CSI 3140

WWW Structures, Techniques and Standards

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

Motivation
HTML markup can be used to represent

Semantics: h1 means that an element is a top-level heading

Presentation: h1 elements look a certain way

Its advisable to separate semantics from presentation

because:

Its easier to present documents on multiple platforms

(browser, cell phone, spoken, )
Its easier to generate documents with consistent look
Semantic and presentation changes can be made
independently of one another (division of labor)
User control of presentation is facilitated
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Style Sheet Languages

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

Applies to (X)HTML as well as XML documents in

general
Focus of this chapter

Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL)

Often used to transform one XML document to

another form, but can also add style
XSL Transformations covered in later chapter
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CSS Introduction
A styled HTML document

produced by the style sheet style1.css:

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CSS Introduction

link element associates style sheet with doc.

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CSS Introduction

type attribute specifies style language used

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CSS Introduction

href attribute provides style sheet URL

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CSS Introduction

title attribute provides style sheet name

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CSS Introduction

Alternative, user selectable style sheets

can be specified

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CSS Introduction

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CSS Introduction
A styled HTML document

produced by the style sheet style2.css:

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CSS Introduction
Note that alternate, user selectable style is
not widely supported: firefox 3 and IE 8 do,
but IE 6, IE 7 and Chrome dont.

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CSS Introduction
Single document can be displayed on multiple
media platforms by tailoring style sheets:

This document will be printed differently than it

is displayed.
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CSS Syntax
Parts of a style rule (or statement)

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CSS Syntax:
Selector Strings
Single element type:
Multiple element types:
All element types:
Specific elements by id:
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CSS Syntax:
Selector Strings

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CSS Syntax:
Selector Strings
Elements belonging to a style class:
class selector: begins with a period .

Referencing a style class in HTML:

Elements of a certain type and class:

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CSS Syntax:
Selector Strings
Elements belonging to a style class:

Referencing a style class in HTML:

this span belongs to three style classes

Elements of a certain type and class:

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CSS Syntax:
Selector Strings
Elements belonging to a style class:

Referencing a style class in HTML:

Elements of a certain type and class:

this rule applies only to spans belonging to class special

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CSS Syntax:
Selector Strings
Source anchor elements:

pseudo-classes

Element types that are descendents:

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CSS Syntax:
Selector Strings
Source anchor elements:

Element types that are descendants:

rule applies to li element that is

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CSS Syntax:
Selector Strings
Source anchor elements:

Element types that are descendants:

rule applies to li element that is
part of the content of an ol element
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CSS Syntax:
Selector Strings
Source anchor elements:

Element types that are descendants:

rule applies to li element that is
part of the content of an ol element
that is part of the content of a ul element
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CSS Syntax
Style rules covered thus far follow ruleset
syntax
At-rule is a second type of rule

URL relative to style sheet URL

Reads style rules from specified URL

Must appear at beginning of style sheet

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Style Sheets and HTML

Style sheets referenced by link HTML element are
called external style sheets
Style sheets can be embedded directly in HTML
document using style element

Most HTML elements have style attribute (value is

list of style declarations)
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Style Sheets and HTML

Rules of thumb:

Use external style sheets to define site-wide style

Prefer style sheets (either external or embedded)
to style attributes
XML special characters
Must

use references in embedded style sheets and

style attribute
Must not use references in external style sheets
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CSS Rule Cascade

What if more than one style declaration
applies to a property of an element?

The CSS rule cascade determines which

style rules declaration applies
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CSS Rule Cascade

To find the value for an element/property
combination, user agents must apply the
following sorting order:
1- Find all declarations that apply to the
element and property in question, for the
target media type. Declarations apply if the
associated selector matches the element in
question.
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CSS Rule Cascade

2- The primary sort of the declarations is
by weight and origin: for normal
declarations, author style sheets override
user style sheets which override the default
style sheet. For "!important" declarations,
user style sheets override author style sheets
which override the default style sheet. "!
important" declaration override normal
declarations. An imported style sheet has
the same origin as the style sheet that
imported it.

