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What Is CSS and
Why Should You
Use It?
Even if you’re not a programmer,
you’ve probably heard of HTML. It’s
the most fundamental markup
language and it’s been around since
the nineties. What you’re maybe not
as familiar with is CSS. It’s an element
of programming that’s just as
important, and along with HTML and
JavaScript, CSS is one of the three
main cornerstones of technologies
for the web. But just what is CSS, how
does it work, and why is it so critical?
Read on and learn.
What Is CSS?
CSS stands for cascading style
sheets. In short, CSS is a design
language that makes a website look
more appealing than just plain or
uninspiring pieces of text. Whereas
HTML largely determines textual
content, CSS determines visual
structure, layout, and aesthetics.
HTML is a markup language, and CSS
is a style sheet language. Think “look
and feel” when you think CSS.
How Does CSS Work
with HTML?
If HTML were the engine
components of a car, CSS would be
the body style and the paint job. A
website can run without CSS, but it
certainly isn’t pretty. CSS makes the
front-end of a website shine and it
creates a great user experience.
Without CSS, websites would be less
pleasing to the eye and likely much
harder to navigate. In addition to
layout and format, CSS is responsible
for font color and more.
Why Is CSS so
important?
To illustrate the importance of CSS,
here’s an example of a page on the
DevMountain site with and without
CSS, a type of visual CSS tutorial, if
you will.
Here is a section of the
DevMountain Courses page with
CSS:
And here is that same section
without CSS:
Stark contrast, right? You’ll notice
quite a few differences between the
two when it comes to overall
presentation. With CSS, you see a
change in font, font size, and font
color. You also see a change in the
format of the buttons and get an
added blue background behind them.
Each of these elements are possible
because of cascading style sheets.
As a user, which looks more enticing?
It’s pretty easy to see why CSS is so
crucial.
What are the Benefits of
CSS?
There are a number of benefits of
CSS, including:
1) Faster Page Speed
More code means slower page
speed. And CSS enables you to use
less code. CSS allows you to use one
CSS rule and apply it to all
occurrences of a certain tag within an
HTML document.
2) Better User
Experience
CSS not only makes web pages easy
on the eye, it also allows for user-
friendly formatting. When buttons
and text are in logical places and well
organized, user experience improves.
3) Quicker
Development Time
With CSS, you can apply specific
formatting rules and styles to
multiple pages with one string of
code. One cascading style sheet can
be replicated across several website
pages. If, for instance, you have
product pages that should all have
the same formatting, look, and feel,
writing CSS rules for one page will
suffice for all pages of that same
type.
4) Easy Formatting
Changes
If you need to change the format of a
specific set of pages, it’s easy to do
so with CSS. There’s no need to fix
every individual page. Just edit the
corresponding CSS stylesheet and
you’ll see changes applied to all the
pages that are using that style sheet.
5) Compatibility
Across Devices
Responsive web design matters. In
today’s day and age, web pages must
be fully visible and easily navigable
on all devices. Whether mobile or
tablet, desktop, or even smart TV,
CSS combines with HTML to make
responsive design possible.
Want to Learn CSS?
As you can see, CSS is critical when it
comes to the overall presentation of
a web page. And not only that, it
makes developers’ life a whole lot
easier when it comes to formatting.
Mastering CSS is a vital part of
becoming a valuable asset and a solid
programmer.
For even more guidance, consider
enrolling in either our four-week
$49 Coding Basics course to learn a
few fundamentals of HTML, CSS, and
JavaScript from live, online
instruction (where you can ask
professionals what languages they’re
learning and using) or take the next
step into a full web development
bootcamp.
See also:
Career Support, Web Dev
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