CSS Tutorial step by step

CSS

Introduction

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used for describing the look and formatting of a document written in a markup language. While most often used to style web pages and user interfaces written in HTML and XHTML. CSS is a cornerstone specification of the web and almost all web pages use CSS style sheets to describe their presentation.

CSS is designed primarily to enable the separation of document content from document presentation, including elements such as the layout, colors, and fonts. This separation can improve content accessibility, provide more flexibility and control in the specification of presentation characteristics, enable multiple pages to share formatting, and reduce complexity and repetition in the structural content (such as by allowing for table less web design). It obviates those portions of markup that would specify presentation by instead providing that information in a separate file. For each relevant HTML element (identified by tags), it provides a list of formatting instructions.

Why Use CSS?

Use of CSS is the recommended way of defining how HTML pages are displayed. You should use HTML to define the basic structure (using elements such as <h1>, <p>, <li>, etc.) and CSS to define how these elements should appear (e.g. heading should be in bold Arial font, paragraphs should be indented, etc.).

This approach has several advantages:

Maintenance:

It is much easier to maintain the appearance of a Web site. If you use a single CSS file updating this file allows the Web site look-and-feel to be altered easily; in contrast use of HTML formatting elements would require every file to be updated to change the appearance.

Functionality:

CSS provides rich functionality, including defining the appearance of HTML pages when they are printed.

Accessibility:

Use of CSS provides much greater accessibility, allowing users with special needs to alter the appearance of a Web page to suit their requirements. CSS also allows Web pages to be more easily rendered by special devices, such as speaking browsers, PDAs, etc.

There are disadvantages to use of CSS. In particular legacy browsers such as Netscape 4 have difficulty in processing CSS. However, since such legacy browsers are now in a minority the biggest barrier to deployment of CSS is probably a lack of understand or inertia.

What is CSS?

CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets

Styles define how to display HTML elements

Styles were added to HTML 4.0 to solve a problem

External Style Sheets can save a lot of work

External Style Sheets are stored in CSS files

Styles Solved a Big Problem

HTML was never intended to contain tags for formatting a document.

HTML was intended to define the content of a document, like:

<h1>This is a heading</h1>

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

When tags like <font>, and color attributes were added to the HTML 3.2 specification, it started a nightmare for web developers. Development of large web sites, where fonts and color information were added to every single page, became a long and expensive process.

To solve this problem, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) created CSS.

In HTML 4.0, all formatting could be removed from the HTML document, and stored in a separate CSS file.

All browsers support CSS today.

CSS Saves a Lot of Work!

CSS defines HOW HTML elements are to be displayed.

Styles are normally saved in external .css files. External style sheets enable you to change the appearance and layout of all the pages in a Web site, just by editing one single file!

CSS Syntax

A CSS rule set consists of a selector and a declaration block:

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 property name and a value, separated by a colon.

CSS Example

A CSS declaration always ends with a semicolon, and declaration groups are surrounded by curly braces:

{

color:red;

text-align:center;

}

To make the CSS code more readable, you can put one declaration on each line, like this:

Example

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

ExAMPLE:-

<html>

<head>

<style>

p {

color: red;

text-align: center;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<p>Sof World!</p>

<p>This paragraph is styled with CSS.</p>

</body>

</html>

CSS Comments

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

A CSS comment starts with /* and ends with */. Comments can also span multiple lines:

Example

p {
    color: red;
    /* This is a single-line comment */
    text-align: center;
}

/* This is
a multi-line
comment */

Example:-

<html>

<head>

<style>

p {

color: red;

/* This is a single-line comment */

text-align: center;

}

/* This is

a multi-line

comment */

</style>

</head>

<body>

<p>Hello World!</p>

<p>This paragraph is styled with CSS.</p>

<p>CSS comments are not shown in the output.</p>

</body>

</html>

Single line comment

Multiple line comment

CSS Selectors

CSS Selectors

CSS selectors allow you to select and manipulate HTML element(s).

CSS selectors are used to "find" (or select) HTML elements based on their id, classes, types, attributes, values of attributes and much more.

The element Selector

The element selector selects elements based on the element name.

You can select all <p> elements on a page like this: (all <p> elements will be center-aligned, with a red text color)

Example

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

<html>

<head>

<style>

div

{

text-align: right;

color: green;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<div>Every paragraph will be affected by the style.</div>

</body>

</html>

The id Selector

The id selector uses the id attribute of an HTML tag to find the specific element.

An id should be unique within a page, so you should use the id selector when you want to find a single, unique element.

To find an element with a specific id, write a hash character, followed by the id of the element.

The style rule below will be applied to the HTML element with id="para1":

Example

#para1 {
text-align: center;
color: red;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

#para1 {

text-align: center;

color: red;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<p id="para1">Hello World!</p>

<p>This paragraph is not affected by the style.</p>

</body>

</html>

The class Selector

The class selector finds elements with the specific class.

The class selector uses the HTML class attribute.

To find elements with a specific class, write a period character, followed by the name of the class:

In the example below, all HTML elements with class="center" will be center-aligned:

Example

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

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

In the example below, all p elements with class="center" will be center-aligned:

Example

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

<head>

<style>

.center {

text-align: center;

color: red;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h1 class="center">Red and center-aligned heading</h1>

<p class="center">Red and center-aligned paragraph.</p>

</body>

</html>

Grouping Selectors

In style sheets there are often elements with the same style:

h1 {
    text-align: center;
    color: red;
}

h2 {
    text-align: center;
    color: red;
}

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

To minimize the code, you can group selectors.

To group selectors, separate each selector with a comma.

In the example below we have grouped the selectors from the code above:

Example

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

<html>

<head>

<style>

h1, h2, p

{

text-align: right;

color: red;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h1>Hello World!</h1>

<h2>Smaller heading!</h2>

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

</body>

</html>

CSS How To Use:-

When a browser reads a style sheet, it will format the document according to the information in the style sheet.

Three Ways to Insert CSS

There are three ways of inserting a style sheet:

External style sheet
Internal style sheet
Inline style

External Style Sheet

An external style sheet is ideal when the style is applied to many pages. With an external style sheet, you can change the look of an entire Web site by changing just one file.

Each page must include a link to the style sheet with the <link> tag. The <link> tag goes inside the head section:

An external style sheet can be written in any text editor. The file should not contain any html tags. The style sheet file must be saved with a .css extension. An example of a style sheet file is shown below:

"myStyle.css":

hr {color: sienna;}
p {margin-left: 20px;}
body {background-image: url("images/background.gif");}

Internal Style Sheet

An internal style sheet should be used when a single document has a unique style. You define internal styles in the head section of an HTML page, inside the <style> tag, like this:

<head>
<style>
hr {color: green;}
p {margin-left: 20px;}
</style>
</head>

Inline Styles

An inline style loses many of the advantages of a style sheet (by mixing content with presentation). Use this method sparingly!

To use inline styles, add the style attribute to the relevant tag. The style attribute can contain any CSS property. The example shows how to change the color and the left margin of a paragraph:

<p style="color:sienna;margin-left:20px;">This is a paragraph.</p>

Multiple Style Sheets

If some properties have been set for the same selector in different style sheets, the values will be inherited from the more specific style sheet.

For example, assume that an external style sheet has the following properties for the h3 selector:

h3 {
    color: red;
    text-align: left;
    font-size: 8pt;
}

then, assume that an internal style sheet also has the following properties for the h3 selector:

h3 {
text-align: right;
font-size: 20pt;
}

If the page with the internal style sheet also links to the external style sheet the properties for the h3 element will be:

color: red;
text-align: right;
font-size: 20pt;

The color is inherited from the external style sheet and the text-alignment and the font-size is replaced by the internal style sheet.

Multiple Styles Will Cascade into One

Styles can be specified:

inside an HTML element
inside the head section of an HTML page
in an external CSS file

Tip: Even multiple external style sheets can be referenced inside a single HTML document.

Cascading order

What style will be used when there is more than one style specified for an HTML element?

Generally speaking we can say that all the styles will "cascade" into a new "virtual" style sheet by the following rules, where number four has the highest priority:

1. Browser default

2. External style sheet

3. Internal style sheet (in the head section)

4. Inline style (inside an HTML element)

So, an inline style (inside an HTML element) has the highest priority, which means that it will override a style defined inside the <head> tag, or in an external style sheet, or in a browser (a default value).

CSS Background

CSS background properties are used to define the background effects of an element.

Background Color

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

The background color of a page is defined in the body selector:

Example

body {
background-color: #b0c4de;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

body {

background-color: #b0c4de;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<p>This is a background color example.</p>

</body>

</html>

With CSS, a color is most often specified by:

· a HEX value - like "#ff0000"

· an RGB value - like "rgb(255,0,0)"

· a color name - like "red"

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

In the example below, the h1, p, and div elements have different background colors:

Example

h1 {
    background-color: #6495ed;
}

p {
    background-color: #e0ffff;
}

div {
    background-color: #b0c4de;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

h1 {

background-color: #6495ed;

}

p {

background-color: #e0ffff;

}

div {

background-color: #b0c4de;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h1>CSS background-color example!</h1>

<div>

This is a text inside a div element.

