CSS: The Missing Manual, 4th Edition

Chapter 1. HTML and CSS

CSS isn’t anything without HTML. HTML provides web pages with content and meaningful structure, and while it may not be pretty by itself, the web wouldn’t exist without it. So to get the most out of your CSS training, you need to know how to write HTML to create a solid, well-built foundation. This chapter introduces you to the basics of CSS and shows you how to write better, more CSS-friendly HTML.

The good news is that when you use CSS throughout your site, HTML actually becomes easier to write. You don’t need to try to turn HTML into the design maven it was never intended to be. Instead, CSS offers most of the graphic design touches you’ll likely ever want, and HTML pages written to work with CSS are easier to create, since they require less code and less typing. They’ll also download faster—a welcome bonus your site’s visitors will appreciate (see Figure 1-1).

HTML: Past and Present

HTML provides the foundation for every page you encounter on the Web. When you add CSS into the mix, HTML becomes simpler, because you don’t need to use HTML tags (like the old <font> tag) to control how a web page looks. That job is for CSS. But before jumping into CSS, here’s a quick walk through HTML’s past (and present).

HTML Past: Whatever Looked Good

When a bunch of scientists created the Web to share technical documentation, nobody called in the graphic designers. All the scientists needed HTML to do was structure information for easy comprehension. For example, the <h1> ...