The CSS Blog

Cascading Style Sheets is a style sheet language that describes the presentation of a webpage. If HTML is the skeleton of a webpage, then CSS is the meat on the bones. Whereas HTML strictly pertains to webpage markup, CSS deals with colors, aesthetics, and visual layout. It hooks onto specific elements of an HTML page and formats them using any number of style options.

However, jumping into CSS isn't always straightforward. As it often goes in web development, formatting visual styles on a website requires an explicit level of detail and a precise command of the language. Remember that creating web applications isn't a drag-and-drop process; colors, aesthetics, fonts, and visual layouts all need to be coded in order for every browser to consistently render the page correctly.

CSS code references specific HTML elements and then applies changes to how they're formatted. The format options are called properties in CSS, and they can be modified in various specific ways. Don't expect to memorize all of the formatting options available through CSS. For many of your early weeks and months as a developer, you'll need to continually reference websites to find the exact syntax.

Believe it or not, you can build complex web layouts through simple HTML and CSS alone!