Five origin/weight levels:

1. user/important
2. author/important
3. author/normal
4. user/normal
5. user agent/normal

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CSS Rule Cascade

3- The secondary sort is by specificity of selector: more
specific selectors will override more general ones. Pseudoelements and pseudo-classes are counted as normal elements
and classes, respectively.
Specificity:
1. style attribute
2. rule with selector:
1. ID
2. class/pseudo-class
3. descendant/element type
4. universal
3. HTML attribute
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CSS Rule Cascade

4- Finally, sort by order specified: if two rules have the same
weight, origin and specificity, the latter specified wins. Rules
in imported style sheets are considered to be before any rules
in the style sheet itself.
Conceptually, create one
long style sheet. Later
style rules have higher
priority than earlier rules.

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CSS Inheritance
What if no style declaration applies to a
property of an element?
Generally, the property value is inherited from
the nearest ancestor element that has a value for the
property
If no ancestor has a value (or the property does
not inherit) then CSS defines an initial value that is
used
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CSS Inheritance

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CSS Inheritance
Property values:

Specified: value contained in declaration

Absolute:

value can be determined without reference to

context (e.g., 2cm)
Relative: value depends on context (e.g., larger)

Computed: absolute representation of relative value

(e.g., larger might be 1.2 x parent font size)
Actual: value actually used by browser (e.g.,
computed value might be rounded)
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CSS Inheritance
Most properties inherit computed value

Exception discussed later: line-height

A little thought can usually tell you whether

a property inherits or not

Example: height does not inherit

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CSS Font Properties

A font is a mapping from code points to glyphs
Glyph (visual representation)

character cell
(content area)
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CSS Font Properties

A font is a mapping from code points to glyphs
glyphs do not necessary stay inside cells!

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CSS Font Properties

A font family is a collection of related fonts
(typically differ in size, weight, etc.)
font-family property can accept a list of
families, including generic font families
first choice font
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CSS Font Properties

A font family is a collection of related fonts
(typically differ in size, weight, etc.)
font-family property can accept a list of
families, including generic font families
second choice font
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CSS Font Properties

A font family is a collection of related fonts
(typically differ in size, weight, etc.)
font-family property can accept a list of
families, including generic font families
generic
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CSS Font Properties

generic
fonts are
systemspecific

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CSS Font Properties

Note that most generic font can be easily
set on Firefox and Chrome, but such option
doesnt seem to be available on IE 7 and 8. IE
will still default to something although maybe
not what you had hoped for!

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CSS Font Properties

Many properties, such as font-size, have a value that
is a CSS length
All CSS length values except 0 need units

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CSS Font Properties

Computed value
of font-size
property

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CSS Font Properties

Reference font defines em and ex units

Normally, reference font is the font of the

element being styled
Exception: Using em/ex to specify value for
font-size

parent elements font is

reference font
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CSS Font Properties

Other ways to specify value for
font-size:

Percentage (of parent font-size)

Absolute size keyword: xx-small, x-small,

small, medium (initial value), large,
x-large, xx-large
User

agent specific; should differ by ~ 20%

Relative size keyword: smaller, larger

Relative

to parent elements font

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CSS Font Properties

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CSS Font Properties

Text is rendered using line boxes

Height of line box given by line-height

Initial value: normal (i.e., cell height; relationship with

em height is font-specific)
Other values (following are equivalent):

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CSS Font Properties

When line-height is greater than cell height:

Inheritance of line-height:

Specified value if normal or unit-less number

Computed value otherwise
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CSS Font Properties

font shortcut property:

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CSS Font Properties

font shortcut property:

Initial values used if no value specified in font

property list (that is, potentially reset)

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CSS Font Properties

font shortcut property:

specifying line-height (here, twice cell height)

any order

size and family required,

order-dependent
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CSS Text Formatting

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CSS Text Color

Font color specified by color property
Two primary ways of specifying colors:

Color name: black, gray, silver, white, red, lime,

blue, yellow, aqua, fuchsia, maroon, green, navy,
olive, teal, purple, full list at
http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG11/types.html#Colo
rKeywords
red/green/blue (RGB) values
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CSS Text Color

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CSS Text Color

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CSS Box Model

Every rendered element occupies a box:
(or outer edge)

(or inner edge)

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CSS Box Model

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CSS Box Model

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CSS Box Model

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CSS Box Model

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CSS Box Model

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CSS Box Model

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CSS Box Model

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CSS Box Model

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CSS Box Model

If multiple declarations apply to a property,
the last declaration overrides earlier
specifications
Left border is 30px wide,
inset style, and red

