Styles Sheets

Contents

Referencing Style Sheet

Linking to External Sheet <link rel=STYLESHEET type="text/css" href=url>
Importing @import url(url);
Embedded <head>
<style type="text/css">
H1 {color:red};
H2 {color: blue};
</style>
Inline <p style="font-family:helvetica">The text</p>

Note:  style sheets use C style comments.  Lines like "<!-- hide from older browsers" and "// -->" can't be used.

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Grouping Styles

H1, H2, H3 {font-family:helvetica,arial,san-sarif}

H1 {
 background-color: blue;
 font-style: italic
}

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Referencing Styles

Example Resulting page
<html>
<style type="text/css">
P.marked {color: red}
SPAN.highlight {color: blue}
#001 {text-transform: uppercase}
</style>
<head>
<p class=marked>Red doesn't work in IE 5.5 or Netscape 4.73. <span class=highlight>Blue text works in both IE 5.5 and Netscape 4.73.</span></p>
<p id=001>Upper case text works in IE 5.5 but not Netscape 4.73.</p>
Red doesn't work in IE 5.5 or Netscape 4.73. Blue text works in both IE 5.5 and Netscape 4.73.
Upper case text works in IE 5.5 but not Netscape 4.73
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Backgrounds

Attribute Format Notes & Examples
image selector {background-image: url(some_url.gif)}
selector {background-image: none}
BODY {background-image: url(paper.gif)}
P {background-image: none}
repeat selector {background-repeat: repeat-x}
selector {background-repeat: repeat-y}
selector {background-repeat: no-repeat}
 
position selector {background-position: key1 key2} Valid key1 values are: top, middle, bottom & #%
Valid key2 values are: left, center. right & #%
attachment selector {background-attachement: fixed} Fixes the background in place instead of letting it scroll with the page.
combined body {background: url(some_url) 50% 50% no-repeatfixedwhite}
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Boxes

Each element is contained in a box.  Changing the box for images is useful, but usually not for text.

Borders

They are specified in the order top, right, bottom & left.  Following is the list of attributes:
dashed Dashed lines
dotted Lines made of dots
double Double line with space between the lines
groove A 3D etched groove
inset A 3D effect looking like it's pressed into the page
none No border (default)
outset A 3D effect looking like it's coming out of the page
ridge Like groove except it sticks out of the page instead of into the page
solid An unbroken line

IMG { border-width: 10px thin medium thick }
IMG { border-left-width: 10px thin medium thick }
IMG { border-style: solid ridge }
IMG { border-color: blue>
IMG { border-top: thick blue ridge }
IMG { border: thin dotted green }

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Floating & Clearing

Each box can float inside of its parent box.   The clear parameter stops the floating around the element.
 
Parameter     Values     Example
float left, right, none IMG { float: left }
clear left, right, both H1 {clear: both }

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Height & Width

Sets the size of the box.  The default size is "auto"; the size the box needs to be.
IMG {
  width: 200px;
  height: 100px;
}
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Margins

Setting all margins to the same value
IMG { margin: 0.5in }

Setting each margin individually.  They are specified in the order top, right, bottom & left.
IMG { margin: 1.5% 0.25in 1% 0.8cm }

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Padding

Behaves the same as Margins.

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Fonts

font-family

A list of fonts can be given.  The browser will use the first font it has.

H1 {font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif}
BODY {font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", sari}
 
Family Example Font
serif Times, Times New Roman
sans-serif Helvetica, Arial
monospace Courier
cursive Zapf-Chauncery
fantasy Western

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font-size

Absolute

xx-small <= x-small <= small <= medium <= large <= x-large <= xx-large

P {font-size: medium}

Relative

The valid values are larger and smaller.
 
Note: Scale factor used by Netscape 4 for larger & smaller 1.5
Scale factor used by IE 5 for larger & smaller 1.35

Percentage

H1 {font-size: 150%}

Length

Valid units are pt, px, em & ex.  For em & ex the values are calculated based on the size of the parent element

H1 {font-size: 12pt}

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font-style

Style Effect
Normal Displays normal style
Oblique Displays oblique style
Italic Displays italic style if available otherwise displays oblique

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font-variant

H1 {font-variant: small-caps }

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font-weight

The font weight can range from 100 to 900.  Normal is 400.  Bold is 700.

Keywords : lighter, bolder, normal and bold.

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letter-spacing

The amount of space between letters.  The spec allows the browser to render any letter spacing as normal.

P {letter-spacing: 1pt}

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text-align

Align is left, right or justify.  Unfortunately, the spec says justify can be treated like left or right depending on which way the language goes.  Both Netscape 4 & IE 5 treat it like left.

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text-decoration

Valid values are underline, overline, line-though & blink.  The spec says that browsers can ignore blink.

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text-indent

Valid units are pt, px, em & ex.

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text-transform

The valid values are uppercase, lowercase & capitalize.

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vertical-align

Alignment Affect
baseline Aligns the baseline to the baseline of the parent element
bottom Aligns the bottom to the lowest element on the line.
middle Aligns the middle to the middle of the parent element.
sub Subscript
super Superscript
text-bottom Aligns the top with the parent's bottom
text-top Aligns the top with the parent's top
top Aligns the top with the top of the tallest element on the line.

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word-spacing

The amount of space between words.  This isn't supported by Netscape 4 or IE 5.

P {word-spacing: 2em}

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Last Updated: $Date: 2004/05/22 16:41:18 $ GMT ($Revision: 1.9 $)