<p>This paragraph has its own background color.</p>

We are still in the div element.

</div>

</body>

</html>

Background Image

The background-image property specifies an image to use as the background of an element.

By default, the image is repeated so it covers the entire element.

The background image for a page can be set like this:

Example

body {
background-image: url("paper.gif");
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

body {

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h1>Hello World!</h1>

</body>

</html>

Below is an example of a bad combination of text and background image. The text is almost not readable:

Example

body {
background-image: url("bgdesert.jpg");
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

body {

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h1>Hello World!</h1>

<p>This text is not easy to read on this background image.</p>

</body>

</html>

Background Image - Repeat Horizontally or Vertically

By default, the background-image property repeats an image both horizontally and vertically.

Some images should be repeated only horizontally or vertically, or they will look strange, like this:

Example

body {
background-image: url("gradient.png");
}

If the image is repeated only horizontally (repeat-x), the background will look better:

Example

body {
background-image: url("gradient.png");
background-repeat: repeat-x;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

body {

background-repeat: repeat-x;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h1>Hello World!</h1>

</body>

</html>

Background Image - Set position and no-repeat

Showing the image only once is specified by the background-repeat property:

Example

body {
background-image: url("img_tree.png");
background-repeat: no-repeat;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

body {

background-repeat: no-repeat;

background-position: right top;

margin-right: 200px;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h1>Hello World!</h1>

<p>W3Schools background no-repeat, set position example.</p>

<p>Now the background image is only shown once, and positioned away from the text.</p>

<p>In this example we have also added a margin on the right side, so the background image will never disturb the text.</p>

</body>

</html>

In the example above, the background image is shown in the same place as the text. We want to change the position of the image, so that it does not disturb the text too much.

The position of the image is specified by the background-position property:

Example

body {
    background-image: url("img_tree.png");
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
    background-position: right top;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

body {

background-repeat: no-repeat;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h1>Hello World!</h1>

<p>W3Schools background image example.</p>

<p>The background image is only showing once, but it is disturbing the reader!</p>

</body>

</html>

Background - Shorthand property

As you can see from the examples above, there are many properties to consider when dealing with backgrounds.

To shorten the code, it is also possible to specify all the properties in one single property. This is called a shorthand property.

The shorthand property for background is simply "background":

Example

body {
background: #ffffff url("img_tree.png") no-repeat right top;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

body {

background: #ffffff url("img_tree.png") no-repeat right top;

margin-right: 200px;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h1>Hello World!</h1>

<p>Now the background image is only shown once, and it is also positioned away from the text.</p>

<p>In this example we have also added a margin on the right side, so that the background image will not disturb the text.</p>

</body>

</html>

When using the shorthand property the order of the property values is:

background-color
background-image
background-repeat
background-attachment
background-position

It does not matter if one of the property values is missing, as long as the ones that are present are in this order.

CSS Text

Text Color

The color property is used to set the color of the text.

With CSS, a color is most often specified by:

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

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

The default color for a page is defined in the body selector.

Example

body {
    color: blue;
}

h1 {
    color: #00ff00;
}

h2 {
    color: rgb(255,0,0);
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

body {

color: red;

}

h1 {

color: #00ff00;

}

p.ex {

color: rgb(0,0,255);

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h1>This is heading 1</h1>

<p>This is an ordinary paragraph. Notice that this text is red. The default text-color for a page is defined in the body selector.</p>

<p class="ex">This is a paragraph with class="ex". This text is blue.</p>

</body>

</html>

Text Alignment

The text-align property is used to set the horizontal alignment of a text.

Text can be centered, or aligned to the left or right, or justified.

When text-align is set to "justify", each line is stretched so that every line has equal width, and the left and right margins are straight (like in magazines and newspapers).

Example

h1 {
    text-align: center;
}

p.date {
    text-align: right;
}

p.main {
    text-align: justify;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

h1 {

text-align: center;

}

.date {

text-align: right;

}

p.main {

text-align: justify;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h1>CSS text-align Example</h1>

<p class="date">Februry 2015</p>

<p class="main">In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. 'Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,' he told me,

'just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.'</p>

</body>

</html>

Text Decoration

The text-decoration property is used to set or remove decorations from text.

The text-decoration property is mostly used to remove underlines from links for design purposes:

Example

a {
text-decoration: none;
}

It can also be used to decorate text:

Example

h1 {
    text-decoration: overline;
}

h2 {
    text-decoration: line-through;
}
h3 {
    text-decoration: underline;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

h1 {

text-decoration: overline;

}

h2 {

text-decoration: line-through;

}

h3 {

text-decoration: underline;

}

text-decoration:none;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h1>Heading 1</h1>

<h2>Heading 2</h2>

<h3>Heading 3</h3>

<a href="http://www.google.com">Google</a>

</body>

</html>

Text Transformation

The text-transform property is used to specify uppercase and lowercase letters in a text.

It can be used to turn everything into uppercase or lowercase letters, or capitalize the first letter of each word.

Example

p.uppercase {
    text-transform: uppercase;
}

p.lowercase {
    text-transform: lowercase;
}

p.capitalize {
    text-transform: capitalize;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

{

text-transform: uppercase;

}

{

text-transform: lowercase;

}

{

text-transform: capitalize;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h1>This is heading 1</h1>

<h2>This is heading 2</h2>

<h3>This is heading 3</h3>

</body>

</html>

Text Indentation

The text-indent property is used to specify the indentation of the first line of a text.

Example

p {
text-indent: 50px;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

p {

text-indent: 50px;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<p>In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. 'Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,' he told me, 'just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.'</p>

</body>

</html>

CSS Font

CSS font properties define the font family, boldness, size, and the style of a text.

CSS Font Families

In CSS, there are two types of font family names:

generic family - a group of font families with a similar look (like "Serif" or "Monospace")
font family - a specific font family (like "Times New Roman" or "Arial")

Generic family	Font family	Description
Serif	Times New Roman Georgia	Serif fonts have small lines at the ends on some characters
Sans-serif	Arial Verdana	"Sans" means without - these fonts do not have the lines at the ends of characters
Monospace	Courier New Lucida Console	All monospace characters have the same width

Font Family

The font family of a text is set with the font-family property.

The font-family property should hold several font names as a "fallback" system. If the browser does not support the first font, it tries the next font.

Start with the font you want, and end with a generic family, to let the browser pick a similar font in the generic family, if no other fonts are available.

Note: If the name of a font family is more than one word, it must be in quotation marks, like: "Times New Roman".

More than one font family is specified in a comma-separated list:

Example

p {
font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

p.serif {

font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif;

}

p.sansserif {

font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h1>CSS font-family</h1>

<p class="serif">This is a paragraph, shown in the Times New Roman font.</p>

<p class="sansserif">This is a paragraph, shown in the Arial font.</p>

</body>

</html>

For more commonly used font combinations, look at our Web Safe Font Combinations.

Font Style

The font-style property is mostly used to specify italic text.

This property has two values:

normal - The text is shown normally
italic - The text is shown in italics

Example

p.normal {
font-style: normal;
}

p.italic {
font-style: italic;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

p.normal {

font-style: normal;

}

p.italic {

font-style: italic;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<p class="normal">This is a paragraph in normal style.</p>

<p class="italic">This is a paragraph in italic style.</p>

</body>

</html>

Set Font Size With Pixels

Setting the text size with pixels gives you full control over the text size:

Example

h1 {
    font-size: 40px;
}

h2 {
    font-size: 30px;
}

p {
    font-size: 14px;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

h1 {

font-size: 40px;

}

h2 {

font-size: 30px;

}

p {

font-size: 14px;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h1>This is heading 1</h1>

<h2>This is heading 2</h2>

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

</body>

</html>

The example above allows Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and Safari to resize the text.

Note: The example above does not work in IE, prior version 9.

The text can be resized in all browsers using the zoom tool (however, this resizes the entire page, not just the text).

Set Font Size With Em

To avoid the resizing problem with older versions of Internet Explorer, many developers use em instead of pixels.

The em size unit is recommended by the W3C.

1em is equal to the current font size. The default text size in browsers is 16px. So, the default size of 1em is 16px.

The size can be calculated from pixels to em using this formula: pixels/16=em

Example

h1 {
    font-size: 2.5em; /* 40px/16=2.5em */
}

h2 {
    font-size: 1.875em; /* 30px/16=1.875em */
}

p {
    font-size: 0.875em; /* 14px/16=0.875em */
}

In the example above, the text size in em is the same as the previous example in pixels. However, with the em size, it is possible to adjust the text size in all browsers.

Unfortunately, there is still a problem with older versions of IE. The text becomes larger than it should when made larger, and smaller than it should when made smaller.

Use a Combination of Percent and Em

The solution that works in all browsers, is to set a default font-size in percent for the <body> element:

Example

body {
    font-size: 100%;
}

h1 {
    font-size: 2.5em;
}

h2 {
    font-size: 1.875em;
}

p {
    font-size: 0.875em;
}

CSS Links

Links can be styled in different ways.

