CSS Basics
This article explains the basics of CSS.
You can learn about CSS selectors, combinators, and specificity.
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css-base.css
1body {
2 font-family: Arial, sans-serif;
3 line-height: 1.6;
4 margin: 20px 20px 600px 20px;
5 background-color: #f4f4f9;
6 color: #333;
7}
8
9header h1 {
10 font-size: 24px;
11 color: #333;
12 text-align: center;
13 margin-bottom: 20px;
14}
15
16h2, h3 {
17 color: #555;
18}
19
20h2 {
21 font-size: 20px;
22 border-bottom: 2px solid #ccc;
23 padding-bottom: 5px;
24}
25
26h3 {
27 font-size: 18px;
28 margin-top: 20px;
29 padding-left: 10px;
30 border-left: 2px solid #ccc;
31}
32
33h4 {
34 margin: 0;
35 margin-left: 10px;
36 font-size: 14px;
37}
38
39article section p {
40 margin-left: 40px;
41}
42
43p, pre {
44 margin: 10px 0;
45 padding: 0;
46}
47
48ul, ol, dl, menu {
49 margin: 0;
50}
51
52pre {
53 background-color: #f0f0f0;
54 border-left: 4px solid #ccc;
55 padding: 10px;
56 overflow-x: auto;
57}
58
59.sample-view {
60 border: 1px solid #eee;
61 border-left: 4px solid #eee;
62 padding: 10px;
63 overflow-x: auto;
64}
65
66p.sample, .sample {
67 background-color: #e7f4e9;
68 padding: 10px;
69 border-left: 4px solid #7bbd82;
70 color: #333;
71}
72
73p.sample-error, .sample-error {
74 background-color: #f4e7e7;
75 padding: 10px;
76 border-left: 4px solid lightcoral;
77 color: #333;
78}
79
80.example {
81 background-color: #e0f0ff;
82 padding: 10px;
83 border-left: 4px solid #4a90e2;
84 color: #333;
85}
86
87p.sample-warn, .sample-warn {
88 background-color: #f4f1e7;
89 padding: 10px;
90 border-left: 4px solid #bda97b;
91 color: #333;
92}
93
94code {
95 background-color: #f4f4f4;
96 padding: 2px 4px;
97 border-radius: 4px;
98 font-family: monospace;
99}
100
101span {
102 font-weight: bold;
103}
104
105article {
106 background-color: white;
107 padding: 20px;
108 margin-bottom: 10px;
109 border-radius: 8px;
110 box-shadow: 0 0 10px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);
111}
112
113section {
114 margin-bottom: 20px;
115}
116
117section div {
118 width: 400px;
119 height: 50px;
120 margin: 20px auto;
121 color: white;
122 display: flex;
123 align-items: center;
124 justify-content: center;
125 font-size: 1.2rem;
126 background-color: lightgray;
127 border: 1px solid #ccc;
128}
129
130header h4 {
131 text-align: right;
132 color: #666;
133 font-size: 0.8em;
134 text-decoration: none;
135}
136
137header + pre {
138 margin: 0;
139 margin-top: -20px;
140 padding-top: 14px;
141 font-size: 0.9em;
142}
143
144header + .sample-view {
145 margin: 0;
146 margin-top: -16px;
147}
148
149.sample-view p {
150 margin: 0;
151 padding: 0;
152}css-basics.html
1<!DOCTYPE html>
2<html lang="en">
3<head>
4 <meta charset="UTF-8">
5 <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
6 <title>CSS Basics</title>
7 <link rel="stylesheet" href="css-base.css">
8 <link rel="stylesheet" href="css-basics.css">
9</head>
10<body>
11 <!-- Header -->
12 <header>
13 <h1>CSS Basics</h1>
14 </header>
15
16 <!-- Main content -->
17 <main>
18 <header><h2>CSS Selectors</h2></header>
19 <article>
20 <h3>Universal Selector : *</h3>
21 <section>
22 <header><h4>CSS</h4></header>
23<pre class="sample">
24* {
25 font-family:'Courier New', Courier, monospace;
26}
27</pre>
28 </section>
29 </article>
30 <article>
31 <h3>Element Selector</h3>
32 <section>
33 <header><h4>CSS</h4></header>
34<pre class="sample">
35strong {
36 color: red;
