Web Development & Design

Foundations with HTML5

8th Edition, Global Edition

CHAPTER 3
KEY CONCEPTS

Copyright © Terry Felke-Morris http://terrymorris.net 1

Copyright © Terry Felke-Morris
 Learning Outcomes
In this chapter, you will learn how to . . .
◦ Describe the evolution of style sheets from print media to the Web
◦ List advantages of using Cascading Style Sheets
◦ Use color on web pages
◦ Create style sheets that configure common color and text properties
◦ Apply inline styles
◦ Use embedded style sheets
◦ Use external style sheets
◦ Configure element, class, id, and contextual selectors
◦ Utilize the “cascade” in CSS
◦ Validate CSS

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 Overview of
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
See what is possible with CSS:
◦ Visit http://www.csszengarden.com

Style Sheets
◦ used for years in Desktop Publishing
◦ apply typographical styles
and spacing to printed media

CSS
◦ provides the functionality of style sheets (and much more) for web
developers
◦ a flexible, cross-platform, standards-based language developed by
the W3C.

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 CSS
Advantages

Greater typography and page layout control

Style is separate from structure
Styles can be stored in a separate document
and associated with the web page
Potentially smaller documents
Easier site maintenance

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 Types of
Cascading Style Sheets

Inline Styles
Embedded Styles
External Styles
Imported Styles

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 — Inline Styles
◦ body section
Cascading
◦ HTML style attribute
◦ apply only to the specific element
Style Sheets
— Embedded Styles
◦ head section
◦ HTML style element
◦ apply to the entire web page document

— External Styles
◦ Separate text file with .css file extension
◦ Associate with a HTML link element in the head section of a web page

◦ Imported Styles
◦ Similar to External Styles
◦ We’ll concentrate on the other three types of styles.

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 CSS Syntax

Style sheets are composed of "Rules" that describe the

styling to be applied.

Each Rule contains a Selector and a Declaration

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 CSS Syntax Sample

Configure a web page to display blue text and yellow background.

body { color: blue;
background-color: yellow; }
This could also be written using hexadecimal color values as
shown below.
body { color: #0000FF;
background-color: #FFFF00; }

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 Common Formatting
CSS Properties
— See Table 3.1 Common CSS Properties, including:
◦ background-color
◦ color
◦ font-family
◦ font-size
◦ font-style
◦ font-weight
◦ line-height
◦ margin
◦ text-align
◦ text-decoration
◦ width

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 Using Color on Web Pages
Computer monitors display color as
intensities of red, green, and blue light
RGB Color
The values of red, green, and blue vary
from 0 to 255.
Hexadecimal numbers (base 16)
represent these color values.

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 Hexadecimal
Color Values
— # indicates a hexadecimal value
— Hex value pairs range from 00 to FF
— Three hex value pairs describe an RGB color
#000000 black #FFFFFF white
#FF0000 red #00FF00 green
#0000FF blue #CCCCCC grey

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 Web Color Palette
— A collection of 216 colors
— Display the most
similar
on the Mac and PC
platforms
— Hex values:
00, 33, 66, 99, CC, FF
— Color Chart
http://webdevfoundations.net/color

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 Making Color Choices

How to choose a color scheme?

◦ Monochromatic
◦ http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/color-blend
◦ Choose from a photograph or other image
◦ http://www.colr.org
◦ Begin with a favorite color
◦ Use one of the sites below to choose other colors
◦ http://colorsontheweb.com/colorwizard.asp
◦ https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel
◦ http://paletton.com

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 Support Web Accessiblity
Verify Sufficient Contrast
When you choose colors for text and background,
sufficient contrast is needed so that the text is easy
to read.
Use one of the following online tools to verify
contrast:
◦ http://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker
◦ http://snook.ca/technical/colour_contrast/colour.html
◦ http://juicystudio.com/services/luminositycontrastratio.php

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 Configuring Color with Inline CSS
Inline CSS
◦ Configured in the body of the web page
◦ Use the style attribute of an HTML tag
◦ Apply only to the specific element

The Style Attribute

◦ Value: one or more style declaration property and value pairs

Example: configure red color text in an <h1> element:

<h1 style="color:#ff0000">Heading text is red</h1>

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 Configuring Color with Inline CSS
(2)

Example 2: configure the red text in the heading

configure a gray background in the heading

Separate style rule declarations with ;

<h1 style="color:#FF0000;background-color:#cccccc">This is
displayed as a red heading with gray background</h1>

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 CSS Embedded
(Internal) Styles
Configured in the head section of a web page.
Use the HTML <style> element
Apply to the entire web page document
Style declarations are contained between the opening
and closing <style> tags
Example: Configure a web page with white text on a black
background
<style>
body { background-color: #000000;
color: #FFFFFF;
}
</style>
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 CSS Embedded Styles
• The body selector sets the global
style rules for the entire page.

• These global rules are

overridden for <h1> and <h2>
elements by the h1 and h2 style
<style> rules.
body { background-color: #E6E6FA;
color: #191970;}
h1 { background-color: #191970;
color: #E6E6FA;}
h2 { background-color: #AEAED4;
color: #191970;}
</style>
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 Checkpoint 3.1
1. List three reasons to use CSS on a web page.

