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CSS - Cascading Style Sheets
W3C Recommendations, Working Drafts, and Tutorials
This section is filled with links to W3C's Recommendations, Working Drafts, W3C's tutorials on cascading style sheets (CSS), and links to their helpful charts and indexes.
It's important to note that not all browsers, including the latest browsers, support all of W3C's CSS Recommendations or interpret the Recommendations in the same ways. Some browsers will ignore what isn't supported, some will do goofy things, and then some. The good news is that browser support does continue to improve, and the forseeable future looks even more promising, too.
For more on browser support, browser bugs, and related topics see the CSS category's sections, Solutions to CSS Bugs and Cross-Browser, Cross-Platform CSS Issues, Web Sites or Web Site Sections Devoted to CSS, and CSS Discussion Lists, and Newsgroups.
IE7 CSS Hacks, IE8 CSS Bugs, Bug Fixes, Solutions: Wondering what to expect with CSS and Internet Explorer 8? Want some information about conditional comments? Looking for IE7 CSS hacks? Going nuts with a browser problem with your CSS? Check out Solutions to CSS Browser Bugs, CSS Bug Fixes, and Cross-Browser, Cross-Platform CSS Issues.
On this page:
- W3C General CSS Tips
- W3C CSS1 Recommendations
- W3C CSS2 Recommendations
- W3C CSS 2.1 Recommendations
- W3C CSS3 Recommendations
- W3C CSS and Accessibility
- W3C CSS and XML
- W3C CSS Mobile
Also within CSS - Cascading Style Sheets:
- CSS - Cascading Style Sheets Home
- CSS Tutorials, Articles (6 pages)
- Solutions to CSS-Related Browser Bugs, CSS Bug Fixes, Cross-Browser, Cross-Platform CSS Issues (1 page)
- CSS Sites, Resources, and Books (1 page)
- CSS Templates (1 page)
- CSS Tools - Editors, Reference Charts, Validators, and More (1 page)
- CSS Discussion Lists, Newsgroups (1 page)
W3C General CSS Information, Tips
- Cascading Style Sheets
Main page for the style sheets section at W3C. Index of contents for that section, also has what's new with new programs, software, news about style sheets. - W3C CSS Validation Service
Check your style sheets code either at the site, or download it to your own computer. Fabulous service (Free!). - Web Style Sheets
from the W3C. Questions and Answers, resources to a broad range of information around style sheets.
W3C CSS1 Recommendations
CSS1 Recommendations were first released December, 1996. Web standards, including CSS Recommendations, were not well supported by browser companies at that point. Happily that has changed substantially, with the major browsers supporting most or all of CSS1 and many CSS2 features.
- W3C CSS1 Recommendations
Main page for W3C's CSS1 recommendations. All basic concepts, index, terminology, sample style sheet, definitions, more.
W3C CSS2 Recommendations
CSS Level 2 became a W3C Recommendation early 1998, building on CSS1. By early 2002, newer browsers supported Web standards much better than their predecessors, supporting many CSS2 features.
- W3C CSS2 Recommendations
Main page for W3C's CSS2 recommendations. All basic concepts, index, terminology, sample style sheet, definitions, more.
- CSS2 Fonts
W3C's CSS2 Fonts specifications coveringfontfamilies, styling fonts, shorthandfontproperty, genericfontfamilies, and much more. - CSS2 Descriptor Index
Helpful chart and index of descriptor names, possible values, links to W3C information about each one. - CSS2 Index
Want to look up a specific CSS2 property, value, descriptor, pseudo-class, element attribute, etc. and get the definitive answers directly from the W3C? This resource provides an index with links to these. - CSS2 Property Index
Helpful chart and index of CSS2 property names, possible values, initial values, whether or not it's inherited, media group, and links to information about each. - CSS2 - Tables
W3C's guidelines and information about working with tables with CSS2. - CSS2 Paged Media
Especially helpful for printing or transparencies, these W3C CSS2 recommendations include page sizes, page breaks, margins, portrait or landscape, crop marks, widows and orphans, much more. - The dynamic pseudo-classes:
:hover,:active, and:focus
The order in which you place thelink,visited, andhoverpseudo-classes makes a difference in whether they work correctly or not. This is a link to information about this and more details about the above pseudo-classes. - Visual Formatting Model
W3C's guidelines and information about working with block-level elements, boxes, positioning schemes, layered presentations, text direction, more. - Visual Formatting Model Details
In detail this time, W3C's guidelines and information about working with block-level elements, boxes, absolute position, relative position, floating, inline elements, minimum and maximum height, leading, more. [Credits: Referred via css-discuss]
Books on CSS
Recommended by WebsiteTips.com
See more CSS books, read reviews, why we recommend each book
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W3C CSS2.1 Recommendations
- Cascading Style Sheets 2.1
CSS 2.1 corrects some errors in CSS2 and is intended to replace CSS2. [Cascading Style Sheets, level 2 revision 1, W3C Working Draft 13 June 2005.] - CSS 2.1: Assigning property values, Cascading, and Inheritance
Specified, computed, and actual values; inherit value;@importrule; the cascade, including cascade order,!importantrule, calculating a selector's specificity, more. - CSS 2.1 Full Property Table
Helpful chart and index of CSS 2.1 property names, possible values, initial values, whether or not it's inherited, media group, and links to information about each. - CSS 2.1 Index
Want to look up a specific CSS 2.1 property, value, descriptor, pseudo-class, element attribute, etc. and get the definitive answers directly from the W3C? This resource provides an index with links to these. - CSS 2.1 Pseudo-classes
Explanation, examples of:first-child,:link,:visited,:hover,:active,:focus,:lang. - CSS 2.1: The dynamic pseudo-classes:
:hover,:active, and:focus
The order in which you place thelink,visited, andhoverpseudo-classes makes a difference in whether they work correctly or not. This is a link to information about this and more details about the above pseudo-classes. - CSS 2.1 Pseudo-elements
Explanation, examples of:first-line,:first-letter,:before. - CSS 2.1 Selectors
Explanation, examples of syntax, universal selectors (such as the use of '*'), type selectors, descendant selectors, child selectors (such as the use of '>'), adjacent sibling selectors (such as the use of '+'), attribute selectors, matching attributes and attribute values, class selectors, ID selectors, more. - CSS 2.1 Visual Formatting Model
Explanation, examples of containing blocks, block-level elements, block boxes, inline-level elements, inline boxes,displayproperty;positionproperty and box offsets: 'top', 'right', 'bottom', 'left'; normal flow and block formatting, inline formatting, relative positioning; floats and thefloatproperty andclearproperty; absolute and fixed positioning; layered presentation andz-indexproperty; text direction and thedirectionandunicode-bidiproperties, and more.