37}
38</pre>
39 <header><h4>HTML</h4></header>
40 <pre>This is <strong>sample</strong> text.</pre>
41 <header><h4>HTML+CSS</h4></header>
42 <section class="sample-view">
43 This is <strong>sample</strong> text.
44 </section>
45 </section>
46 </article>
47 <article>
48 <h3>ID Selector : #</h3>
49 <section>
50 <header><h4>CSS</h4></header>
51<pre class="sample">
52#example1 {
53 color: steelblue;
54}
55</pre>
56 <header><h4>HTML</h4></header>
57 <pre><span id="example1">This is sample text.</span></pre>
58 <header><h4>HTML+CSS</h4></header>
59 <section class="sample-view">
60 <span id="example1">This is sample text.</span>
61 </section>
62 </section>
63 </article>
64 <article>
65 <h3>Class Selector : .</h3>
66 <section>
67 <header><h4>CSS</h4></header>
68<pre class="sample">
69.example1 {
70 background-color: yellow;
71 font-weight: bold;
72}
73</pre>
74 <header><h4>HTML</h4></header>
75 <pre><span class="example1">This is sample text.</span></pre>
76 <header><h4>HTML+CSS</h4></header>
77 <section class="sample-view">
78 <section>
79 <span class="example1">This is sample text.</span>
80 </section>
81 </section>
82 </article>
83 <article>
84 <h3>Attribute Selector : [property=value]</h3>
85 <section>
86 <header><h4>CSS</h4></header>
87<pre class="sample">
88a[href="index.html"] {
89 font-weight: bold;
90}
91</pre>
92 <header><h4>HTML</h4></header>
93<pre>
94<a href="index.html">Home</a><br>
95<a href="about.html">About</a>
96</pre>
97 <header><h4>HTML+CSS</h4></header>
98 <section class="sample-view">
99 <a href="index.html">Home</a><br>
100 <a href="about.html">About</a>
101 </section>
102 </section>
103 </article>
104 <article>
105 <h3>Descendant Combinator</h3>
106 <section>
107 <header><h4>CSS</h4></header>
108<pre class="sample">
109span strong {
110 text-decoration: underline;
111}
112</pre>
113 <header><h4>HTML</h4></header>
114 <pre><span>This is <strong>sample</strong> text.</span></pre>
115 <header><h4>HTML+CSS</h4></header>
116 <section class="sample-view">
117 <span>This is <strong>sample</strong> text.</span>
118 </section>
119 </section>
120 </article>
121 <article>
122 <h3>Child Combinator : ></h3>
123 <section>
124 <header><h4>CSS</h4></header>
125<pre class="sample">
126span > em {
127 color: blue;
128}
129</pre>
130 <header><h4>HTML</h4></header>
131<pre>
132This is <em>sample</em> text.<br>
133<span>This is <em>another</em> text.</span><br>
134<span>This text is not <s><em>blue</em></s> in color.</span>
135</pre>
136 <header><h4>HTML+CSS</h4></header>
137 <section class="sample-view">
138 This is <em>sample</em> text.<br>
139 <span>This is <em>another</em> text.</span><br>
140 <span>This text is not <s><em>blue</em></s> in color.</span>
141 </section>
142 </section>
143 </article>
144 <article>
145 <h3> Next Sibling combinator : +</h3>
146 <section>
147 <header><h4>CSS</h4></header>
148<pre class="sample">
149br + b {
150 color: green;
151}
152</pre>
153 <header><h4>HTML</h4></header>
154<pre>
155<span>
156 This is <b>first text</b>.<br>
157 This is <b>second text</b>.<br>
158 <i>This</i> is <b>third text</b>.<br>
159</span>
160</pre>
161 <header><h4>HTML+CSS</h4></header>
162 <section class="sample-view">
163 <span>
164 This is <b>first text</b>.<br>
165 This is <b>second text</b>.<br>
166 <i>This</i> is <b>third text</b>.<br>
167 </span>
168 </section>
169 </section>
170 </article>
171 <article>
172 <h3>Subsequent Sibling Combinator : ~</h3>
173 <section>
174 <header><h4>CSS</h4></header>
175<pre class="sample">
176br ~ b {
177 color: steelblue;
178}
179</pre>
180 <header><h4>HTML</h4></header>
181<pre>
182<span>
183 This is <b>first text</b>.<br>
184 This is <b>second text</b>.<br>
185 <i>This</i> is <b>third text</b>.<br>
186</span>
187</pre>
188 <header><h4>HTML+CSS</h4></header>
189 <section class="sample-view">
190 <span>
191 This is <b>first text</b>.<br>
192 This is <b>second text</b>.<br>
193 <i>This</i> is <b>third text</b>.<br>
194 </span>
195 </section>
196 </section>
197 </article>
198 <article>
199 <h3>Pseudo Class ":" </h3>
200 <section>
201 <header><h4>CSS</h4></header>
202<pre class="sample">
203a:hover {
204 background-color: lightskyblue;
205}
206</pre>
207 <header><h4>HTML</h4></header>
208<pre>
209 <a href="#">Click here</a><br>
210</pre>