Styling Links

Links can be styled with any CSS property (e.g. color, font-family, background, etc.).

In addition, links can be styled differently depending on what state they are in.

The four links states are:

a:link - a normal, unvisited link
a:visited - a link the user has visited
a:hover - a link when the user mouses over it
a:active - a link the moment it is clicked

Example

/* unvisited link */
a:link {
    color: #FF0000;
}

/* visited link */
a:visited {
    color: #00FF00;
}

/* mouse over link */
a:hover {
    color: #FF00FF;
}

/* selected link */
a:active {
    color: #0000FF;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

/* unvisited link */

a:link {

color: #FF0000;

}

/* visited link */

a:visited {

color: #00FF00;

}

/* mouse over link */

a:hover {

color: #FF00FF;

}

/* selected link */

a:active {

color: #0000FF;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<p><b>Note:</b> a:hover MUST come after a:link and a:visited in the CSS definition in order to be effective.</p>

<p><b>Note:</b> a:active MUST come after a:hover in the CSS definition in order to be effective.</p>

</body>

</html>

When setting the style for several link states, there are some order rules:

a:hover MUST come after a:link and a:visited
a:active MUST come after a:hover

Common Link Styles

In the example above the link changes color depending on what state it is in.

Lets go through some of the other common ways to style links:

Text Decoration

The text-decoration property is mostly used to remove underlines from links:

Example

a:link {
    text-decoration: none;
}

a:visited {
    text-decoration: none;
}

a:hover {
    text-decoration: underline;
}

a:active {
    text-decoration: underline;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

a:link {

text-decoration: none;}

a:visited {

text-decoration: none;

}

a:hover {

text-decoration: underline;}

a:active {

text-decoration: underline;}

</style>

</head>.

<body>

<p><b>Note:</b> a:hover MUST come after a:link and a:visited in the CSS definition in order to be effective.</p>

<p><b>Note:</b> a:active MUST come after a:hover in the CSS definition in order to be effective.</p>

</body>

</html>

Background Color

The background-color property specifies the background color for links:

Example

a:link {
    background-color: #B2FF99;
}

a:visited {
    background-color: #FFFF85;
}

a:hover {
    background-color: #FF704D;
}

a:active {
    background-color: #FF704D;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

a:link {

background-color: #B2FF99;

}

a:visited {

background-color: #FFFF85;

}

a:hover {

background-color: #FF704D;

}

a:active {

background-color: #FF704D;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

</body>

</html>

CSS Lists

The CSS list properties allow you to:

· Set different list item markers for ordered lists

· Set different list item markers for unordered lists

· Set an image as the list item marker

List

In HTML, there are two types of lists:

unordered lists - the list items are marked with bullets
ordered lists - the list items are marked with numbers or letters

With CSS, lists can be styled further, and images can be used as the list item marker.

Different List Item Markers

The type of list item marker is specified with the list-style-type property:

Example

ul.a {
    list-style-type: circle;
}

ul.b {
    list-style-type: square;
}

ol.c {
    list-style-type: upper-roman;
}

ol.d {
    list-style-type: lower-alpha;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

ul.a {

list-style-type: circle;

}

ul.b {

list-style-type: square;

}

ol.c {

list-style-type: upper-roman;

}

ol.d {

list-style-type: lower-alpha;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<p>Example of unordered lists:</p>

<li>Coffee</li>

</ul>

<li>Coffee</li>

</ul>

<p>Example of ordered lists:</p>

<li>Coffee</li>

</ol>

<li>Coffee</li>

</ol>

</body>

</html>

Some of the values are for unordered lists, and some for ordered lists.

An Image as The List Item Marker

To specify an image as the list item marker, use the list-style-image property:

Example

ul {
list-style-image: url('sqpurple.gif');
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

ul {

list-style-image: url('sqpurple.gif');

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<ul>

<li>Coffee</li>

</ul>

</body>

</html>

The example above does not display equally in all browsers. IE and Opera will display the image-marker a little bit higher than Firefox, Chrome, and Safari.

If you want the image-marker to be placed equally in all browsers, a crossbrowser solution is explained below.

Crossbrowser Solution

The following example displays the image-marker equally in all browsers:

Example

ul {
    list-style-type: none;
    padding: 0px;
    margin: 0px;
}

ul li {
    background-image: url(sqpurple.gif);
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
    background-position: 0px 5px;
    padding-left: 14px;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

ul {

list-style-type: none;

padding: 0px;

margin: 0px;

}

ul li {

background-repeat: no-repeat;

background-position: 0px 5px;

padding-left: 14px;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<ul>

<li>Coffee</li>

</ul>

</body>

</html>

Example explained:

For ul:

Set the list-style-type to none to remove the list item marker
Set both padding and margin to 0px (for cross-browser compatibility)

For all li in ul:

Set the URL of the image, and show it only once (no-repeat)
Position the image where you want it (left 0px and down 5px)
Position the text in the list with padding-left

List - Shorthand property

It is also possible to specify all the list properties in one, single property. This is called a shorthand property.

The shorthand property used for lists, is the list-style property:

Example

ul {
list-style: square url("sqpurple.gif");
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

ul {

list-style: square url("sqpurple.gif");

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<ul>

<li>Coffee</li>

</ul>

</body>

</html>

When using the shorthand property, the order of the values are:

list-style-type
list-style-position (for a description, see the CSS properties table below)
list-style-image

It does not matter if one of the values above are missing, as long as the rest are in the specified order.

CSS Tables

Table Borders

To specify table borders in CSS, use the border property.

The example below specifies a black border for table, th, and td elements:

Example

table, th, td {
border: 1px solid black;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

table, th, td {

border: 1px solid black;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<table>

<tr>

<th>Firstname</th>

<th>Lastname</th>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Peter</td>

<td>Griffin</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Griffin</td>

</tr>

</table>

</body>

</html>

Notice that the table in the example above has double borders. This is because both the table and the th/td elements have separate borders.

To display a single border for the table, use the border-collapse property.

Collapse Borders

The border-collapse property sets whether the table borders are collapsed into a single border or separated:

Example

table {
border-collapse: collapse;
}

table, th, td {
border: 1px solid black;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

table {

border-collapse: collapse;

}

table, td, th {

border: 1px solid black;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<table>

<tr>

<th>Firstname</th>

<th>Lastname</th>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Peter</td>

<td>Griffin</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Griffin</td>

</tr>

</table>

<p><b>Note:</b> If a !DOCTYPE is not specified, the border-collapse property can produce unexpected results

in IE8 and earlier versions.</p>

</body>

</html>

Table Width and Height

Width and height of a table is defined by the width and height properties.

The example below sets the width of the table to 100%, and the height of the th elements to 50px:

Example

table

{
width: 100%;
}

th

{
height: 50px;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

table, td, th

{

border: 1px solid black;

}

table {

width: 100%;

}

th {

height: 50px;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<table>

<tr>

<th>Firstname</th>

<th>Lastname</th>

<th>Savings</th>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Peter</td>

<td>Griffin</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Griffin</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Swanson</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Cleveland</td>

<td>Brown</td>

</tr>

</table>

</body>

</html>

Table Text Alignment

The text in a table is aligned with the text-align and vertical-align properties.

The text-align property sets the horizontal alignment, like left, right, or center:

Example

td {
text-align: right;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

table, td, th {

border: 1px solid black;

}

td {

text-align: right;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<table>

<tr>

<th>Firstname</th>

<th>Lastname</th>

<th>Savings</th>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Peter</td>

<td>Griffin</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Griffin</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Swanson</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Cleveland</td>

<td>Brown</td>

</tr>

</table>

</body>

</html>

The vertical-align property sets the vertical alignment, like top, bottom, or middle:

Example

td {
height: 50px;
vertical-align: bottom;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

table, td, th {

border: 1px solid black;

}

td {

height: 50px;

vertical-align: bottom;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<table>

<tr>

<th>Firstname</th>

<th>Lastname</th>

<th>Savings</th>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Peter</td>

<td>Griffin</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Griffin</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Swanson</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Cleveland</td>

<td>Brown</td>

</tr>

</table>

</body>

</html>

Table Padding

To control the space between the border and content in a table, use the padding property on td and th elements:

Example

td {
padding: 15px;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

table, td, th {

border: 1px solid black;

}

td {

padding: 15px;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<table>

<tr>

<th>Firstname</th>

<th>Lastname</th>

<th>Savings</th>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Peter</td>

<td>Griffin</td>

<td>$100</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Lois</td>

<td>Griffin</td>

<td>$150</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Joe</td>

<td>Swanson</td>

<td>$300</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Cleveland</td>

<td>Brown</td>

<td>$250</td>

</tr>

</table>

</body>

</html>

Table Color

The example below specifies the color of the borders, and the text and background color of th elements:

Example

table, td, th {
    border: 1px solid green;
}

th {
    background-color: green;
    color: white;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

table, td, th {

border: 1px solid green;

}

th {

background-color: green;

color: white;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<table>

<tr>

<th>Firstname</th>

<th>Lastname</th>

<th>Savings</th>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Peter</td>

<td>Griffin</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Griffin</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Swanson</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Cleveland</td>

<td>Brown</td>

</tr>

</table>

</body>

</html>

CSS Box Model

The CSS Box Model

All HTML elements can be considered as boxes. In CSS, the term "box model" is used when talking about design and layout.

