Cascading Style Sheet

(CSS)

16 September 2016 – CSS 1

Agenda
● What is CSS 3?
● Selectors
● Box Model
● Fonts
● Positioning, display & overflow
● Colors
● Backgrounds
● Borders
● Animations

2
 CSS Intro
Styling with Cascading Stylesheets

Chapter two 3
CSS
● Separate content from presentation!

Content Presentation
(HTML document) (CSS Document)
Title
Bold
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer
adipiscing elit. Suspendisse at pede ut
purus malesuada dictum. Donec vitae Italic
neque non magna aliquam dictum.
● Vestibulum et odio et ipsum ■ List type
● accumsan accumsan. Morbi at
● arcu vel elit ultricies porta. Proin
tortor purus, luctus non, aliquam nec,
interdum vel, mi. Sed nec quam nec odio
lacinia molestie. Praesent augue tortor,
convallis eget, euismod nonummy, lacinia
ut, risus.

Chapter two 4
What is rendered
Title
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Suspendisse at
pede ut purus malesuada dictum. Donec vitae neque non magna aliquam
dictum.
■ Vestibulum et odio et ipsum
■ accumsan accumsan. Morbi at
■ arcu vel elit ultricies porta. Proin
Tortor purus, luctus non, aliquam nec, interdum vel, mi. Sed nec quam
nec odio lacinia molestie. Praesent augue tortor, convallis eget, euismod
nonummy, lacinia ut, risus.

Chapter one 5
 CSS Introduction
● Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
○ Used to describe the presentation of documents
○ Define sizes, spacing, fonts, colors, layout, etc.
○ Improve content accessibility
○ Improve flexibility
● Designed to separate presentation from content
● Due to CSS, all HTML presentation tags and attributes are deprecated,
e.g. font, center, etc.
Chapter two 6
 CSS Introduction
● CSS can specify different styles for different media
○ On-screen
○ In print
○ Tablets, smartphones, projectors, etc.
○ … even by voice or Braille-based reader

● Responsive design

Chapter two 7
 Why “Cascading”?
● Priority scheme determining which style rules apply to element
○ Cascade priorities or specificity (weight) are calculated and
assigned to the rules
○ Child elements in the HTML DOM tree inherit styles from their
parent
■ Can override them
■ Control via !important rule

Chapter two 8
 Why “Cascading”?
● Some CSS styles are inherited and some not
○ Text-related and list-related properties are inherited: color,
font-size, font-family, line-height, text-align,
list-style, etc
○ Box-related and positioning styles are not inherited: width,
height, border, margin, padding, position, float, etc
○ <a> elements do not inherit color and text-decoration

Chapter two 9
 StyleSheet Syntax
● Stylesheets consist of rules, selectors, declarations, properties and
values

● Selectors are separated by commas

● Declarations are separated by semicolons
● Properties and values are separated by colons
h1,h2,h3 {
color: green;
font-weight: bold;
}

Chapter two 10
 Selectors

Chapter Three 11
 Selectors
● Three primary kinds of selectors:
○ By tag (type selector):
h1 { font-family: verdana,sans-serif; }
○ By element id:
#element_id { color: #ff0000; }
○ By element class name:
.element_class {border: 1px solid red}
● Selectors can be combined with commas:
h1, .link, #top {font-weight: bold}
● This will match h1 tags, elements with class link and element with id top
Chapter Three 12
 Selectors
● Pseudo-classes define state
○ :hover, :visited, :active , :lang
● Pseudo-elements define element "parts" or are used to generate
content
○ :first-line, :before, :after
a:hover { color: red; }
p:first-line { text-transform: uppercase; }
.title:before { content: "»"; }
.title:after { content: "«"; }

Chapter Three 13*

 Selectors
● Match relative to element placement:
p a {text-decoration: underline}
○ This will match all <a> tags that are inside of <p>