2. When designing a page that uses colors other than the

default colors for text and background, explain why it is
a good reason to configure style rules for both text color
and background color.

3. Describe one advantage to using embedded styles

instead of inline styles.

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 Configuring Text with CSS
CSS properties for configuring text:
◦ font-weight
◦ Configures the boldness of text
◦ font-style
◦ Configures text to an italic style
◦ font-size
◦ Configures the size of the text
◦ font-family
◦ Configures the font typeface of the text

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 The font-size Property
Accessibility Recommendation: Use em or percentage font sizes – these can be
easily enlarged in all browsers by users

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 The font-family Property

Not everyone has the same fonts installed in their computer

Configure a list of fonts and include a generic family name

p { font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; }

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 Embedded Styles
Example

<style>
body { background-color: #E6E6FA;
color: #191970;
font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; }
h1 { background-color: #191970;
color: #E6E6FA;
line-height: 200%;
font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; }
h2 { background-color: #AEAED4;
color: #191970; text-align: center;
font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; }
p {font-size: .90em; text-indent: 3em; }
ul {font-weight: bold; }
</style>

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 More CSS TEXT
Properties
◦ line-height
◦ Configures the height of the line of text
(use the value 200% to appear double-spaced)
◦ text-align
◦ Configures alignment of text within a block display element
◦ text-indent
◦ Configures the indentation of the first line of text
◦ text-decoration
◦ Modifies the appearance of text with an underline, overline, or line-through
◦ text-transform
◦ Configures the capitalization of text
◦ letter-spacing
◦ Configures space between text characters
◦ word-spacing
◦ Configures space between words
◦ text-shadow
◦ Configures a drop shadow on text

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 CSS Selectors
CSS style rules can be
configured for an:
◦HTML element selector
◦class selector
◦id selector
◦descendant selector

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 Using CSS with “class”
class Selector
◦ Apply a CSS <style>
rule to a certain "class" of .new { color: #FF0000;
elements on a web page font-style: italic;
◦ Does not associate the }
style to a specific HTML element </style>
Configure with .classname
◦ code CSS to create a class called “new” with red italic text.
Apply the class:
<p class=“new”>This is text is red and in italics</p>

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 Using CSS with “id”
id Selector
<style>
◦ Apply a CSS #new { color: #FF0000;
rule to ONE element font-size:2em;
on a web page. font-style: italic;
Configure with #idname }
</style>
◦ Code CSS to create an id called “new”
with red, large, italic text.

Apply the id:

<p id=“new”>This is text is red, large, and in italics</p>

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 CSS Descendant Selector
Specify an element within the context of its
container (parent) element.
<style>
AKA contextual selector #content p { color: #00ff00; }
The example configures a </style>
green text color only for
p tags located within an element assigned to the id named
content
Advantage of contextual selectors:
Reduces the number of classes and ids you need to apply in
the HTML

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 span element

Purpose:
◦ configure a specially formatted area displayed in-
line with other elements, such as within a
paragraph.

There is no additional empty space

above or below a span – it is inline
display.

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 span Element Example
Embedded CSS:
<style>
.companyname { font-weight: bold;
font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;
font-size: 1.25em; }
</style>

HTML:
<p>Your needs are important to us at <span
class=“companyname">Acme Web Design</span>.
We will work with you to build your Web site.</p>

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 External Style Sheets - 1

CSS style rules are contained in a text

file separate from the HTML
documents.

The External Style Sheet text file:

◦ extension ".css"
◦ contains only style rules
◦ does not contain any HTML tags

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 External Style Sheets - 2
Multiple web pages can associate with
the same external style sheet file.
site.css
body {background-color:#E6E6FA; index.html
color:#000000;
font-family: Arial, sans-serif; clients.html
font-size:90%; }
h2 { color: #003366; }
nav { font-size: 16px; about.html
font-weight: bold; }

Etc…

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 link Element

A self-contained tag
Placed in the head section
Purpose: associates the external style
sheet file with the web page.
Example:
<link rel="stylesheet" href="color.css">

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 Using an External Style Sheet
External Style Sheet color.css

body { background-color: #0000FF;

color: #FFFFFF;
}

To associate the external style sheet called color.css,

the HTML code placed in the head section is:
<link rel="stylesheet" href="color.css">

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 Checkpoint 3.2
1. Describe a reason to use embedded styles. Explain
where embedded styles are placed on a web page.

2. Describe a reason to use external styles. Explain where

external styles are placed and how web pages indicate
they are using external styles.

3. Write the code to configure a web page to use an

external style sheet called “mystyles.css”.

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 Centering Page Content with CSS

#container { margin-left: auto;

margin-right: auto;
width:80%; }

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 The “Cascade”

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 W3C CSS Validation
http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

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 Summary

This chapter introduced you to Cascading Style Sheet Rules

associated with color and text on web pages.

You configured inline styles, embedded styles, and external styles.

You applied CSS style rues to HTML, class, id, and descendent
selectors.

You are able to submit your CSS to the W3C CSS Validation test.

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