W3C CSS3 Recommendations
CSS3 working drafts and candidate recommendations are in progress. You can check out what we can look forward to with the upcoming version of CSS. Some newer browsers even support a few of the features. The W3C also welcomes and invites feedback before these modules become final Recommendations.
As you will also see below, CSS is becoming modularized. There are several reasons: 1) One module can easily be updated, speeding up the turnaround time and allowing greater flexibility; 2) User agents can also choose to support specific modules, such as an aural browser with constraints and only needing aural CSS specifications; and, 3) to help clarify relationships between various parts of the specifications and to reduce the overall size of the document.
- Introduction to CSS3 (Working Draft)
Still a Working Draft, check out W3C's Introduction to CSS3. Take a look at what's being worked on for the next version of CSS. - CSS3 Module: Backgrounds (Working Draft)
This new module describes the functionality of backgrounds, such as background colors and background images, extending the functionality of CSS2. - CSS3 Advanced Layout Module
Template-based positioning, tabbed (stacked) displays, row and column layouts, more. - CSS3 Module: Box Model (Working Draft)
This new module builds on CSS3's inline text module. Although a typically horizontal flow, CSS3 adds a vertical flow that would be used for ideographic scripts or Uighur script. - CSS3 Module: Cascading and Inheritance (Working Draft)
This new module specifies how values are assigned to properties. - CSS3 Module: Color (Candidate Recommendation)
This working draft describes the color properties and values that are proposed for CSS level 3, with several new properties and values added. - CSS3 Module: Fonts (Working Draft)
This new module for CSS3 allows font specification by a user agent and new font decoration properties. - CSS3 Module: Line (Working Draft)
This new module for CSS3 specifies the presentation aspects of line within block elements and inline elements, baseline alignment, drop initials, and related. - CSS3 Module: Lists (Working Draft)
This new module for CSS3 proposes changes to the functionality of CSS2 list specifications. - CSS3 Module: Mobile Profile (Candidate Recommendation)
This new module for CSS3 defines a subset of CSS2 for the needs and constraints of mobile devices. - CSS3 Module: Multi-column Layout (Working Draft)
This new module for CSS3 builds on the CSS3 Box Model module and adds multi-column functionality to the content of an element. - CSS3 Paged Media Module
This module “describes the page model that partitions a flow into pages. It builds on the CSS3 Box model module and introduces and defines the page model and paged media. It adds functionality for pagination, page margins, headers and footers, image orientation. Finally it extends generated content for the purpose of cross-references with page numbers.” - CSS3 Module: Ruby (Candidate Recommendation)
This new module for CSS3 proposes a set of CSS properties associated with the 'Ruby' elements. - CSS3 Module: Selectors (Candidate Recommendation)
This new module for CSS3 proposes new selectors and includes and extends the selectors from CSS1 and CSS2. - CSS3 Module: Text (Candidate Recommendation)
This new module for CSS3 specifies text layout such as international writing directions, text alignment, indenting, wrapping, white-space, text overflow, text decoration, and related. Several new CSS properties are added for CSS3. - CSS TV Profile 1.0 Candidate Recommendation
A subset of CSS2 and CSS3 Color module, providing specifications for TV devices. - CSS3 Module: Values and Units (Working Draft)
This new module describes CSS property values and units and how the specified values are processed into computed values and actual values.
W3C CSS and Accessibility
- Accessibility Features of CSS (via W3C)
Get the authoritative info here, direct from W3C.
W3C CSS and XML
- Associating Style Sheets with XML
W3C's official recommendations for associating style sheets with XML. Links to further information and details, too.
W3C CSS Mobile
- CSS Mobile Profile 1.0
A subset of CSS2, this candidate profile provides CSS2 specification for mobile devices, such as wireless phones.
