

Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit
lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

Example
<h1 style="color:Tomato;">Hello World</h1>
<p style="color:DodgerBlue;">Lorem ipsum...</p>
<p style="color:MediumSeaGreen;">Ut wisi enim...</p>

Try it Yourself »

ADVERTISEMENT

CSS Border Color

You can set the color of borders:

Hello World
Hello World
Hello World
Example
<h1 style="border:2px solid Tomato;">Hello World</h1>
<h1 style="border:2px solid DodgerBlue;">Hello World</h1>
<h1 style="border:2px solid Violet;">Hello World</h1>

Try it Yourself »

CSS Color Values

In CSS, colors can also be specified using RGB values, HEX values, HSL values,
RGBA values, and HSLA values:

Same as color name "Tomato":

rgb(255, 99, 71)

#ff6347

hsl(9, 100%, 64%)

Same as color name "Tomato", but 50% transparent:

rgba(255, 99, 71, 0.5)

hsla(9, 100%, 64%, 0.5)

Example
<h1 style="background-color:rgb(255, 99, 71);">...</h1>
<h1 style="background-color:#ff6347;">...</h1>
<h1 style="background-color:hsl(9, 100%, 64%);">...</h1>

<h1 style="background-color:rgba(255, 99, 71, 0.5);">...</h1>

<h1 style="background-color:hsla(9, 100%, 64%, 0.5);">...</h1>

CSS background-color
The background-color property specifies the background color of an element.

Example
The background color of a page is set like this:

body {
background-color: lightblue;
}
Try it Yourself »

With CSS, a color is most often specified by:

 a valid color name - like "red"

 a HEX value - like "#ff0000"
 an RGB value - like "rgb(255,0,0)"

Look at CSS Color Values for a complete list of possible color values.

Other Elements
You can set the background color for any HTML elements:

Example
Here, the <h1>, <p>, and <div> elements will have different background
colors:
h1 {
background-color: green;
}

div {
background-color: lightblue;
}

p {
background-color: yellow;
}
Try it Yourself »