● * – universal selector (avoid or use with care!):

p * {color: black}
○ This will match all descendants of <p> element
● + selector – used to match "next sibling" which immediately follows:
img + .link {border: 1px solid red}
○ This will match all siblings with class name link that appear immediately
after <img> tag
Chapter Three 14*
 Selectors
● > selector – matches direct child nodes:
p > .error {font-size: 8px}
○ This will match all elements with class error, direct children of
<p> tag
● [ ] – matches tag attributes by regular expression:
img[alt~=logo] {border: none}
○ This will match all <img> tags with alt attribute containing the
word logo
● .class1.class2 (no space) - matches elements with both (all)
classes applied at the same time
Chapter Three 15*
Attribute Selectors
● E[foo^="bar"]
○ An E element whose "foo" attribute value begins exactly with
the string "bar"
○ Example: a[src^="https://"]
● E[foo$="bar"]
○ An E element whose "foo" attribute value ends exactly with
the string "bar"
● E[foo*="bar"]
○ An E element whose "foo" attribute value contains the
substring "bar"
Chapter Three 16
Structural Pseudo-classes
● :root
○ The root of the document
● E:nth-child(n)
○ An E element, the n-th child of its parent
● E:nth-last-child(n)
○ An E element, the n-th child of its parent, counting from the last on
● E:nth-of-type(n)
○ An E element, the n-th sibling of its type
Chapter Three 17
Structural Pseudo-classes(2)
● E:nth-last-of-type(n)
○ An E element, the n-th sibling of its type, counting from the last one
● E:last-child
○ An E element, last child of its parent
● E:first-of-type
○ An E element, first sibling of its type
● E:last-of-type
○ An E element, last sibling of its type

Chapter Three 18
Structural Pseudo-classes(3)
● E:only-child
○ An E element, only child of its parent
● E:only-of-type
○ An E element, only sibling of its parent
● E:empty
○ An E element that has no children (including text nodes)
● More detailed descriptions:
http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-selectors/#structural-pseudos
Chapter Three 19
The UI Element States Pseudo-classes
● E:enabled
○ A user interface element E, which is enabled
● E:disabled
○ A user interface element E, which is disabled
● E:checked
○ A user interface element E which is checked (for instance a
radio-button or checkbox)

Chapter Three 20
Other CSS 3 Selectors
● E:target
○ A user interface element E, which is enabled
● E:not(s)
○ An E element that does not match simple selector
● E~F
○ An F element preceded by an E element

Chapter Three 21
 CSS Specificity
● CSS specificity is used to determine the precedence of CSS style
declarations with the same origin. Selectors are what matters
○ Simple calculation: #id = 100, .class = 10, :pseudo = 10, [attr] = 10,
tag = 1, * = 0
○ Same number of points? Order matters.
○ See also:
■ http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/07/27/css-specificity-
things-you-should-know/
■ https://specificity.keegan.st/
■ http://css.maxdesign.com.au/selectutorial/advanced_conflict.htm

CSS Intro 22*

 Linking HTML and CSS
● HTML (content) and CSS (presentation) can be linked in three ways:
○ Inline: the CSS rules in the style attribute
■ No selectors are needed
○ Embedded: in the <head> in a <style> tag
○ External: CSS rules in separate file (best, simplifies the HTML file)
■ Usually a file with .css extension
■ Linked via <link rel="stylesheet" href=…> tag or @import
directive in embedded CSS block only
Chapter Three 23
Inline Styles: Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Inline Styles</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>Here is some text</p>
<!--Separate multiple styles with a semicolon-->
<p style="font-size: 20pt">Here is some more text</p>
<p style="font-size: 20pt;color: #0000FF">Even more
text</p>
</body>
</html>

Chapter Three 24
 Embedded Styles
● Embedded in the HTML in the <style> tag:
<style>
...
</style>

○ The <style> tag is placed in the <head> section of the document

○ Used for document-specific styles

Chapter Three 25
Embedded Styles: Example embedded-stylesheets.html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Style Sheets</title>
<style>
em {background-color: #8000FF; color: white}
h1 {font-family: Arial, sans-serif}
p {font-size: 18pt}
.blue {color: blue}
</style>
<head>