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Backgrounds
background-color

Specifies background color for content, padding,

and border areas
Margin area is always transparent
Not inherited; initial value transparent

background-image

Specifies (using url() function) image that will be

tiled over an element
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Backgrounds
<body style="background-image:url('CucumberFlowerPot.png')">

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Normal Flow Layout

In normal flow processing, each displayed
element has a corresponding box

html element box is called initial containing block and

corresponds to entire document
Boxes of child elements are contained in boxes of parent
Sibling block elements are laid out one on top of the
other
Sibling inline elements are one after the other
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Normal Flow Layout

(body)
(html)

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Normal Flow Layout

Block
elements
only

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Normal Flow Layout

html
body
div d1
div d2
div d3
div d4
Top edges of
block boxes are
in document order

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Normal Flow Layout

What is a block element?

Element with value block specified for its

display property
User agent style sheet (not CSS) specifies default
values; typical block elements include html, body,
p, pre, div, form, ol, ul, dl, hr, h1 through h6
Most other elements except li and table-related have
inline specified for display
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Normal Flow Layout

When blocks stack, adjacent margins are
collapsed to the size of the larger margin

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Normal Flow Layout

Initial value of width property is auto, which
for block boxes means to make the content area as
wide as possible within margin/padding constraints:
Width of block boxes
increases as browser
client area is widened

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Normal Flow Layout

Can also specify CSS length or percentage
(of parents content width) for width
property
By default, width of right margin is
adjusted to accommodate a change to
width

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Normal Flow Layout

Can also specify CSS length or percentage
(of parents content width) for width
property

Centering can be achieved by setting

both margins to auto
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Normal Flow Layout

Boxes corresponding to character cells and
inline elements are laid out side by side in line
boxes that are stacked one on top of the other

Heights
based on
content
Character cells aligned by baseline
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Normal Flow Layout

Padding/borders/margins affect width but
not height of inline boxes

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Normal Flow Layout

Specify value for vertical-align to position
an inline element within line box:

initial
value of
verticalalign

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Beyond Normal Flow

CSS allows for boxes to be positioned
outside the normal flow:

Relative positioning

spans shifted backwards relative to normal flow

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Beyond Normal Flow

CSS allows for boxes to be positioned
outside the normal flow:

Float positioning

span taken out of normal

flow and floated to the
left of its line box

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Beyond Normal Flow

CSS allows for boxes to be positioned
outside the normal flow:

Absolute positioning

spans removed from

normal flow and
positioned relative
to another box
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Beyond Normal Flow

Properties used to specify positioning:

position: static (initial value), relative, or

absolute
is positioned if this property not static
Properties left, right, top, bottom apply to positioned
elements
Element

Primary values are auto (initial value) or CSS length

float: none, left, or right

Applies

to elements with static and relative positioning

only
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Beyond Normal Flow

Relative positioning

Specifying positive value for right property of

relatively positioned box moves it to left

<span style="background-color:red">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
</span><span class="right">Red</span>
span
containing
text moves
left
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Beyond Normal Flow

Relative positioning

Specifying negative value for left property

also moves box to left

<span style="background-color:red">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
</span><span class="right">Red</span>
same
effect as
before
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Beyond Normal Flow

Float positioning

Specify value for float property

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Beyond Normal Flow

Float positioning

Specify value for float property

Floated element becomes a CSS block

element (e.g., can set height and width)
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Beyond Normal Flow

Absolute positioning

Specify location for corner of box relative to

positioned containing block
p elements are positioned (but dont move!)

margin area
padding area
containing
block

This second paragraph has a

note.
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Beyond Normal Flow

Absolute positioning

Specify location for edges of box relative to

positioned containing block

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Beyond Normal Flow

Absolute positioning
10em

padding top
edge

padding left
edge

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Beyond Normal Flow

Absolute positioning

8em

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Beyond Normal Flow

Absolutely positioned box does not affect
positioning of other boxes!

Second absolutely
positioned box
obscures first

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CSS Position-Related Properties

z-index: drawing order for overlaid
boxes (largest number drawn last)

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CSS Position-Related Properties

display: value none means that element
and its descendants are not rendered and do
not affect normal flow
visibility: value hidden (initial
value is visible) means that element and its
descendants are not rendered but still do affect
normal flow
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