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What is CSS and what are its uses?
If you are in the world of web development, there are several technologies that you should know about, one of them is CSS. This allows you to give a website the design you need. All websites on the net contain CSS and this allows them to look so good.
Without this language, all websites would not be so dynamic, but not very nice static. Although CSS is not considered a programming language, the truth is that it has a relatively steep learning curve.
But don't worry, with some practice you will be able to start handling CSS in the best possible way. In this article we are going to talk a little more about this language and all the advantages it can offer you.
What is CSS?
CSS or Cascading Style Sheets is a type of design language used for the presentation of web pages. In other words, when a person accesses a website, the first thing they see is the design and to achieve this you will need CSS.
The main advantage of learning CSS is that you will be able to customize your website however you see fit. People who are proficient in CSS can become marvels with this language. Even if you use a CMS like WordPress, you are going to need CSS if you need to modify the theme.
With CSS you can have all the styles of your website in a single sheet that connects directly to the HTML. So, if what you are looking for is to design your website in the best possible way, you are going to need to learn this.
CSS goes hand in hand with HTML
Although CSS is a fairly powerful language, it is not capable of doing much on its own. That is why to work this language goes hand in hand with HTML.
HTML is a language that allows you to create the structure of your website and it is to this structure that CSS styles are applied. That is why you must learn both HTML and CSS to be able to design a website from scratch.
Although HTML is the key language for any website, CSS is what brings it to life. One cannot go without the other and each of them has a specific function for it. Also, knowing both languages is vital for front end development.
Main CSS features
This language has some key features that you should take into consideration. We're going to talk a bit more about this next, so here are the main features of CSS.
It has a specific syntax
If you have practiced any programming language, you should already know that many share functions, signs and other features. With CSS there are not many differences, so you will need to know some key syntax to be able to learn it in the best possible way.
You can fully customize your website
One of the main reasons why CSS is so popular is not only because it is a necessary language, but also because it offers a great amount of creative freedom.
With CSS you will be able to greatly customize your website through the codes that this language allows you. You can edit colors, shapes, fonts and any other element of the website.
Allows you to stack instructions
With this you will be able to create blocks of instructions that, in turn, you will be able to edit in a really simple way. This makes the task of designing a website quite simple, since these are standardized.
The web designs that are achieved with CSS can be applied to any web page. This is something that offers you many advantages when it comes to designing a website.
It is compatible with any browser
One of the main advantages of CSS is that it is cross-platform, that is, it can be used in any browser.
So you will not have to worry, since it can be used globally. Any browser, be it Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera or any other, will be perfectly compatible with this language.
You can optimize the performance of your website
Thanks to CSS, the visitor can be offered a better browsing experience. There are many changes you can make to offer your visitors an attractive, functional and dynamic website.
This is something key, since it seeks to make the website work in the best way for everyone.
Elements that make up the CSS syntax
The main key to being able to write CSS is knowing the basic syntax of this code. Fortunately, CSS syntax is much simpler than you think.
The first thing to keep in mind when learning the syntax is to know what a piece of CSS code looks like. For example: .class {color: red;}, is composed of a selector, a declaration, a property and a value. Next, we will tell you what are the parts that make up a CSS code.
Selector
When we talk about a selector we mean to which element of the HTML document the CSS properties are applied. This is done in different ways and depending on the type of element. Some of the main selectors are p, div, a, h1, h2, etc…
Similarly, there are others like. or # for classes and IDs respectively. Although it may seem a bit complicated, the truth is that it is much simpler than you can imagine.
Statement
The declaration or declaration block is the set of CSS rules that are applied to the element that you want to change. These declarations are applied within curly braces and there can be a large number of declarations within each block.
An example of a declaration block is the following {color: white;}, in this case, inside the braces we have a declaration that is responsible for changing the color of the text or element to white.
Property
The property is the one that exactly describes the action to be executed. CSS has many properties that you must know in order to implement any type of design. This is used in order to determine which property will affect the object.
For example, a CSS property can be "color", this indicates that you want to change the color of the object. To determine the color it is necessary to accompany it with a value, which you will learn about later.
Worth
Each of the CSS properties needs a specific value that it must have. This is what gives the proper style to the property and, therefore, is given to the code in question. For example, if the property is "color" the value can be a color in name, hexadecimal format, or RGB.
Depending on the CSS property in question, it has a different value. It is very important to keep this in mind, since it is the key to the design of the website.
How difficult is it to learn CSS?
Many people can feel intimidated when looking at a CSS sheet. This is something normal, especially for those people who start to learn to program.
However, the truth is that although this language may seem complex, once you understand the basics of CSS web design, you will see that it is not that complex.
It is even possible to master this language in a couple of months, so CSS is one of those languages that you should take into account if you want to become a front end developer.