Chapter Three 26
Embedded Styles: Example embedded-stylesheets.html
<body>
<h1 class="blue">A Heading</h1>
<p>Here is some text. Here is some text. Here
is some text. Here is some text. Here is some
text.</p>
<h1>Another Heading</h1>
<p class="blue">Here is some more text.
Here is some more text.</p>
<p class="blue">Here is some <em>more</em>
text. Here is some more text.</p>
</body>
</html>

Chapter Three 27
 External CSS Styles
● External linking
○ Separate pages can all use a shared style sheet
○ Only modify a single file to change the styles across your entire Web site
(see http://www.csszengarden.com/)
● link tag (with a rel attribute)
○ Specifies a relationship between current document and another
document
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
href="styles.css">

○ link elements should be in the <head>

Chapter Three 28
External CSS Styles styles.css
em {
background-color: #8000FF;
color: white
}
h1 {
font-family: Arial, sans-serif
}
p {
font-size: 18pt
}
.blue {
color: blue
}

CSS Intro 29
 Default Browser Styles
● Browsers have default CSS styles
○ Used when there is no CSS information or any other style
information in the document
● Caution: default styles differ in browsers
○ E.g. margins, paddings and font sizes differ most often and usually
developers reset them
* { margin: 0; padding: 0; }

body, h1, p, ul, li { margin: 0; padding: 0; }

Chapter Three 30
 Fonts

Chapter Five 31
Text-related CSS Properties
● color – specifies the color of the text
● font-size – size of font: xx-small, x-small, small, medium,
large, x-large, xx-large, smaller, larger or numeric value
● font-family – comma separated font names
○ Example: verdana, sans-serif, etc.
○ The browser loads the first one that is available
○ There should always be at least one generic font
● font-weight can be normal, bold, bolder, lighter or a
number in range [100 … 900]

Chapter Five 32
CSS Rules for Fonts

● font-style – styles the font

○ Values: normal, italic, oblique
● text-decoration – decorates the text
○ Values: none, underline, line-through, overline, blink
● text-align – defines the alignment of text or other content
○ Values: left, right, center, justify

Chapter Five 33
 Compact Font Property
● font
○ Shorthand rule for setting multiple font properties at the same
time
font: italic normal bold 12px/16px verdana

is equal to writing this:

font-style: italic;
font-variant: normal;
font-weight: bold;
font-size: 12px;
line-height: 16px;
font-family: verdana;

Chapter Five 34
Font Embeds
● Use @font-face to declare font
● Point to font file on server
● Call font with font-family
● Currently not supported in IE
● Use font embedding instead of images
@font-face {
font-family: Fancy;
src: url('Fancy-Bold.ttf');
}
.my_class {
font-family: Fancy;
font-size: 3.2em;
}

Chapter Five 35
 Text Shadow
● Applies shadow to text
● Syntax: text-shadow:
<horizontal-distance>
<vertical-distance>
<blur-radius> <shadow-color>;
● Do not alter the size of a box

text-shadow: 2px 2px 7px #000000;

Chapter Five 36
 Text Overflow
● Specifies what should happen when text overflows the containing element
● Syntax: text-overflow: <value>;
● Possible values:
○ ellipsis - Display ellipses to represent clipped text

○ clip - Default value, clips text

Chapter Five 37
 Word Wrapping
● Allows long words to be able to be broken and wrap onto the next line
● Syntax: word-wrap: <value>;
● Possible values:
○ normal

○ break-word

Chapter Five 38
 The Box Model

Chapter four 39*

The Box Model 40*
Margin, Padding
● margin and padding define the spacing around the element
○ Numerical value, e.g. 10px or -5px
○ Can be defined for each of the four sides separately - margin-
top, padding-left, …
○ margin is the spacing outside of the border
○ padding is the spacing between the border and the content
○ What are collapsing margins?