The CSS box model is essentially a box that wraps around HTML elements, and it consists of: margins, borders, padding, and the actual content.

The box model allows us to place a border around elements and space elements in relation to other elements.

The image below illustrates the box model:

Explanation of the different parts:

Margin - Clears an area around the border. The margin does not have a background color, it is completely transparent
Border - A border that goes around the padding and content. The border is inherited from the color property of the box
Padding - Clears an area around the content. The padding is affected by the background color of the box
Content - The content of the box, where text and images appear

In order to set the width and height of an element correctly in all browsers, you need to know how the box model works.

Width and Height of an Element

The total width of the element in the example below is 300px:

width: 250px;
padding: 10px;
border: 5px solid gray;
margin: 10px;

Let's do the math:
250px (width)
+ 20px (left + right padding)
+ 10px (left + right border)
+ 20px (left + right margin)
= 300px

Assume that you had only 250px of space. Let's make an element with a total width of 250px:

Example

div {
    width: 220px;
    padding: 10px;
    border: 5px solid gray;
    margin: 0px;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

div.ex {

width: 220px;

padding: 10px;

border: 5px solid gray;

margin: 5px;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<div class="ex">The picture above is 250px wide. The total width of this element is also 260px.</div>

</body>

</html>

The total width of an element should be calculated like this:

Total element width = width + left padding + right padding + left border + right border + left margin + right margin

The total height of an element should be calculated like this:

Total element height = height + top padding + bottom padding + top border + bottom border + top margin + bottom margin

Browsers Compatibility Issue

IE8 and earlier versions of IE, included padding and border in the width property.

To fix this problem, add a <!DOCTYPE html> to the HTML page.

CSS Border

CSS Border Properties

The CSS border properties allow you to specify the style and color of an element's border.

Border Style

The border-style property specifies what kind of border to display.

border-style values:

none: Defines no border

dotted: Defines a dotted border

dashed: Defines a dashed border

solid: Defines a solid border

double: Defines two borders. The width of the two borders are the same as the border-width value

groove: Defines a 3D grooved border. The effect depends on the border-color value

ridge: Defines a 3D ridged border. The effect depends on the border-color value

inset: Defines a 3D inset border. The effect depends on the border-color value

outset: Defines a 3D outset border. The effect depends on the border-color value

Border Width

The border-width property is used to set the width of the border.

The width is set in pixels, or by using one of the three pre-defined values: thin, medium, or thick.

Note: The "border-width" property does not work if it is used alone. Use the "border-style" property to set the borders first.

Example

p.one {
    border-style: solid;
    border-width: 5px;
}

p.two {
    border-style: solid;
    border-width: medium;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

p.one {

border-style: solid;

border-width: 5px;

}

p.two {

border-style: solid;

border-width: 5px;

}

p.three {

border-style: solid;

border-width: 5px;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<p class="one">Some text.</p>

<p class="two">Some text.</p>

<p class="three">Some text.</p>

</body>

</html>

Border Color

The border-color property is used to set the color of the border. The color can be set by:

name - specify a color name, like "red"
RGB - specify a RGB value, like "rgb(255,0,0)"
Hex - specify a hex value, like "#ff0000"

You can also set the border color to "transparent".

Note: The "border-color" property does not work if it is used alone. Use the "border-style" property to set the borders first.

Example

p.one {
    border-style: solid;
    border-color: red;
}

p.two {
    border-style: solid;
    border-color: #98bf21;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

p.one {

border-style: solid;

border-color: red;

}

p.two {

border-style: solid;

border-color: #98bf21;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<p class="one">A solid red border</p>

<p class="two">A solid green border</p>

</body>

</html>

Border - Individual sides

In CSS it is possible to specify different borders for different sides:

Example

p {
    border-top-style: dotted;
    border-right-style: solid;
    border-bottom-style: dotted;
    border-left-style: solid;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

p {

border-top-style: dotted;

border-right-style: solid;

border-bottom-style: dotted;

border-left-style: solid;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<p>2 different border styles.</p>

</body>

</html>

The example above can also be set with a single property:

Example

p {
border-style: dotted solid;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

p {

border-style: dotted solid;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<p>2 different border styles.</p>

</body>

</html>

The border-style property can have from one to four values.

border-style: dotted solid double dashed;

top border is dotted
right border is solid
bottom border is double
left border is dashed

border-style: dotted solid double;

top border is dotted
right and left borders are solid
bottom border is double

border-style: dotted solid;

top and bottom borders are dotted
right and left borders are solid

border-style: dotted;

all four borders are dotted

The border-style property is used in the example above. However, it also works with border-width and border-color.

Border - Shorthand property

As you can see from the examples above, there are many properties to consider when dealing with borders.

To shorten the code, it is also possible to specify all the individual border properties in one property. This is called a shorthand property.

The border property is a shorthand for the following individual border properties:

border-width
border-style (required)
border-color

Example

p {
border: 5px solid red;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

p {

border: 5px solid red;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<p>This is some text in a paragraph.</p>

</body>

</html>

CSS Margin

The CSS margin properties define the space around elements.

Margin

The margin clears an area around an element (outside the border). The margin does not have a background color, and is completely transparent.

The top, right, bottom, and left margin can be changed independently using separate properties. A shorthand margin property can also be used, to change all margins at once.

Possible Values

Value	Description
Auto	The browser calculates a margin
Length	Specifies a margin in px, pt, cm, etc. Default value is 0px
%	Specifies a margin in percent of the width of the containing element
Inherit	Specifies that the margin should be inherited from the parent element

Margin - Individual sides

In CSS, it is possible to specify different margins for different sides of an element:

Example

p {
    margin-top: 100px;
    margin-bottom: 100px;
    margin-right: 150px;
    margin-left: 50px;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

p {

background-color: yellow;

}

p.ex {

margin-top: 100px;

margin-bottom: 100px;

margin-right: 150px;

margin-left: 50px;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<p>This is a paragraph with no specified margins.</p>

<p class="ex">This is a paragraph with specified margins.</p>

</body>

</html>

Margin - Shorthand property

To shorten the code, it is possible to specify all the margin properties in one property. This is called a shorthand property.

The shorthand property for all the margin properties is "margin":

Example

p {
margin: 100px 50px;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

p {

background-color: yellow;

}

p.ex {

margin: 100px 50px;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<p>This is a paragraph with no specified margins.</p>

<p class="ex">This is a paragraph with specified margins.</p>

</body>

</html>

CSS Display and Visibility

The display property specifies if/how an element is displayed, and the visibility property specifies if an element should be visible or hidden.

Hiding an Element - display:none or visibility:hidden

Hiding an element can be done by setting the display property to "none" or the visibility property to "hidden". However, notice that these two methods produce different results:

visibility:hidden hides an element, but it will still take up the same space as before. The element will be hidden, but still affect the layout.

Example

h1.hidden {
visibility: hidden;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

h1.hidden {

visibility: hidden;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h1>This is a visible heading</h1>

<h1 class="hidden">This is a hidden heading</h1>

<p>Notice that the hidden heading still takes up space.</p>

</body>

</html>

display:none hides an element, and it will not take up any space. The element will be hidden, and the page will be displayed as if the element is not there:

Example

h1.hidden {
display: none;
}

CSS Display - Block and Inline Elements

A block element is an element that takes up the full width available, and has a line break before and after it.

Examples of block elements:

<h1>
<p>
<li>
<div>

An inline element only takes up as much width as necessary, and does not force line breaks.

Examples of inline elements:

<span>
<a>

Changing How an Element is Displayed

Changing an inline element to a block element, or vice versa, can be useful for making the page look a specific way, and still follow web standards.

The following example displays <li> elements as inline elements:

Example

li {
display: inline;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

li {

display: inline;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<p>Display a list of links as a horizontal menu:</p>

<ul>

<li><a href="/js/default.asp" target="_blank">JavaScript</a></li>

</ul>

</body>

</html>

The following example displays <span> elements as block elements:

Example

span {
display: block;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

span {

display: block;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<span>A display property with a value of "block" results in</span>

<span>a line break between the two elements.</span>

</body>

</html>

CSS Positioning

Positioning can be tricky sometimes!

Decide which element to display in front!

Elements can overlap!

Positioning

The CSS positioning properties allow you to position an element. It can also place an element behind another, and specify what should happen when an element's content is too big.

Elements can be positioned using the top, bottom, left, and right properties. However, these properties will not work unless the position property is set first. They also work differently depending on the positioning method.

There are four different positioning methods.

Static Positioning

HTML elements are positioned static by default. A static positioned element is always positioned according to the normal flow of the page.

Static positioned elements are not affected by the top, bottom, left, and right properties.

