Inline CSS

While building a website, it is important for you to take care of its look. That is the place where CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) comes in. CSS helps in controlling the design and the layout of a webpage. There are multiple ways to apply CSS to your webpage. One of these methods is inline CSS, which is used to add style directly to an HTML element. This method is also called HTML inline CSS or CSS inline style. In this blog, you will learn everything about this type of CSS with examples and best practices of using CSS inline style.

Table of Contents:

• What is CSS?
• What is Inline CSS in HTML?
• Use Cases for Inline CSS
• Examples of HTML Inline CSS
  • Example 1: Paragraph with Font Size and Background Color
  • Example 2: Making Text Centered
  • Example 3: Style Button
• Advantages of Using Inline CSS
• Disadvantages of Using Inline CSS
• Inline CSS vs Internal CSS vs External CSS
• Best Practices of Using Inline CSS
• Conclusion

What is CSS?

CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. It refers to the language that is used to style and design the HTML elements. In simple words, CSS is used to enhance the user interface for users. There are three ways to apply CSS to an HTML document:

• Inline CSS: In this, CSS properties are written inside the HTML elements.
• Internal CSS: In internal CSS, styles are written inside a <style> Tag.
• External CSS: In external CSS, styles are written inside a separate .css file that is further linked with the HTML document.

We have discussed the difference between the three in detail in later sections.

What is Inline CSS in HTML?

HTML inline CSS is defined as the way to add CSS styles directly to an HTML element by using the style attribute. This method will help you to apply a specific style to one element at a time.

Syntax:

<p style="color: blue; font-size: 20px;">Hello From Intellipaat!</p>

It is used because of its simple syntax, which means you don’t need to create a separate CSS file to apply CSS styles to a few HTML elements.

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Use Cases for Inline CSS

Inline CSS is used for adding styles directly to the HTML elements. Here are some important use cases:

• It is used to add quick styles to the HTML elements.
• Inline style is commonly used in email templates because many email clients, like Gmail or Outlook, don’t support external CSS files.
• Adding an inline helps developers and users to test and debug code easily.

Examples of HTML Inline CSS

Here are some examples of inline CSS that give you a good understanding of how to apply this styling on the HTML elements:

Example 1: Paragraph with Font Size and Background Color

Output:

Explanation: This is the basic example of inline in which the style attribute is applied to the <p> tag and the background color is set to lime with font size 50px.

Example 2: Making Text Centered

Output:

Explanation: This example uses HTML inline CSS on the <div> tag to center all the content that is written inside the <div> tag. The font family is set to monospace.

Example 3: Style Button

Output:

Explanation: In this example, you’re using inline CSS to apply styling to the HTML buttons. It has a blue background color with white text and no border.

Advantages of Using Inline CSS

Here are some advantages of using inline CSS, which has some advantages over other methods:

• You can add it directly to the HTML elements.
• It is helpful for developers because it helps them to test and debug code easily.
• It has higher specificity, which means the inline style has more priority than internal and external CSS.
• If you’re using it, then you don’t have to create separate CSS files for writing CSS code. This can make your webpage faster by reducing the number of HTTP requests.

Disadvantages of Using Inline CSS

Inline CSS can be helpful in applying quick styling, but at the same time, it comes with some disadvantages. Here are some disadvantages of using this CSS type:

• Using inline styling on multiple elements can make your code difficult to understand.
• Using inline styles on every element makes your code hard to manage.
• If you’re using it to apply styling, then you cannot reuse the same styling again on any other HTML elements.
• It is a good practice to keep HTML and CSS in separate files, but CSS inline style mixes both in one place.

Best Practices of Using Inline CSS

Here are some of the best practices that you need to follow while styling HTML elements by using inline CSS:

• Use it only when you need to add styling to a few HTML elements.
• Avoid using multiple CSS properties when HTML inline styling is used.
• Don’t use it to style various HTML elements because it can make your code difficult to understand for other developers and users.
• Don’t use inline for creating a responsive design on the website.

Inline CSS vs Internal CSS vs External CSS

Conclusion

Inline CSS is useful when you want to style a few HTML elements. It is a simple way to apply styles to the HTML elements. HTML inline CSS is especially useful in styling email templates or testing styles. Using inline in styling elements can be helpful for short and quick development, but for large-scale projects, it is better to use external CSS.

To learn more about Cascading Style Sheet (CSS), check out this Web Development course and also explore CSS Interview Questions prepared by industry experts.

Inline CSS – FAQs