Learning Web Design, 6th Edition

Part III. CSS for Presentation

III

CSS for Presentation

Chapter 11. Introducing Cascading Style Sheets

11

Introducing Cascading Style Sheets

In this Chapter

The benefits and power of CSS

How HTML markup creates a document structure

Writing style rules

Attaching styles to the HTML document

Inheritance, specificity, the cascade, rule order, and the box model

Units of measurement in CSS

Built-in browser tools for developers

I’ve talked about style sheets a fair bit bit already, and now we’ll finally put them to work and start giving our pages some much-needed style. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is the W3C standard for defining the presentation of documents written in HTML (and XML languages as well). Presentation, again, refers to the way the document is delivered to the user, whether it’s shown on a computer screen, displayed on a smartphone, printed on paper, or read aloud by a screen reader. With style sheets handling the presentation, HTML can handle the business of defining document structure and meaning, as intended.

“Presentation” is a pretty dry term for something that important and exciting. CSS is how an organization’s brand shines through. It’s what creates delightful user experiences. Color! Typography! Texture! CSS brings the party.

CSS is a separate language with its own syntax. This chapter covers CSS terminology and fundamental concepts that will help you get your bearings for the upcoming chapters, where you’ll learn how to change text and font styles, ...