Fixed Positioning

An element with fixed position is positioned relative to the browser window.

It will not move even if the window is scrolled:

Example

p.pos_fixed {
    position: fixed;
    top: 30px;
    right: 5px;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

p.pos_fixed {

position: fixed;

top: 30px;

right: 5px;

color: red;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<p><b>Note:</b> IE7 and IE8 supports the fixed value only if a !DOCTYPE is specified.</p>

<p class="pos_fixed">Some positioned text.</p>

</body>

</html>

Fixed positioned elements are removed from the normal flow. The document and other elements behave like the fixed positioned element does not exist.

Fixed positioned elements can overlap other elements.

Relative Positioning

A relative positioned element is positioned relative to its normal position.

Example

h2.pos_left {
    position: relative;
    left: -20px;
}

h2.pos_right {
    position: relative;
    left: 20px;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

h2.pos_left {

position: relative;

left: -20px;

}

h2.pos_right {

position: relative;

left: 20px;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h2>Heading with no position</h2>

<h2 class="pos_left">This heading is moved left according to its normal position</h2>

<h2 class="pos_right">This heading is moved right according to its normal position</h2>

<p>Relative positioning moves an element RELATIVE to its original position.</p>

<p>The style "left:-20px" subtracts 20 pixels from the element's original left position.</p>

<p>The style "left:20px" adds 20 pixels to the element's original left position.</p>

</body>

</html>

The content of relatively positioned elements can be moved and overlap other elements, but the reserved space for the element is still preserved in the normal flow.

Example

h2.pos_top {
position: relative;
top: -50px;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

h2.pos_top {

position: relative;

top: -30px;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h2>Heading with no position</h2>

<h2 class="pos_top">This heading is moved upwards according to its normal position</h2>

</body>

</html>

Relatively positioned elements are often used as container blocks for absolutely positioned elements.

Absolute Positioning

An absolute position element is positioned relative to the first parent element that has a position other than static. If no such element is found, the containing block is <html>.

Example

h2 {
    position: absolute;
    left: 100px;
    top: 150px;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

h2 {

position: absolute;

left: 100px;

top: 150px;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h2>This heading has an absolute position</h2>

<p>With absolute positioning, an element can be placed anywhere on a page. The heading below is placed 100px from the left of the page and 150px from the top of the page.</p>

</body>

</html>

Absolutely positioned elements are removed from the normal flow. The document and other elements behave like the absolutely positioned element does not exist.

Absolutely positioned elements can overlap other elements.

Overlapping Elements

When elements are positioned outside the normal flow, they can overlap other elements.

The z-index property specifies the stack order of an element (which element should be placed in front of, or behind, the others).

An element can have a positive or negative stack order:

Example

img

{
    position: absolute;
    left: 0px;
    top: 0px;
    z-index: -1;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

img {

position: absolute;

left: 0px;

top: 0px;

z-index: -1;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h1>This is a heading</h1>

<p>Because the image has a z-index of -1, it will be placed behind the text.</p>

</body>

</html>

An element with greater stack order is always in front of an element with a lower stack order.

CSS Float

What is CSS Float?

With CSS float, an element can be pushed to the left or right, allowing other elements to wrap around it.

Float is very often used for images, but it is also useful when working with layouts.

How Elements Float

Elements are floated horizontally, this means that an element can only be floated left or right, not up or down.

A floated element will move as far to the left or right as it can. Usually this means all the way to the left or right of the containing element.

The elements after the floating element will flow around it.

The elements before the floating element will not be affected.

If an image is floated to the right, a following text flows around it, to the left:

Example

img {
float: right;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

img {

float: right;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<p>In the paragraph below, we have added an image with style <b>float:right</b>. The result is that the image will float to the right in the paragraph.</p>

This is some text. This is some text. This is some text.

</p>

</body>

</html>

Floating Elements Next to Each Other

If you place several floating elements after each other, they will float next to each other if there is room.

Here we have made an image gallery using the float property:

Example

.thumbnail {
    float: left;
    width: 110px;
    height: 90px;
    margin: 5px;
}

Turning off Float - Using Clear

Elements after the floating element will flow around it. To avoid this, use the clear property.

The clear property specifies which sides of an element other floating elements are not allowed.

Add a text line into the image gallery, using the clear property:

Example

.text_line {
clear: both;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

.thumbnail {

float: left;

width: 110px;

height: 90px;

margin: 5px;

}

.text_line {

clear: both;

margin-bottom: 2px;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h3>Image Gallery</h3>

<p>Try to resize the browser-window to see what happens when the images does not have enough room.</p>

<h3 class="text_line">Second row</h3>

</body>

</html>

CSS Horizontal Align

In CSS, several properties are used to align elements horizontally.

Aligning Block Elements

A block element is an element that takes up the full width available, and has a line break before and after it.

Examples of block elements:

<h1>
<p>
<div>

For aligning text, see the CSS Text chapter.

In this chapter we will show you how to horizontally align block elements for layout purposes.

Center Aligning Using the margin Property

Block elements can be center-aligned by setting the left and right margins to "auto".

Setting the left and right margins to auto specifies that they should split the available margin equally. The result is a centered element:

Example

.center {
    margin-left: auto;
    margin-right: auto;
    width: 70%;
    background-color: #b0e0e6;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

.center {

margin: auto;

width: 70%;

background-color: #b0e0e6;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<p>In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.</p>

<p>'Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,' he told me, 'just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.'</p>

</div>

<p><b>Note: </b>Using margin:auto will not work in IE8, unless a !DOCTYPE is declared.</p>

</body>

</html>

Right Aligning Using the position Property

One method of aligning elements is to use absolute positioning:

Example

.right {
    position: absolute;
    right: 0px;
    width: 300px;
    background-color: #b0e0e6;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

.right {

position: absolute;

right: 0px;

width: 300px;

background-color: #b0e0e6;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<p>In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.</p>

<p>'Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,' he told me, 'just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.'</p>

</div>

</body>

</html>

Note: Absolute positioned elements are removed from the normal flow, and can overlap elements.

Crossbrowser Compatibility Issues

When aligning elements like this, it is always a good idea to predefine margin and padding for the <body> element. This is to avoid visual differences in different browsers.

There is a problem with IE8 and earlier, when using the position property. If a container element (in our case <div class="container">) has a specified width, and the !DOCTYPE declaration is missing, IE8 and earlier versions will add a 17px margin on the right side. This seems to be space reserved for a scrollbar. Always set the !DOCTYPE declaration when using the position property:

Example

body {
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
}

.container {
    position: relative;
    width: 100%;
}

.right {
    position: absolute;
    right: 0px;
    width: 300px;
    background-color: #b0e0e6;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

body {

margin: 0;

padding: 0;

}

.container {

position: relative;

width: 100%;

}

.right {

position: absolute;

right: 0px;

width: 300px;

background-color: #b0e0e6;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<p><b>Note: </b>When aligning using the position property, always include the !DOCTYPE declaration! If missing, it can produce strange results in IE browsers.</p>

</div>

</body>

</html>

Left and Right Aligning Using the float Property

One method of aligning elements is to use the float property:

Example

.right {
    float: right;
    width: 300px;
    background-color: #b0e0e6;
}

Crossbrowser Compatibility Issues

When aligning elements like this, it is always a good idea to predefine margin and padding for the <body> element. This is to avoid visual differences in different browsers.

There is a problem with IE8 and earlier when using the float property. If the !DOCTYPE declaration is missing, IE8 and earlier versions will add a 17px margin on the right side. This seems to be space reserved for a scrollbar. Always set the !DOCTYPE declaration when using the float property:

Example

body {
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
}

.right {
    float: right;
    width: 300px;
    background-color: #b0e0e6;
}

CSS Pseudo-classes

CSS pseudo-classes are used to add special effects to some selectors.

Syntax

The syntax of pseudo-classes:

selector:pseudo-class

{
property:value;
}

CSS classes can also be used with pseudo-classes:

selector.class:pseudo-class {
property:value;
}

Anchor Pseudo-classes

Links can be displayed in different ways in a CSS-supporting browser:

Example

<html>

<head>

<style>

/* unvisited link */

a:link

{

color:blue;

}

/* visited link */

a:visited

{

color:red;

}

/* mouse over link */

a:hover

{

color:green;

}

/* selected link */

a:active

{

color:black;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<a href="http://www.google.com">Click here</a>

</body>

</html>

Pseudo-classes and CSS Classes

Pseudo-classes can be combined with CSS classes:

CSS:

a.red:visited {
color: #FF0000;
}

HTML:

<a class="red" href="css_syntax.asp">CSS Syntax</a>

If the link in the example above has been visited, it will be displayed in red.

CSS - The :first-child Pseudo-class

The :first-child pseudo-class matches a specified element that is the first child of another element.

