WEB TECHNOLOGIES

A COMPUTER SCIENCE PERSPECTIVE

JEFFREY C. JACKSON

Chapter 3
Style Sheets:
CSS

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 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
• It’s advisable to separate semantics from
presentation because:
– It’s easier to present documents on multiple platforms
(browser, cell phone, spoken, …)
– It’s 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

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 CSS Introduction

Alternative, user selectable style sheets

can be specified

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 CSS Introduction
• A styled HTML document

produced by the style sheet style2.css:

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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
• Single element type:
type selector

• Multiple element types:

• All element types:

• Specific elements by id:

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 CSS Syntax:
Selector Strings
• Single element type:

• Multiple element types:

• All element types:

universal selector
• Specific elements by id:

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 CSS Syntax:
Selector Strings
• Single element type:

• Multiple element types:

• All element types:

• Specific elements by id:

ID selector
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 CSS Syntax:
Selector Strings

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 CSS Syntax:
Selector Strings
• Elements belonging to a style class:
class selector
– 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 span’s 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 rule’s declaration applies

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 CSS Rule Cascade

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 CSS Rule Cascade

Select appropriate style sheets based

on user selection and media type.

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 CSS Rule Cascade

Treat HTML attributes such

as width and height of img as
if defined by style rule instead.

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 CSS Rule Cascade

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
• User can define a style sheet
– Explicitly (easy in IE)
– Implicitly (preferences)
• User/important highest priority in CSS2 to
accommodate users with special needs
– Rules made important by adding “!important”:

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 CSS Rule Cascade

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

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

character cell
(content area)

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 CSS Font Properties
• A font is a mapping from code points to
glyphs glyphs do not necessarily 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
system-
specific

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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

em height: Computed value

of font-size property. Cell
height usually 10-20% greater.

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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 element’s 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 element’s 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:

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 CSS Font Properties
• font shortcut property:

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 CSS Font Properties
• font shortcut property:

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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

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 CSS Font Properties
• font shortcut property:

specifying line-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 parent’s 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 parent’s 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
vertical-
align

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 Beyond Normal Flow
• CSS allows for boxes to be positioned
outside the normal flow:
– Relative positioning

span’s shifted backwards relative to normal flow

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 Beyond Normal Flow
• CSS allows for boxes to be positioned
outside the normal flow:
– Relative positioning

other span’s are not affected

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 Beyond Normal Flow
• CSS allows for boxes to be positioned
outside the normal flow:
– Relative positioning

<span style="background-color:red">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
</span><span class="right">Red</span>
<span style="background-color:yellow">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
</span><span class="right">Yellow</span>
<span style="background-color:lime">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
</span><span class="right">Green</span>

style rules that move span’s

away from normal-flow right edge

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 Beyond Normal Flow
• CSS allows for boxes to be positioned
outside the normal flow:
– Float positioning
style rule that “floats” left

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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

style rule that moves span relative to

upper left corner of containing
p element’s box

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 Beyond Normal Flow
• CSS allows for boxes to be positioned
outside the normal flow:
– Absolute positioning

span’s 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
• Element is positioned if this property not static
• Properties left, right, top, bottom apply to
positioned elements
– 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 don’t move!)

margin area
padding area
containing This second paragraph has a
block 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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