Cascading Style Sheets

What is CSS?

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a simple mechanism for adding style (e.g., fonts, colors, spacing) to Web documents.

These pages contain information on how to learn and use CSS and on available software. They also contain news from the CSS working group.

Quick links

News

19 Apr 2011 Working Draft: CSS3 Speech Module
12 Apr 2011 Proposed Recommendation: CSS Level 2 Revision 1
12 Apr 2011 Working Draft: CSS Text Level 3
12 Apr 2011 Candidate Recommendation: CSS Multi-column Layout Level 3
7 Apr 2011 Working Draft: Grid Layout

For more news, see our syndicator “The Future of Style.”

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Standards & drafts

Some of the specifications and drafts by the CSS Working Group:

Completed work	Status
CSS Level 2	REC
CSS Level 1	REC
Selectors	PR
CSS Color	PR
High Priority	Status	Upcoming
CSS Level 2 Revision 1	PR <<<<<<< Overview.en.html <<<<<<< Overview.en.html	PR =======	PR =======	REC >>>>>>> 1.234
CSS Namespaces	CR	PR >>>>>>> 1.170
CSS Backgrounds and Borders	CR	PR
CSS Multi-column Layout	CR	PR
Media Queries	CR	PR

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Working group news

The working group regularly publishes reports on its blog; here are the most recent:

[Photo: group photo in Lyon, France]

A part of the CSS WG in November 2010. (Photo: Bert Bos / Anthony Grasso)

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Joining the discussion

The <www-style@w3.org> mailing list is the place for discussing the further development of CSS. (The CSS working group also uses that list for most discussions.) Everybody can subscribe (or unsubscribe, or see instructions.)

If you work for a W3C member organization, you can also join the working group.

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Software

Nearly all browsers nowadays support CSS and many other applications do, too. To write CSS, you don't need more than a text editor, but there are many tools available that make it even easier.

Of course, all software has bugs, even after several updates. And some programs are further ahead implementing the latest CSS modules than others. Various sites describe bugs and work-arounds.

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Learning CSS

For beginners, Starting with HTML + CSS teaches how to create a style sheet. For a quick introduction to CSS, try chapter 2 of Lie & Bos or Dave Raggett's intro to CSS. Or see examples of styling XML and CSS tips & tricks.

Another page also has some books, mailing lists and similar fora, and links to other directories.

The history of CSS is described in chapter 20 of the book Cascading Style Sheets, designing for the Web, by Håkon Wium Lie and Bert Bos (2nd ed., 1999, Addison Wesley, ISBN 0-201-59625-3)

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The CSS validator: Checks the syntax (and more) of style sheets.
Core Style Sheets: A set of simple style sheets designed when browsers' compatibility was a bigger problem than today, but still useful.
CSS Techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0: A note about the role of CSS in making pages accessible.
SAC: The Simple API for CSS: An interface between CSS parsers and CSS processors.
XSL (Extensible Stylesheet Language): XSL and CSS share many features, but XSL is focused on complex layout tasks, especially for print.
A MathML for CSS profile: A note that describes a subset of MathML that can be reasonably formatted with just CSS level 2

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Last updated 25 January 2011 ======= src="http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/Buttons/mwcts"> Last updated 2 March 2011 >>>>>>> 1.170 ======= src="http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/Buttons/mwcts"> Last updated 27 April 2011 >>>>>>> 1.234 ======= src="http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/Buttons/mwcts"> Last updated 4 May 2011