Match the first <p> element

In the following example, the selector matches any <p> element that is the first child of any element:

Example

p:first-child {
color: blue;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

p:first-child {

color: blue;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<p><b>Note:</b> For :first-child to work in IE8 and earlier, a DOCTYPE must be declared.</p>

</body>

</html>

Match the first <i> element in all <p> elements

In the following example, the selector matches the first <i> element in all <p> elements:

Example

p > i:first-child {
color: blue;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

p > i:first-child {

color: blue;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<p>I am a <i>strong</i> man. I am a <i>strong</i> man.</p>

<p><b>Note:</b> For :first-child to work in IE8 and earlier, a DOCTYPE must be declared.</p>

</body>

</html>

Match all <i> elements in all first child <p> elements

In the following example, the selector matches all <i> elements in <p> elements that are the first child of another element:

Example

p:first-child i {
color: blue;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

p:first-child i {

color: blue;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<p>I am a <i>strong</i> man. I am a <i>strong</i> man.</p>

</body>

</html>

CSS - The :lang Pseudo-class

The :lang pseudo-class allows you to define special rules for different languages.

In the example below, the :lang class defines the quotation marks for q elements with lang="no":

Example

<html>
<head>
<style>
q:lang(no) {
quotes: "~" "~";
}
</style>
</head>

<body>
<p>Some text <q lang="no">A quote in a paragraph</q> Some text.</p>
</body>
</html>

CSS Pseudo-elements

CSS pseudo-elements are used to add special effects to some selectors.

Syntax

The syntax of pseudo-elements:

selector::pseudo-element

{
property:value;
}

CSS classes can also be used with pseudo-elements:

selector.class::pseudo-element {
property:value;
}

The ::first-line Pseudo-element

The ::first-line pseudo-element is used to add a special style to the first line of a text.

The ::first-line pseudo-element can only be applied to block-level elements.

Example

Format the first line of the text in p elements:

p::first-line {
color: #ff0000;
font-variant: small-caps;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

p::first-line {

color: #ff0000;

font-variant: small-caps;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<p>You can use the ::first-line pseudo-element to add a special effect to the first line of a text.</p>

</body>

</html>

The following properties apply to the ::first-line pseudo-element:

font properties
color properties
background properties
word-spacing
letter-spacing
text-decoration
vertical-align
text-transform
line-height
clear

The ::first-letter Pseudo-element

The ::first-letter pseudo-element is used to add a special style to the first letter of a text.

The ::first-letter pseudo-element can only be applied to block-level elements.

Example

Format the first letter of the text in p elements:

p::first-letter {
color: #ff0000;
font-size: xx-large;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

p::first-letter {

color: #ff0000;

font-size: xx-large;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<p>You can use the ::first-letter pseudo-element to add a special effect to the first character of a text!</p>

</body>

</html>

The following properties apply to the ::first-letter pseudo- element:

font properties
color properties
background properties
margin properties
padding properties
border properties
text-decoration
vertical-align (only if "float" is "none")
text-transform
line-height
float
clear

Pseudo-elements and CSS Classes

Pseudo-elements can be combined with CSS classes:

CSS:

p.article::first-letter {color:#ff0000;}

HTML:

<p class="article">A paragraph in an article</p>

The example above will display the first letter of all paragraphs with class="article", in red.

Multiple Pseudo-elements

Several pseudo-elements can also be combined.

In the following example, the first letter of a paragraph will be red, in an xx-large font size. The rest of the first line will be blue, and in small-caps. The rest of the paragraph will be the default font size and color:

Example

p::first-letter {
    color: #ff0000;
    font-size: xx-large;
}

p::first-line {
    color: #0000ff;
    font-variant: small-caps;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

p::first-letter {

color: #ff0000;

font-size: xx-large;

}

p::first-line {

color: #0000ff;

font-variant: small-caps;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<p>You can combine the ::first-letter and ::first-line pseudo-elements to add a special effect to the first letter and the first line of a text!</p>

</body>

</html>

CSS - The ::before Pseudo-element

The ::before pseudo-element can be used to insert some content before the content of an element.

The following example inserts an image before each <h1> element:

Example

h1::before {
content: url(smiley.gif);
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

h1::before {

content: url(smiley.gif);

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h1>This is a heading</h1>

<p>The ::before pseudo-element inserts content before an element.</p>

<h1>This is a heading</h1>

<p><b>Note:</b> IE8 supports the content property only if a !DOCTYPE is specified.</p>

</body>

</html>

CSS - The ::after Pseudo-element

The ::after pseudo-element can be used to insert some content after the content of an element.

The following example inserts an image after each <h1> element:

Example

h1::after {
content: url(smiley.gif);
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

h1::after {

content: url(smiley.gif);

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h1>This is a heading</h1>

<p>The ::after pseudo-element inserts content after an element.</p>

<h1>This is a heading</h1>

<p><b>Note:</b> IE8 supports the content property only if a !DOCTYPE is specified.</p>

</body>

</html>

CSS Navigation Bar

Navigation Bars

Having easy-to-use navigation is important for any web site.

With CSS you can transform boring HTML menus into good-looking navigation bars.

Navigation Bar = List of Links

A navigation bar needs standard HTML as a base.

In our examples we will build the navigation bar from a standard HTML list.

A navigation bar is basically a list of links, so using the <ul> and <li> elements makes perfect sense:

Example

<ul>
  <li><a href="default.asp">Home</a></li>
  <li><a href="news.asp">News</a></li>
  <li><a href="contact.asp">Contact</a></li>
  <li><a href="about.asp">About</a></li>
</ul>

<html>

<body>

<ul>

<li><a href="#contact">Contact</a></li>

<li><a href="#about">About</a></li>

</ul>

<p>Note: We use href="#" for test links. In a real web site this would be URLs.</p>

</body>

</html>

Now let's remove the bullets and the margins and padding from the list:

Example

ul {
    list-style-type: none;
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

ul {

list-style-type: none;

margin: 0;

padding: 0;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<ul>

<li><a href="#contact">Contact</a></li>

<li><a href="#about">About</a></li>

</ul>

</body>

</html>

Example explained:

list-style-type: none - Removes the bullets. A navigation bar does not need list markers
Setting margins and padding to 0 to remove browser default settings

The code in the example above is the standard code used in both vertical, and horizontal navigation bars.

Vertical Navigation Bar

To build a vertical navigation bar we only need to style the <a> elements, in addition to the code above:

Example

a {
display: block;
width: 60px;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

ul {

list-style-type: none;

margin: 0;

padding: 0;

}

a {

display: block;

width: 60px;

background-color: #dddddd;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<ul>

<li><a href="#contact">Contact</a></li>

<li><a href="#about">About</a></li>

</ul>

<p>A background color is added to the links to show the link area.</p>

<p>Notice that the whole link area is clickable, not just the text.</p>

</body>

</html>

Example explained:

display: block - Displaying the links as block elements makes the whole link area clickable (not just the text), and it allows us to specify the width
width: 60px - Block elements take up the full width available by default. We want to specify a 60 px width

Tip: Also take a look at our fully styled vertical navigation bar example.

Horizontal Navigation Bar

There are two ways to create a horizontal navigation bar. Using inline or floating list items.

Both methods work fine, but if you want the links to be the same size, you have to use the floating method.

Inline List Items

One way to build a horizontal navigation bar is to specify the <li> elements as inline, in addition to the "standard" code above:

Example

li {
display: inline;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

ul {

list-style-type: none;

margin: 0;

padding: 0;

}

li {

display: inline;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<ul>

<li><a href="#contact">Contact</a></li>

<li><a href="#about">About</a></li>

</ul>

</body>

</html>

Example explained:

display: inline; - By default, <li> elements are block elements. Here, we remove the line breaks before and after each list item, to display them on one line

Floating List Items

In the example above the links have different widths.

For all the links to have an equal width, float the <li> elements and specify a width for the <a> elements:

Example

li {
    float: left;
}

a {
    display: block;
    width: 60px;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

ul {

list-style-type: none;

margin: 0;

padding: 0;

overflow: hidden;

}

li {

float: left;

}

a {

display: block;

width: 60px;

background-color: #dddddd;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<ul>

<li><a href="#contact">Contact</a></li>

<li><a href="#about">About</a></li>

</ul>

<p><b>Note:</b> If a !DOCTYPE is not specified, floating items can produce unexpected results.</p>

<p>A background color is added to the links to show the link area. The whole link area is clickable, not just the text.</p>

<p><b>Note:</b> overflow:hidden is added to the ul element to prevent li elements from going outside of the list.</p>

</body>

</html>

CSS Image Opacity / Transparency

Creating transparent images with CSS is easy.

The CSS opacity property is a part of the W3C CSS3 recommendation.

Example 1 - Creating a Transparent Image

The CSS3 property for transparency is opacity.

First we will show you how to create a transparent image with CSS.

Regular image:

The same image with transparency:

Look at the following CSS:

img {
opacity: 0.4;
filter: alpha(opacity=40); /* For IE8 and earlier */
}

IE9, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and Safari use the property opacity for transparency. The opacity property can take a value from 0.0 - 1.0. A lower value makes the element more transparent.

IE8 and earlier use filter:alpha(opacity=x). The x can take a value from 0 - 100. A lower value makes the element more transparent.