Chapter four 41
 Margin, Padding Short Rules
● margin: 5px;
○ Sets all four sides to have margin of 5 pixels;
● margin: 10px 20px;
○ top and bottom to 10px, left and right to 20px;
● margin: 5px 3px 8px;
○ top 5px, left/right 3px, bottom 8px
● margin: 1px 3px 5px 7px;
○ top, right, bottom, left (clockwise from top)
● Same for padding

Chapter four 42
 Width and Height
● width – defines numerical value for the width of element, e.g.
200px
● height – defines numerical value for the height of element, e.g.
100px
○ By default the height of an element is defined by its content
○ Inline elements do not apply height, unless you change their
display style.

Chapter four 43
 CSS 3 box-sizing
● Determine whether you want an element to render its borders
and padding within its specified width, or outside of it.
● Possible values:
○ box-sizing: content-box (default)
box width: 288 pixels + 10 pixels padding and 1 pixel border
on each side = 300 pixels
○ box-sizing: border-box
box width: 300 pixels, including padding and borders

Chapter four 44
 Display & Overflow,
Positioning

Chapter Six 45
 Visibility
● visibility: determines whether the element is visible
○ hidden: element is not rendered, but still occupies place on the
page (similar to opacity: 0)
○ visible: element is rendered normally

Chapter Six 46*

 Display
● display: controls the display of the element and the way it is
rendered and if breaks should be placed before and after the
element
○ none: element is hidden and its dimensions are not used to
calculate the surrounding elements rendering (differs from
visibility: hidden!)
○ inline: no breaks are placed before and after (<span> is an inline
element)
○ block: breaks are placed before AND after the element (<div> is a
block element)
Chapter Six 47
 Display
● display: controls the display of the element and the way it is
rendered and if breaks should be placed before and after the
element
○ inline-block: elements are like inline elements but they can
have a width and a height.

Chapter Six 48
 Overflow
● overflow: defines the behavior of element when content needs
more space than you have specified by the size properties or for
other reasons. Values:
○ visible (default) – content spills out of the element
○ auto - show scrollbars if needed
○ scroll – always show scrollbars
○ hidden – any content that cannot fit is clipped

Chapter Six 49*

 Other CSS Properties
● cursor: specifies the look of the mouse cursor when placed over
the element
○ Values: crosshair, help, pointer, progress, move, hair,
col-resize, row-resize, text, wait, copy, drop, and
others
● white-space – controls the line breaking of text. Value is one of:
○ nowrap – keeps the text on one line
○ normal (default) – browser decides whether to break the lines if
needed
Chapter Six 50*
 Positioning
● position: defines the positioning of the element in the page content
flow
● The value is one of:
○ static (default)
○ relative – relative position according to where the element
would appear with static position
○ absolute – position according to the innermost positioned parent
element
○ fixed – same as absolute, but ignores page scrolling
Chapter Six 51*
 Positioning
● Margin vs. relative positioning
● Fixed and absolutely positioned elements do not influence the
page normal flow and usually stay on top of other elements
○ Their position and size is ignored when calculating the size of
parent element or position of surrounding elements
○ Overlaid according to their z-index
○ Inline fixed or absolutely positioned elements can apply height
like block-level elements

Chapter Six 52*

 Positioning
● top, left, bottom, right: specifies offset of absolute/fixed/relative
positioned element as numerical values
● z-index: specifies the stack level of positioned elements
○ Understanding stacking context
Each positioned element creates a stacking context.
Elements in different stacking contexts are overlapped
according to the stacking order of their containers. For
example, there is no way for #A1 and #A2 (children of #A)
to be placed over #B without increasing the z-index of #A.
○ Good demo: http://www.barelyfitz.com/screencast/html-
training/css/positioning/
Chapter Six 53*
Inline element positioning
● vertical-align: sets the vertical-alignment of an inline
element, according to the line height
○ Values: baseline, sub, super, top, text-top, middle,
bottom, text-bottom or numeric
○ Also used for content of table cells (which apply middle
alignment by default)

Chapter Six 54*

 What is CSS 3?

