- 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
- How to Link CSS to HTML – Stylesheet File Linking
- How to Link CSS to HTML
- Attributes of the Link Tag
- The rel Attribute
- The type Attribute
- The href Attribute
- Final Thoughts
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.
How to Link CSS to HTML – Stylesheet File Linking
Kolade Chris
HTML is the markup language that helps you define the structure of a web page. CSS is the stylesheet language you use to make the structure presentable and nicely laid out.
To make the stylings you implement with CSS reflect in the HTML, you have to find a way to link the CSS to the HTML.
You can do the linking by writing inline CSS, internal CSS, or external CSS.
It is a best practice to keep your CSS separate from your HTML, so this article focuses on how you can link that external CSS to your HTML.
How to Link CSS to HTML
To link your CSS to your HTML, you have to use the link tag with some relevant attributes.
The link tag is a self-closing tag you should put at the head section of your HTML.
To link CSS to HTML with it, this is how you do it:
Place the link tag at the head section of your HTML as shown below:
Attributes of the Link Tag
The rel Attribute
rel is the relationship between the external file and the current file. For CSS, you use stylesheet . For example, rel=»stylesheet» .
The type Attribute
type is the type of the document you are linking to the HTML. For CSS, it is text/css . For example type=»text/css» .
The href Attribute
href stands for “hypertext reference”. You use it to specify the location of the CSS file and the file name. It is a clickable link, so you can also hold CTRL and click it to view the CSS file.
For example, href=»styles.css» if the CSS file is located in the same folder as the HTML file. Or href=»folder/styles.css» if the CSS file is located on another folder.
Final Thoughts
This article showed you how to properly link an external CSS file to HTML with the link tag and the necessary attributes.
We also took a look at what each of the attributes means, so you don’t just use them without knowing how they work.