How Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Make Formatting Websites a Cinch
Establishing and Editing the Style of a Website with a Simple Text HTML Document
06.05.06
Nicholas Manning, Web and Graphic Designer
Published by Brian Charlonis, Account Manager
Edited by Chris Rinaldi, Account Manager & Copywriter
A Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) is a simple-text document that is either placed within or linked externally from a webpage and is used to format the style of the page. Composed in a list-like format, CSS is comprised of style guides, or “rules,” that instruct the browser on how to display elements that are used to create the webpage.
Web designers/developers have embraced the use of CSS for many reasons. From a design standpoint, style sheets help uphold the integrity of design by allowing the designer to transform a simple-text html page into a functional work of art. Countless styles such as fonts, colors, backgrounds, and margins are used to “skin” the skeletal structure of the page, thus segregating form from function.
From a design standpoint, style sheets help uphold the integrity of design by allowing the designer to transform a simple-text html page into a functional work of art.
|
Aside from its aesthetic features, style sheets allow designers/developers the ability to change elements on the page quickly and easily. In earlier stages of web-development, inline styles and graphics were used to define the characteristics of certain elements. For example, if you wanted to specify the font style and size within a paragraph, you had to wrap a <font> tag around the paragraph, and declare the styles you desired within the <font> tag itself. This technique was not only tedious to execute, but pain-staking and costly to maintain. If you had a 50-page website that was built using inline styles, and you wanted to change the color of the font used globally, you literally had to modify every html page. With CSS, you can create one style sheet that can span countless pages; therefore allowing you the ability to quickly change every page by modifying only one file.
The use of a single style sheet also eliminates the cumbersome code generated by inline elements and substantially decreases the download time of a webpage. This allows the html to function primarily as a structural entity. And seeing that the html and CSS are both simple-text documents, viewers need not worry about detracting nuances such as version-upgrades or plug-ins. Another key factor is that most browsers support CSS. This ensures that all viewers, no matter what platform they use, will receive the same results.
All in all, CSS is an amazing tool because it allows complete control of the layout and design of a webpage. It's cross-platform in nature, and is also highly efficient in that it simplifies processes of editing and maintenance, as well as reduces bulky code to ensure a faster download. And with the ever-changing enhancements of browsers, you can count on CSS to be a fundamental authority in the future of website development.
>
 Back to Newsletter Main Page
|