Example 2 - Image Transparency - Hover Effect

Example

img {
    opacity: 0.4;
    filter: alpha(opacity=40); /* For IE8 and earlier */
}

img:hover {
    opacity: 1.0;
    filter: alpha(opacity=100); /* For IE8 and earlier */
}

The first CSS block is similar to the code in Example 1. In addition, we have added what should happen when a user hover over one of the images. In this case we want the image to NOT be transparent when the user hover over it.

The CSS for this is: opacity=1.

IE8 and earlier: filter:alpha(opacity=100).

When the mouse pointer moves away from the image, the image will be transparent again.

<html>

<head>

<style>

img

{

opacity: 1.0;

}

img:hover

{

opacity: 0.3;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h1>Image Transparency</h1>

</body>

</html>

Example 3 - Text in Transparent Box

Example

<html>

<head>

<style>

div.background

{

width: 500px;

height: 250px;

background: url(klematis.jpg) repeat;

border: 2px solid black;

}

div.transbox

{

width: 400px;

height: 180px;

margin: 30px 50px;

background-color: #ffffff;

border: 1px solid black;

opacity:0.6;

filter:alpha(opacity=60); /* For IE8 and earlier */

}

div.transbox p

{

margin: 30px 40px;

font-weight: bold;

color: #000000;

}

</style>

</head>

<p>This is some text that is placed in the transparent box.

This is some text that is placed in the transparent box.

</p>

</div>

</body>

</html>

CSS Image Sprites

Image Sprites

An image sprite is a collection of images put into a single image.

A web page with many images can take a long time to load and generates multiple server requests.

Using image sprites will reduce the number of server requests and save bandwidth.

Image Sprites - Simple Example

Instead of using three separate images, we use this single image ("img_navsprites.gif"):

With CSS, we can show just the part of the image we need.

In the following example the CSS specifies which part of the "img_navsprites.gif" image to show:

Example

img.home {
    width: 46px;
    height: 44px;
    background: url(img_navsprites.gif) 0 0;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

img.home {

width: 46px;

height: 44px;

background: url(img_navsprites.gif) 0 0;

}

img.next {

width: 43px;

height: 44px;

background: url(img_navsprites.gif) -91px 0;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

</body>

</html>

Example explained:

<img class="home" src="img_trans.gif"> - Only defines a small transparent image because the src attribute cannot be empty. The displayed image will be the background image we specify in CSS
width: 46px; height: 44px; - Defines the portion of the image we want to use
background: url(img_navsprites.gif) 0 0; - Defines the background image and its position (left 0px, top 0px)

This is the easiest way to use image sprites, now we want to expand it by using links and hover effects.

Image Sprites - Create a Navigation List

We want to use the sprite image ("img_navsprites.gif") to create a navigation list.

We will use an HTML list, because it can be a link and also supports a background image:

Example

<html>

<head>

<style>

#navlist {

position: relative;

}

#navlist li {

margin: 0;

padding: 0;

list-style: none;

position: absolute;

top: 0;

}

#navlist li, #navlist a {

height: 44px;

display: block;

}

#home {

left: 0px;

width: 46px;

background: url('img_navsprites.gif') 0 0;

}

#prev {

left: 63px;

width: 43px;

background: url('img_navsprites.gif') -47px 0;

}

#next {

left: 129px;

width: 43px;

background: url('img_navsprites.gif') -91px 0;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

</ul>

</body>

</html>

Example explained:

#navlist {position:relative;} - position is set to relative to allow absolute positioning inside it
#navlist li {margin:0;padding:0;list-style:none;position:absolute;top:0;} - margin and padding is set to 0, list-style is removed, and all list items are absolute positioned
#navlist li, #navlist a {height:44px;display:block;} - the height of all the images are 44px

Now start to position and style for each specific part:

#home {left:0px;width:46px;} - Positioned all the way to the left, and the width of the image is 46px
#home {background:url(img_navsprites.gif) 0 0;} - Defines the background image and its position (left 0px, top 0px)
#prev {left:63px;width:43px;} - Positioned 63px to the right (#home width 46px + some extra space between items), and the width is 43px.
#prev {background:url('img_navsprites.gif') -47px 0;} - Defines the background image 47px to the right (#home width 46px + 1px line divider)
#next {left:129px;width:43px;}- Positioned 129px to the right (start of #prev is 63px + #prev width 43px + extra space), and the width is 43px.
#next {background:url('img_navsprites.gif') -91px 0;} - Defines the background image 91px to the right (#home width 46px + 1px line divider + #prev width 43px + 1px line divider )

Image Sprites - Hover Effect

Now we want to add a hover effect to our navigation list.

Our new image ("img_navsprites_hover.gif") contains three navigation images and three images to use for hover effects:

Because this is one single image, and not six separate files, there will be no loading delay when a user hovers over the image.

We only add three lines of code to add the hover effect:

Example

#home a:hover {
    background: url('img_navsprites_hover.gif') 0 -45px;
}

#prev a:hover {
    background: url('img_navsprites_hover.gif') -47px -45px;
}

#next a:hover {
    background: url('img_navsprites_hover.gif') -91px -45px;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

#navlist {

position: relative;

}

#navlist li {

margin: 0;

padding: 0;

list-style: none;

position: absolute;

top: 0;

}

#navlist li, #navlist a {

height: 44px;

display: block;

}

#home {

left: 0px;

width: 46px;

background: url('img_navsprites.gif') 0 0;

}

#prev {

left: 63px;

width: 43px;

background: url('img_navsprites.gif') -47px 0;

}

#next {

left: 129px;

width: 43px;

background: url('img_navsprites.gif') -91px 0;

}

#home a:hover {

background: url('img_navsprites_hover.gif') 0 -45px;

}

#prev a:hover {

background: url('img_navsprites_hover.gif') -47px -45px;

}

#next a:hover {

background: url('img_navsprites_hover.gif') -91px -45px;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

</ul>

</body>

</html>

Example explained:

#home a:hover {background: transparent url('img_navsprites_hover.gif') 0 -45px;} - For all three hover images we specify the same background position, only 45px further down.

CSS3 Introduction

CSS3 is the latest standard for CSS.

CSS3 is completely backwards-compatible with earlier versions of CSS.

This section teaches you about the new features in CSS3!

CSS3 Modules

CSS3 has been split into "modules". It contains the "old CSS specification" (which has been split into smaller pieces). In addition, new modules are added.

Some of the most important CSS3 modules are:

Selectors
Box Model
Backgrounds and Borders
Image Values and Replaced Content
Text Effects
2D/3D Transformations
Animations
Multiple Column Layout
User Interface

CSS3 Recommendation

The CSS3 specification is still under development by W3C.

However, many of the new CSS3 properties have been implemented in modern browsers.

CSS3 Borders

With CSS3, you can create rounded borders, add shadow to boxes, and use an image as a border - without using a design program, like Photoshop.

In this chapter you will learn about the following border properties:

border-radius
box-shadow
border-image

CSS3 The border-radius Property - Rounded Corners

Adding rounded corners in CSS2 was tricky. We had to use different images for each corner.

In CSS3, creating rounded corners is easy.

In CSS3, the border-radius property is used to create rounded corners:

This box has rounded corners!

Example

Add rounded corners to a div element:

div {
border: 2px solid;
border-radius: 25px;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

div {

border: 2px solid #a1a1a1;

padding: 10px 40px;

background: #dddddd;

width: 300px;

border-radius: 25px;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<div>The border-radius property allows you to add rounded corners to elements.</div>

</body>

</html>

CSS3 The box-shadow Property

In CSS3, the box-shadow property is used to add shadow to boxes.

Example

Add a box-shadow to a div element:

div {
box-shadow: 10px 10px 5px #888888;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

div {

width: 300px;

height: 100px;

background-color: yellow;

box-shadow: 10px 10px 5px #888888;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

</body>

</html>

CSS3 The border-image Property

With the CSS3 border-image property you can use an image to create a border:

The border-image property allows you to specify an image as a border!

The original image used to create the border above:

Example

Use an image to create a border around a div element:

div {
    -webkit-border-image: url(border.png) 30 30 round; /* Safari 3.1-5 */
    -o-border-image: url(border.png) 30 30 round; /* Opera 11-12.1 */
    border-image: url(border.png) 30 30 round;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

div {

border: 15px solid transparent;

width: 250px;

padding: 10px 20px;

}

#round {

border-image: url(border.png) 30 30 round;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<p>The border-image property specifies an image to be used as a border.</p>

<div id="round">Here, the image is tiled (repeated) to fill the area.</div>

</body>

</html>

CSS3 Backgrounds

CSS3 contains several new background properties,
which allow greater control of the background element.
In this chapter you will learn about the following background properties:

background-size
background-origin

You will also learn how to use multiple background images.

CSS3 The background-size Property

The background-size property specifies the size of the background image.

Before CSS3, the background image size was determined by the actual size of the image. In CSS3 it is possible to specify the size of the background image, which allows us to re-use background images in different contexts.

You can specify the size in pixels or in percentages. If you specify the size as a percentage, the size is relative to the width and height of the parent element.

