In today’s world, building a website is important to represent your business. To make a website user-friendly and attractive, you need CSS. Cascading Style Sheet, or CSS, is the styling language used to style web pages. It controls how the HTML elements like headings, texts, videos, and images appear on the website. There are various ways to apply CSS to the website. In this blog, you will learn everything about CSS and the different ways to apply CSS in a website with real-world examples.
Table of Contents:
What is CSS?
CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. It is defined as a language that is used to style and design web pages. It tells the browser about how HTML elements should be displayed on the website. Thus, CSS is used to control the appearance of the website, like fonts, text size, colors, and spacing.
Why is CSS important in Web Development?
CSS plays an important role in website development because it makes websites user-friendly. Without CSS, all web pages look simple, just like the plain text on a white background. Here are the reasons why CSS is important:
- You can create beautiful designs by using CSS. It allows you to choose fonts, colors, spacing, and borders of the HTML elements.
- CSS keeps the design separate from the content. HTML helps in creating the content structure, while CSS helps in styling that content.
- It helps in creating a responsive website that will perfectly display on all screens, like laptops, mobiles, and desktops.
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Types of Cascading Style Sheets
Using CSS makes your website user-friendly and beautiful. There are three major ways to apply CSS to websites – Inline, Internal, and External CSS. Let’s discuss each type one by one:
1. Inline CSS
Inline CSS is one of the basic ways to apply CSS to HTML elements. It is used to apply CSS styles directly to the HTML tags by using the “style” attribute. The style attribute is the global attribute that can be used with all HTML tags.
Example: Using Inline Style to Apply CSS
Output
Explanation: In this example, Inline CSS is used to add styling to the <h1> tag. You set the body background color to purple, text size of <h1> to 100px, and color to orange. The text-align: center; is used to make the text centered.
Advantages of Using Inline CSS
Here are the advantages of using inline CSS in the project:
- It is very easy to use and can be quickly used in projects to make small changes.
- Inline CSS is useful when you want to make a small change.
- There is no need to create a separate CSS file to write CSS code.
Disadvantages of Using Inline CSS
Here are some disadvantages of using inline CSS in the project:
- Not reusable means you have to write styles again and again for separate HTML elements.
- It makes your code hard to read for other developers.
- Inline CSS is not recommended for use in large-scale projects.
2. Internal CSS
Internal CSS is another way to add styling to the website. Internal CSS uses the <style> tag, placed under the <head> section, and all the CSS properties are written under the <style> tag.
Example: Using Internal Style to Apply CSS
Output:
Explanation: In this example, you are using the Internal CSS to add styling to HTML elements. The font-size of <h1> is set to 40px with navy blue color. The text-align: center is used to center the text.
Advantages of Using Internal CSS
Here are some important advantages of using Internal CSS in projects:
- You can put all your styles in one place, inside the HTML file.
- It can override the external CSS styles, if needed.
Disadvantages of Using Internal CSS
Here are some disadvantages of using Internal CSS in projects:
- The styles that you write only work for that single HTML page.
- Internal CSS slows down the loading speed of the page.
- It is not suitable for large-scale web development projects.
3. External CSS
It is another type of CSS that is used in large-scale projects. External CSS is written in a separate file, which is saved with a .css extension, and linked to the HTML file by using the <link> tag in the <head> section.
Example: Use External Style to Apply CSS
//index.html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>External CSS</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css">
</head>
<body>
<h1>Learn From Intellipaat!</h1>
</body>
</html>
//style.css
body{
background-color: lightcoral;
}
h1{
font-size: 50px;
text-align: center;
}
Output:
Explanation: In this example, you are using external CSS to style the <body> and <h1> tags. The body background is changed to lightcoral, and the <h1> text size is changed to 50px.
Advantages of Using External CSS
- It is good to use in industrial website development projects.
- It keeps your HTML file clean and allows users to read it easily.
- It speeds up the loading time of the website.
Disadvantages of Using External CSS
- It requires one extra HTTP request to load the CSS file.
- Styles won’t be applied if you miss the <link> tag or apply it wrongly.
Inline Vs Internal Vs External CSS
| Parameter | Inline CSS | Internal CSS | External CSS |
|---|
| Location | You can place the Inline CSS code directly in the HTML tags by using the “style” attribute. | You can place the CSS code inside the <style> tag. | In external CSS, a separate file is created with a .css extension, and all the code is written inside that file. |
| Scope | It applies only to the specific HTML element. | It applies to the whole HTML document. Thus, it affects all the elements inside the document. | Applies to the entire HTML document, thus impacting all linked elements across multiple HTML pages. |
| Code Reusability | It is not reusable. You have to write the same style again if you want to apply to any other tag. | It is reusable within the same HTML document. | It is highly reusable. You can apply the same CSS rules again and again on multiple tags. |
| Readability | It becomes difficult to read the CSS properties. | Improves the readability as compared to inline CSS. | It offers clear readability because both HTML and CSS are written separately. |
| Loading Speed | There is no impact on the loading speed. | The slightly slows down the loading speed of the webpage. | It is used in building industrial web development projects because it loads the pages faster. |
| Flexibility | It is less flexible because you find it difficult to apply complex CSS. | It offers some more flexibility as compared to inline CSS. | It offers high flexibility. |
Which CSS Type is Best for Multi-Page Websites?
When you are building a website like a blog or business site, which contains more than one page, the best option is to use External CSS because External CSS allows developers to write all their styling rules in one separate .css file, and that file is linked to the desired HTML pages. This enhances the reusability of your CSS code. Here are the other reasons why external CSS is best for multipage websites:
- External CSS enhances code reusability, which means that you only need to write styles once.
- Changes that you made in the CSS file are updated on all pages.
- External CSS keeps your HTML files clean and easy to manage.
- It helps your website load faster because the browser can cache the CSS file.
- It is recommended to use it in large-scale web development projects.
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Conclusion
Understanding the different types of CSS is important for developers to build clean and organized websites. All Inline CSS, Internal CSS, and External CSS have their own purpose and are used in different contexts. If you are working on small projects or testing any CSS property, inline and internal CSS is enough while for large projects, it is good to use external CSS. Using the right type of CSS can make your development process faster.
To learn more about CSS, check out this Web Development course and also explore CSS Interview Questions prepared by industry experts.
Types of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) – FAQs
Q1. What is CSS?
CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. It is used to style the HTML elements like texts, images, and headings on the webpage.
Q2. What are the different types of CSS?
There are multiple ways to apply CSS on the website. You can use inline, internal, and external CSS to style your webpage elements.
Q3. Which type of CSS is better?
External CSS is better for most projects.
Q4. What are selectors in CSS?
CSS selectors are used to choose HTML elements that you want to style.
Q5. Which CSS is fastest?
External CSS is faster than all because the browser saves the file and uses it on other pages.