Chapter Seven 55
What is CSS 3?

Chapter Seven 56
What is CSS 3?
● Cascading Style Sheet level 3 is the most recent iteration of
CSS.
● It is divided into several separate documents called
“modules”.
● CSS 3 has not been approved as a specification, but there are
already a lot of properties that are supported in various
browsers.

● The earliest CSS 3 drafts were published in June 1999.

Chapter Seven 57
 Colors

Chapter Eight 58
 Opacity
● Sets the opacity level for an element
● Syntax: opacity: <value>;
● Value from 0.0 (fully transparent) to 1.0
● The opacity is supported in all major browsers.
● Note: IE8 and earlier supports an alternative, the filter property: filter:
Alpha(opacity=50).

<img src="img.jpg" style= " opacity: 0.4;

filter: alpha(opacity=40)" />

Chapter Eight 59
 Values in the CSS Rules
● Colors are set in RGB format (decimal or hex):
○ Example: #a0a6aa = rgb(160, 166, 170)
○ Predefined color aliases exist: black, blue, etc.
● Numeric values are specified in:
○ Pixels, ems, e.g. 12px , 1.4em
○ Points, inches, centimeters, millimeters
■ E.g. 10pt , 1in, 1cm, 1mm
○ Percentages, e.g. 50%

Chapter Eight 60
 RGBA Colors
● Standard RGB colors with an opacity value for the color (alpha
channel)
● Syntax: rgba(<red>, <green>,
<blue>, <alpha>)
● The range for red, green and blue is between integers 0 and
255
● The range for the alpha channel is between 0.0 and 1.0
● Example: rgba(255, 0, 0, 0.5)

Chapter Eight 61
 HSL Colors
● Hue is a degree on the color wheel
○ 0 (or 360) is red, 120 is green, 240 is blue
● Saturation is a percentage value
○ 100% is the full color
● Lightness is also a percentage
○ 0% is dark (black)
○ 100% is light (white)
○ 50% is the average
Chapter Eight 62
 HSLA Colors
● HSLA allows a fourth value, which sets the Opacity (via the Alpha
channel) of the element.
● As RGBA is to RGB, HSLA is to HSL
● Supported in IE9+, Firefox 3+, Chrome, Safari, and in Opera 10+
● Example:
○ hsla(0, 100%, 50%, 0.5)
○ Result:

Chapter Eight 63
 Backgrounds

Chapter Nine 64
 Backgrounds
● background-image
○ URL of image to be used as background, e.g.:
background-image: url("back.gif");

● background-color
○ Using color and image and the same time
● background-repeat
○ repeat-x, repeat-y, repeat, no-repeat
● background-attachment
○ fixed / scroll
Chapter Nine 65
 Backgrounds
● background-position: specifies vertical and horizontal position of
the background image
○ Vertical position: top, center, bottom
○ Horizontal position: left, center, right
○ Both can be specified in percentage or other numerical values
○ Examples:
background-position: top left;
background-position: -5px 50%;

Chapter Nine 66
Compact Backgrounds Property

● background: shorthand rule for setting background properties at the same

time:
background: #FFF0C0 url("back.gif") no-repeat fixed top;
is equal to writing:
background-color: #FFF0C0;
background-image: url("back.gif");
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-attachment: fixed;
background-position: top;

Chapter Nine 67
 Background-image or <img>?
● Background images allow you to save many image tags from the
HTML
○ Leads to less code
○ More content-oriented approach
● All images that are not part of the page content (and are used
only for "beautification") should be moved to the CSS

Chapter Nine 68*

 Gradient Backgrounds
● Gradients are smooth transitions between two or more specified
colors
● Use of CSS gradients can replace images and reduce download
time
● Create a more flexible layout, and look better while zooming
● Supported in all major browsers via different keywords