Example 1

Resize a background image:

div {
    background: url(img_flwr.gif);
    background-size: 80px 60px;
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

body

{
background: url(img_tree.gif);

background-size: 80px 60px;

background-repeat: no-repeat;

padding-top: 40px;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<p>

</p>

</body>

</html>

Example 2

Stretch the background image to completely fill the content area:

div {
    background: url(img_flwr.gif);
    background-size: 100% 100%;
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

div {

background: url(img_flwr.gif);

background-size: 100% 100%;

background-repeat: no-repeat;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<div>

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. Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum dolore eu feugiat nulla facilisis at vero eros et accumsan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesent luptatum zzril delenit augue duis dolore te feugait nulla facilisi.

</div>

</body>

</html>

CSS3 The background-origin Property

The background-origin property specifies the positioning area of the background images.

The background image can be placed within the content-box, padding-box, or border-box area.

Example

Position the background image within the content-box:

div {
    background: url(img_flwr.gif);
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
    background-size: 100% 100%;
    background-origin: content-box;
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

div {

border: 1px solid black;

padding: 35px;

background-repeat: no-repeat;

background-position: left;

}

#div1 {

background-origin: border-box;

}

#div2 {

background-origin: content-box;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<p>background-origin:border-box:</p>

This is division first.

</div>

<p>background-origin:content-box:</p>

This is division second

</div>

</body>

</html>

CSS3 Gradients

CSS3 gradients let you display smooth transitions between two or more specified colors.

Earlier, you had to use images for these effects. However, by using CSS3 gradients you can reduce download time and bandwidth usage. In addition, elements with gradients look better when zoomed, because the gradient is generated by the browser.

CSS3 defines two types of gradients:

Linear Gradients (goes down/up/left/right/diagonally)
Radial Gradients (defined by their center)

CSS3 Linear Gradients

To create a linear gradient you must define at least two color stops. Color stops are the colors you want to render smooth transitions among. You can also set a starting point and a direction (or an angle) along with the gradient effect.

Example of Linear Gradient:

Syntax

background: linear-gradient(direction, color-stop1, color-stop2, ...);

Linear Gradient - Top to Bottom (this is default)

The following example shows a linear gradient that starts at the top. It starts red, transitioning to blue:

Example

A linear gradient from top to bottom:

#grad {
  background: -webkit-linear-gradient(red, blue); /* For Safari 5.1 to 6.0 */
  background: -o-linear-gradient(red, blue); /* For Opera 11.1 to 12.0 */
  background: -moz-linear-gradient(red, blue); /* For Firefox 3.6 to 15 */
  background: linear-gradient(red, blue); /* Standard syntax */
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

#grad1 {

height: 200px;

background: linear-gradient(red, blue);

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h3>Linear Gradient - Top to Bottom</h3>

<p>This linear gradient starts at the top. It starts red, transitioning to blue:</p>

<div id="grad1"></div>

</body>

</html>

Linear Gradient - Left to Right

The following example shows a linear gradient that starts from the left. It starts red, transitioning to blue:

Example

A linear gradient from left to right:

#grad {
  background: -webkit-linear-gradient(left, red , blue); /* For Safari 5.1 to 6.0 */
  background: -o-linear-gradient(right, red, blue); /* For Opera 11.1 to 12.0 */
  background: -moz-linear-gradient(right, red, blue); /* For Firefox 3.6 to 15 */
  background: linear-gradient(to right, red , blue); /* Standard syntax */
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

#grad1

{

height: 200px;

background: linear-gradient(to right, red , blue);

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h3>Linear Gradient - Left to Right</h3>

</body>

</html>

Linear Gradient - Diagonal

You can make a gradient diagonally by specifying both the horizontal and vertical starting positions.

The following example shows a linear gradient that starts at top left (and goes to bottom right). It starts red, transitioning to blue:

Example

A linear gradient that starts at top left (and goes to bottom right):

#grad {
  background: -webkit-linear-gradient(left top, red , blue); /* For Safari 5.1 to 6.0 */
  background: -o-linear-gradient(bottom right, red, blue); /* For Opera 11.1 to 12.0 */
  background: -moz-linear-gradient(bottom right, red, blue); /* For Firefox 3.6 to 15 */
  background: linear-gradient(to bottom right, red , blue); /* Standard syntax */
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

#grad1 {

height: 200px;

background: linear-gradient(to bottom right, red , blue);

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h3>Linear Gradient - Diagonal</h3>

<p>This linear gradient starts at top left. It starts red, transitioning to blue:</p>

</body>

</html>

Using Angles

If you want more control over the direction of the gradient, you can define an angle, instead of the predefined directions (to bottom, to top, to right, to left, to bottom right, etc.).

Syntax

background: linear-gradient(angle, color-stop1, color-stop2);

The angle is specified as an angle between a horizontal line and the gradient line, going counter-clockwise. In other words, 0deg creates a bottom to top gradient, while 90deg generates a left to right gradient.

The following example shows how to use angles on linear gradients:

Example

A linear gradient with a specified angle:

#grad {
  background: -webkit-linear-gradient(180deg, red, blue); /* For Safari 5.1 to 6.0 */
  background: -o-linear-gradient(180deg, red, blue); /* For Opera 11.1 to 12.0 */
  background: -moz-linear-gradient(180deg, red, blue); /* For Firefox 3.6 to 15 */
  background: linear-gradient(180deg, red, blue); /* Standard syntax */
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

#grad1

{

height: 100px;

background: linear-gradient(0deg,black,green);

}

#grad2

{

height: 100px;

background: linear-gradient(90deg, red,pink);

}

#grad3

{

height: 100px;

background: linear-gradient(180deg, red, blue);

}

#grad4

{

height: 100px;

background: linear-gradient(-90deg,orange,purple);

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h3>Linear Gradients - Using Different Angles</h3>

</body>

</html>

Using Multiple Color Stops

The following example shows how to set multiple color stops:

Example

A linear gradient from top to bottom with multiple color stops:

#grad {
  background: -webkit-linear-gradient(red, green, blue); /* For Safari 5.1 to 6.0 */
  background: -o-linear-gradient(red, green, blue); /* For Opera 11.1 to 12.0 */
  background: -moz-linear-gradient(red, green, blue); /* For Firefox 3.6 to 15 */
  background: linear-gradient(red, green, blue); /* Standard syntax */
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

#grad1 {

height: 200px;

background: linear-gradient(red, green, blue);

}

#grad2 {

height: 200px;

background: linear-gradient(red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet);

}

#grad3 {

height: 200px;

background: linear-gradient(red 10%, green 85%, blue 90%);

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h3>3 Color Stops (evenly spaced)</h3>

<h3>7 Color Stops (evenly spaced)</h3>

<h3>3 Color Stops (not evenly spaced)</h3>

</body>

</html>

The following example shows how to create a linear gradient with the color of the rainbow and some text:

Example

#grad {
  /* For Safari 5.1 to 6.0 */
  background: -webkit-linear-gradient(left,red,orange,yellow,green,blue,indigo,violet);
  /* For Opera 11.1 to 12.0 */
  background: -o-linear-gradient(left,red,orange,yellow,green,blue,indigo,violet);
  /* For Fx 3.6 to 15 */
  background: -moz-linear-gradient(left,red,orange,yellow,green,blue,indigo,violet);
  /* Standard syntax */
  background: linear-gradient(to right, red,orange,yellow,green,blue,indigo,violet);
}

<html>

<head>

<style>

#grad1 {

height: 55px;

background: -webkit-linear-gradient(left, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet); /* For Safari 5.1 to 6.0 */

SOF's WORLD

CSS Tutorial step by step

CSS

Introduction

Why Use CSS?

Maintenance:

Functionality:

Accessibility:

What is CSS?

CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets Styles define how to display HTML elements Styles were added to HTML 4.0 to solve a problem External Style Sheets can save a lot of work External Style Sheets are stored in CSS files

CSS Syntax

CSS Background

Background Color

Example

Example

Background Image

Example

Example

Background Image - Repeat Horizontally or Vertically

Example

Example

Background Image - Set position and no-repeat

Example

Example

Background - Shorthand property

Example

CSS Text

Text Color

Example

Text Alignment

Example

<html>

<head>

<style>

h1 {

text-align: center;

}

.date {

text-align: right;

}

p.main {

text-align: justify;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h1>CSS text-align Example</h1>

<p class="date">Februry 2015</p>

<p class="main">In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. 'Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,' he told me,

'just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.'</p>

</body>

</html>

Text Decoration

Example

Example

Text Transformation

Example

Text Indentation

Example

CSS Font

CSS Font Families

Font Family

Example

Font Style

Example

Font Size

Set Font Size With Pixels

Example

Set Font Size With Em

Example

Use a Combination of Percent and Em

Example

CSS Links

Styling Links

Example

Common Link Styles

Text Decoration

Example

</html>

Background Color

CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets

Styles define how to display HTML elements

Styles were added to HTML 4.0 to solve a problem

External Style Sheets can save a lot of work

External Style Sheets are stored in CSS files