211 <header><h4>HTML+CSS</h4></header>
212 <section class="sample-view">
213 <a href="#">Click here</a><br>
214 </section>
215 </section>
216 </article>
217 <article>
218 <h3>Pseudo Element "::" </h3>
219 <section>
220 <header><h4>CSS</h4></header>
221<pre class="sample">
222u::before {
223 content: " ** ";
224 color: red;
225 font-weight: bold;
226}
227</pre>
228 <header><h4>HTML</h4></header>
229<pre>
230 <u>Sample Text</u>
231</pre>
232 <header><h4>HTML+CSS</h4></header>
233 <section class="sample-view">
234 <u>Sample Text</u>
235 </section>
236 </section>
237 </article>
238 </main>
239
240 <main>
241 <header><h2>Inheritance & Priority of CSS</h2></header>
242 <article>
243 <h3>CSS Specificity Rule</h3>
244 <section>
245 <header><h4>CSS Specificity</h4></header>
246 <section class="example">
247 <ol>
248 <li><b>Inline Styles</b>: Styles written directly within the HTML element.</li>
249 <li><b>ID Selectors</b>: e.g., <code>#id</code></li>
250 <li><b>Class, Attribute Selectors, and Pseudo-classes</b>: e.g., <code>.class</code>, <code>[attribute=value]</code>, <code>:hover</code>, etc.</li>
251 <li><b>Element Selectors</b>: e.g., <code>div</code>, <code>h1</code>, <code>p</code>, etc.</li>
252 <li><b>Universal Selector</b>: <code>*</code></li>
253 </ol>
254 </section>
255
256 <header><h4>How Specificity is Calculated</h4></header>
257 <section class="example">
258 <ol>
259 <li><b>Inline Styles</b>: Always have the highest specificity and are always applied.</li>
260 <li><b>ID Selectors</b>: Worth 100 points each.</li>
261 <li><b>Class, Attribute Selectors, and Pseudo-classes</b>: Worth 10 points each.</li>
262 <li><b>Element Selectors and Pseudo-elements</b>: Worth 1 point each.</li>
263 </ol>
264 </section>
265 </section>
266 </article>
267 <article>
268 <h3>Example of CSS Specificity Rule</h3>
269 <section>
270 <header><h4>CSS</h4></header>
271<pre class="sample">
272/* ID Selector */
273#header {
274 color: blue;
275}
276
277/* Class Selector */
278.header {
279 color: red;
280}
281
282/* Element Selector */
283h1 {
284 color: green;
285}
286</pre>
287 <header><h4>HTML</h4></header>
288 <pre><h1 id="header" class="header">Example of CSS Specificity Rule</h1></pre>
289 <header><h4>HTML+CSS</h4></header>
290 <section class="sample-view">
291 <h1 id="header" class="header">Example of CSS Specificity Rule</h1>
292 </section>
293 </section>
294 </article>
295 <article>
296 <h3>Using <code>!important</code> in CSS</h3>
297 <section>
298 <header><h4>CSS</h4></header>
299<pre class="sample">
300#important-header {
301 color: blue;
302}
303
304.important-header {
305 color: red !important;
306}
307</pre>
308 <header><h4>HTML</h4></header>
309 <pre><h1 id="important-header" class="important-header">Example of <code>!important</code></h1></pre>
310 <header><h4>HTML+CSS</h4></header>
311 <section class="sample-view">
312 <h1 id="important-header" class="important-header">Example of <code>!important</code></h1>
313 </section>
314 </section>
315 </article>
316 <article>
317 <h3>CSS Inheritance</h3>
318 <section>
319 <header><h4>CSS</h4></header>
320<pre class="sample">
321footer {
322 color: gray;
323}
324
325p {
326 color: black;
327}
328</pre>
329 <header><h4>HTML</h4></header>
330<pre>
331<footer>
332 <p>This paragraph's text will be black.</p>
333 <span>This text will be gray.</span>
334</footer>
335</pre>
336 <header><h4>HTML+CSS</h4></header>
337 <section class="sample-view">
338 <footer>
339 <p>This paragraph's text will be black.</p>
340 <span>This text will be gray.</span>
341 </footer>
342 </section>
343 </section>
344 </article>
345 <article>
346 <h3>Cascading Styles</h3>
347 <section>
348 <header><h4>CSS</h4></header>
349<pre class="sample">
350.text {
351 color: red;
352}
353
354.text {
355 color: blue;
356}
357</pre>
358 <header><h4>HTML</h4></header>
359 <pre><p class="text">This text will be blue.</p></pre>
360 <header><h4>HTML+CSS</h4></header>
361 <section class="sample-view">
362 <p class="text">This text will be blue.</p>
363 </section>
364 </section>
365 </article>
366
367</body>
368</html>Basic Syntax
1selector {
2 property: value;
3}The basic structure of CSS consists of selector, property, and value. Each pair of properties and values is followed by a semicolon.