Chapter Nine 69
Gradient Backgrounds Example
/* For Safari 5.1+ */
background: -webkit-linear-gradient(blue, yellow);

/* For Opera 11.1+ */

background: -o-linear-gradient(blue, yellow);

/* For Firefox 3.6+ */

background: -moz-linear-gradient(blue, yellow);

/* Standard syntax */
background: linear-gradient(blue, yellow);

Chapter Nine 70
 Multiple backgrounds
● CSS3 allows multiple background images
● Simple comma-separated list of images
● Comma separated list for the other properties

background-image: url(sheep.png), url(grass.png);

Chapter Nine 71
 Borders

Chapter ten 72
 Borders
● border-width: thin, medium, thick or numerical value, e.g.10px
● border-color: color alias or RGB value
● border-style: none, hidden, dotted, dashed, solid, double
● Each property can be defined separately for left, top, bottom and
right
○ border-top-style, border-left-color, …

Chapter ten 73
 Border image
● Defines an image to be used instead of the normal border of an
element
● Split up into a couple of properties
● Example:
○ The border-image property has 3 parts:
border-image: url(border-image.png) 25% repeat;

● More detailed description:

○ https://bitsofco.de/understanding-border-image/
CSS 3 - Chapter Seven 74
 Border radius
● Allows web developers to easily utilize rounder corners in their
design elements
● Widespread browser support
● Syntax:
border-*-*-radius: [<length>|<%>][<length>|<%>]?
● Example:
-moz-border-radius: 15px;
border-radius: 15px;
background-color: #FF00FF;

Chapter ten 75
 Box shadow
● Allows to easily implement multiple drop shadows (outer or
inner) on box elements
● Specifying values for color, size, blur and offset
● Example:
-moz-box-shadow: 10px 10px 5px #888;
-webkit-box-shadow: 10px 10px 5px #888;
box-shadow: 10px 10px 5px #888;

Chapter ten 76
 Animations

Chapter Eleven 77
 Animations
● Works in all webkit browsers
● Example:
@keyframes resize {
0% {...}
50% {...}
100% {...}
}
#box {
animation-name: resize;
animation-duration: 1s;
animation-iteration-count: 4;
animation-direction: alternate; animation-timing-function:
ease-in-out;
}

Chapter Eleven 78*

 Transitions
● Add an effect when changing from one style to another
● Different timing functions:
○ ease, ease-in, ease-out, ease-in-out, linear
● Example:
#id_of_element {
-webkit-transition: all 1s ease-in-out; -moz-transition:
all 1s ease-in-out;
-o-transition: all 1s ease-in-out;
-ms-transition: all 1s ease-in-out; transition: all 1s
ease-in-out;
}

Chapter Eleven 79*

 2D Transformations
● 2D transforms are widely supported
● Skew – skew element
○ transform: skew(35deg);
● Scale – scale element
○ transform: scale(1,0.5);
● Rotate – rotates element
○ transform: rotate(45deg);
● Translate – moves element
○ transform: translate(10px, 20px);

Chapter Eleven 80*

 3D Transformations
● 3D transforms are similar to 2D transforms
● Only work in Safari and Chrome
● X, Y and Z transformation
○ transform: rotateX(180deg);
○ transform: rotateY(180deg);
○ transform: rotateZ(180deg);
○ perspective: 800;
○ perspective-origin: 50% 100px;
○ translate3d, scale3d
Chapter Eleven 81*
 Benefits of using CSS
● More powerful formatting than using presentation tags
● Your pages load faster, because browsers cache the .css files
● Increased accessibility, because rules can be defined according
given media
● Pages are easier to maintain and update

82
 CSS Development Tools
● Chrome Dev Tools
– used to examine and
adjust CSS and HTML

83
CSS Development Tools
● IE Developer Toolbar
– to examine CSS and
HTML (press [F12])

84