- Learn to Code HTML & CSS
- Learn to Code HTML & CSS
- Develop & Style Websites
- Learn to Code HTML & CSS the Book
- Looking for Advanced HTML & CSS Lessons?
- Join the Newsletter
- Learn to Code HTML & CSS
- Learn to Code HTML & CSS
- Develop & Style Websites
- HTML & CSS
- Advanced HTML & CSS
- Learn to Code HTML & CSS the Book
- Join the Newsletter
- HTML Styles — CSS
- CSS = Styles and Colors
- What is CSS?
- Using CSS
- Inline CSS
- Example
- A Blue Heading
- Internal CSS
- Example
- This is a heading
- External CSS
- Example
- This is a heading
- «styles.css»:
- CSS Colors, Fonts and Sizes
- Example
- This is a heading
- CSS Border
- Example
- CSS Padding
- Example
- CSS Margin
- Example
- Link to External CSS
- Example
- Example
- Example
- Chapter Summary
- HTML Exercises
- HTML Style Tags
Learn to Code HTML & CSS
Learn to Code HTML & CSS is written by designer & front-end developer Shay Howe.
Checkout Learn to Code Advanced HTML & CSS for a deeper look at front-end design & development.
Want to learn to more HTML & CSS, or study other topics? Find the right course for you.
Learn to Code HTML & CSS
Develop & Style Websites
Learn to Code HTML & CSS is a simple and comprehensive guide dedicated to helping beginners learn HTML and CSS. Outlining the fundamentals, this guide works through all common elements of front-end design and development.
Learn to Code HTML & CSS the Book
Learn to Code HTML & CSS is an interactive beginner’s guide with one express goal: teach you how to develop and style websites with HTML and CSS. Outlining the fundamentals, this book covers all of the common elements of front-end design and development.
Looking for Advanced HTML & CSS Lessons?
Checkout these advanced HTML and CSS lessons to take a deeper look at front-end design and development, perfect for any designer or front-end developer looking to round out their skills.
Join the Newsletter
To stay up to date and learn when new courses and lessons are posted, please sign up for the newsletter—spam free.
Learn to Code HTML & CSS
Learn to Code HTML & CSS is written by designer & front-end developer Shay Howe.
Want to learn to more HTML & CSS, or study other topics? Find the right course for you.
Learn to Code HTML & CSS
Develop & Style Websites
Learn to Code HTML & CSS has one goal — to teach people how to build beautiful and intuitive websites by way of clear and organized lessons. The guide covers a variety of web design and development topics, ranging from beginner to advanced skill levels.
HTML & CSS
A simple and comprehensive guide dedicated to helping beginners learn HTML and CSS.
- Building Your First Web Page
- Getting to Know HTML
- Getting to Know CSS
- Opening the Box Model
- Positioning Content
- Working with Typography
- Setting Backgrounds & Gradients
- Creating Lists
- Adding Media
- Building Forms
- Organizing Data with Tables
- Writing Your Best Code
Advanced HTML & CSS
A deeper look at front-end design and development, teaching the latest for any designer.
Learn to Code HTML & CSS the Book
Learn to Code HTML & CSS is an interactive beginner’s guide with one express goal: teach you how to develop and style websites with HTML and CSS. Outlining the fundamentals, this book covers all of the common elements of front-end design and development.
Join the Newsletter
To stay up to date and learn when new courses and lessons are posted, please sign up for the newsletter—spam free.
HTML Styles — CSS
CSS saves a lot of work. It can control the layout of multiple web pages all at once.
CSS = Styles and Colors
What is CSS?
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is used to format the layout of a webpage.
With CSS, you can control the color, font, the size of text, the spacing between elements, how elements are positioned and laid out, what background images or background colors are to be used, different displays for different devices and screen sizes, and much more!
Tip: The word cascading means that a style applied to a parent element will also apply to all children elements within the parent. So, if you set the color of the body text to «blue», all headings, paragraphs, and other text elements within the body will also get the same color (unless you specify something else)!
Using CSS
CSS can be added to HTML documents in 3 ways:
- Inline — by using the style attribute inside HTML elements
- Internal — by using a element in the section
- External — by using a element to link to an external CSS file
The most common way to add CSS, is to keep the styles in external CSS files. However, in this tutorial we will use inline and internal styles, because this is easier to demonstrate, and easier for you to try it yourself.
Inline CSS
An inline CSS is used to apply a unique style to a single HTML element.
An inline CSS uses the style attribute of an HTML element.
The following example sets the text color of the element to blue, and the text color of the
element to red:
Example
A Blue Heading Internal CSS
An internal CSS is used to define a style for a single HTML page.
An internal CSS is defined in the section of an HTML page, within a element.
The following example sets the text color of ALL the elements (on that page) to blue, and the text color of ALL the
elements to red. In addition, the page will be displayed with a «powderblue» background color:
Example
This is a heading
This is a paragraph.
External CSS
An external style sheet is used to define the style for many HTML pages.
To use an external style sheet, add a link to it in the section of each HTML page:
Example
This is a heading
This is a paragraph.
The external style sheet can be written in any text editor. The file must not contain any HTML code, and must be saved with a .css extension.
Here is what the «styles.css» file looks like:
«styles.css»:
Tip: With an external style sheet, you can change the look of an entire web site, by changing one file!
CSS Colors, Fonts and Sizes
Here, we will demonstrate some commonly used CSS properties. You will learn more about them later.
The CSS color property defines the text color to be used.
The CSS font-family property defines the font to be used.
The CSS font-size property defines the text size to be used.
Example
Use of CSS color, font-family and font-size properties:
This is a heading
This is a paragraph.
CSS Border
The CSS border property defines a border around an HTML element.
Tip: You can define a border for nearly all HTML elements.
Example
Use of CSS border property:
CSS Padding
The CSS padding property defines a padding (space) between the text and the border.
Example
Use of CSS border and padding properties:
CSS Margin
The CSS margin property defines a margin (space) outside the border.
Example
Use of CSS border and margin properties:
Link to External CSS
External style sheets can be referenced with a full URL or with a path relative to the current web page.
Example
This example uses a full URL to link to a style sheet:
Example
This example links to a style sheet located in the html folder on the current web site:
Example
This example links to a style sheet located in the same folder as the current page:
You can read more about file paths in the chapter HTML File Paths.
Chapter Summary
- Use the HTML style attribute for inline styling
- Use the HTML element to define internal CSS
- Use the HTML element to refer to an external CSS file
- Use the HTML element to store and elements
- Use the CSS color property for text colors
- Use the CSS font-family property for text fonts
- Use the CSS font-size property for text sizes
- Use the CSS border property for borders
- Use the CSS padding property for space inside the border
- Use the CSS margin property for space outside the border
Tip: You can learn much more about CSS in our CSS Tutorial.
HTML Exercises
HTML Style Tags
Tag | Description |
---|---|
Defines style information for an HTML document | |
Defines a link between a document and an external resource |
For a complete list of all available HTML tags, visit our HTML Tag Reference.