CSS; Bringing Order to Chaos
Not so long ago, font tags (which are evil) provided
a web designer’s only means of formatting an HTML
document’s text for presentation within web browsers
such as Microsoft Internet Explorer™, Opera™ or
Mozilla Firefox.
The trouble with font tags was that they
were not only notoriously unreliable for presenting any
given piece of information in the way initially intended
by its author; they also bloated file sizes to almost
insupportable proportions.
In fact, even the text size setting of a browser could
make a page’s content
overlap or become unreadable in some other shape or form.
However, there’s a new sheriff in town; CSS (Cascading
Style Sheets).
Although CSS was originally conceived in 1994 and has
been a W3C recommendation since 1998, it has only gained
any real degree of popularity during the past few years
(since about 2003, if you happen to be reading this at
some point in the future).
The notion behind CSS is to take the formatting work
away from an HTML document and place it in a central file
which controls the layout and appearance of an entire
web site, although this concept has since grown well beyond
its original intent (you may wish to look out for future
articles on CSS controlled ‘no table’ design’).
In this way, content can be presented in a uniform manner,
regardless of browser platform.
One fortunate side-effect of this approach is the dramatic
reduction in the physical size of HTML documents.
Whereas before, font tags (which are evil) were scattered
throughout HTML code substantially increasing file sizes
of individual web pages and generally making a nuisance
of themselves, the application of CSS figuratively turned
HTML from John Candy (anyone here old enough to remember
him?) into Arnold Schwarzenegger; a lean, mean hombre
who would think nothing of going into the Middle East
and kicking some butt.
It is actually very difficult to overemphasise the need
for CSS controlled web design, given the many obvious
advantages of this particular technique.
Aside from lower file sizes, infinitely more search engine
spider friendly code and uniform presentation to visitors,
there is also the substantial lowering of the designer’s
workload, since he or she no longer needs to manually
define each individual snippet of content to get it looking ‘just
so’, but instead is able to rely on the style sheet’s
properties to control a page’s appearance from without.
If you have not yet begun to use CSS in your day to day
web design activities, it is high time you inform yourself
about this fantastic design tool.
You can start learning or find out more at the W3School
CSS Tutorial.
CSS; Cascading Style Sheets are an invaluable aid to
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