CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)

CSS, short for Cascading Style Sheets, is a stylesheet language used to describe the presentation of a document written in HTML or XML. CSS describes how elements should be rendered on screen, on paper, in speech, or on other media.

What is CSS?

Style Control: CSS is used to define styles for your web pages, including the design, layout, and variations in display for different devices and screen sizes.
Separation of Concerns: CSS helps in keeping the content separate from the design, which makes site maintenance easier.

Basic Syntax

CSS is made up of selectors and declarations:

selector {
  property: value;
}

Selectors: Specify the HTML element to be styled.
Declarations: Consist of a property and a value separated by a colon.

Types of CSS

Inline CSS: Style is applied directly on an HTML element.
Internal CSS: Style is defined within the <style> element in the head section of an HTML page.
External CSS: Style is defined in a separate .css file.

Common Properties

Text Styles: font-family, font-size, color, text-align.
Layouts: margin, padding, border, width, height.
Positioning: position, top, bottom, left, right.

Box Model

Every element in a web page is a box. The CSS box model describes this principle with the following properties:
- Content: The actual content of the box, where text and images appear.
- Padding: Clears an area around the content.
- Border: A border that goes around the padding and content.
- Margin: Clears an area outside the border.

Responsive Design

Media Queries: Allow the application of CSS styles depending on media type, screen resolution, and other factors.
Flexbox: A layout model that allows responsive elements within a container to be automatically arranged depending upon screen size.
Grid: CSS Grid Layout is a two-dimensional grid-based layout system that offers a new way of thinking about layout in CSS.

Preprocessors

Sass, LESS, and Stylus are popular CSS preprocessors that allow you to use variables, nested rules, mixins, functions, and more in CSS.

Conclusion

CSS is essential for web design. It allows for much greater control over the appearance of a website, letting web designers create attractive, consistently styled web pages.

This overview covers the basics of CSS, including its purpose, syntax, common properties, the box model, responsive design, and preprocessors. This format is useful for understanding the key concepts and applications of CSS in web development.

Glossary

A definition list or a glossary:

First Term: This is the definition of the first term.
Second Term: This is the definition of the second term.

Last modified: 10 March 2024