selectorspecifies which HTML element the style applies to. In this example, styles are applied to all<header>elements.propertyspecifies the style property to be changed, such as color or font size.Paddingandcolorare the properties in this example.valueis the value assigned to the property. For example, for color, it could bewhiteor#9cf, and for margin size, it could be20px.
Selectors
CSS selectors are patterns for selecting HTML elements. By using selectors, you can apply styles to specific elements or groups of elements.
Universal Selector
1/* Universal Selector : "*" */
2* {
3 font-family:'Courier New', Courier, monospace;
4}*is a universal selector that applies to all elements.- In this example, the font for all elements is changed.
Element Selector
1/* Element Selector */
2strong {
3 color: red;
4}- An element selector is a selector that applies to specific HTML tags by writing the HTML tag name.
- In this example, the text color of the
<strong>element is changed to red.
ID Selector
1/* ID Selector : "#" */
2#example1 {
3 color: steelblue;
4}#is an ID selector used to select elements by ID.- IDs are unique, so there can be only one element with the same ID on a single page.
Class Selector
1/* Class Selector : "." */
2.example1 {
3 background-color: yellow;
4 font-weight: bold;
5}.is a class selector used to select elements by class.- Add a class attribute to HTML elements to apply styles to elements that belong to that class.
Attribute Selector
1/* Attribute Selector : [property=value] */
2a[href="index.html"] {
3 font-weight: bold;
4}[href="index.html"]is an attribute selector that selects elements with a specific attribute.- In this example, the text of the
<a>element with anhrefattribute value ofindex.htmlis set to bold.
Combinator
Combinators are used to combine multiple selectors to select elements that have specific relationships. While a selector selects elements individually, a combinator plays the role of defining structural relationships between elements.
Descendant combinator
1/* Descendant Combinator : " " */
2span strong {
3 text-decoration: underline;
4}- A descendant combinator applies styles to all specified elements within a particular element.
- In this example, an underline is applied to
<strong>elements within<span>elements.
Child combinator
1/* Child Combinator : ">" */
2span > em {
3 color: blue;
4}- The
>sign betweenspanandemis used as a child combinator. In this example, styles are applied only to<em>elements that are direct children of<span>elements. In the third line example, because there is an<s>tag between the<span>and<em>tags, the style is not applied.
Adjacent sibling combinator
1/* Next Sibling combinator */
2br + b {
3 color: green;
4}- The adjacent sibling combinator using the
+sign applies styles to a sibling element that appears immediately after a certain element. - In this example, the text color becomes green only if a
<b>tag appears immediately after a<br>tag.
General sibling combinator
1/* Subsequent Sibling Combinator */
2br ~ b {
3 color: steelblue;
4}- The general sibling combinator using the
~sign selects all sibling elements that appear after a certain element. - In this example, the text color of all
<b>tags appearing after a<br>tag will be a shade of blue.
Pseudo-classes
1/* Pseudo Class : ":" */
2a:hover {
3 background-color: lightskyblue;
4}:is used to select pseudo-classes.- Details on pseudo-classes will be explained in another article.
Pseudo-elements
1/* Pseudo Element : "::" */
2u::before {
3 content: " ** ";
4 color: red;
5 font-weight: bold;
6}::is used to select pseudo-elements.- Details on pseudo-elements will also be explained in another article.
CSS Specificity
Precedence in CSS is crucial for understanding how CSS works and preventing unexpected style applications. CSS priority determines which rule is the most powerful when multiple CSS rules are applied to the same element. The priority of CSS is mainly determined by the following factors.
- Inline styles: Styles written directly within HTML
- ID Selectors ：
#id - Classes, Attribute Selectors, Pseudo-classes ：
.class,[attribute=value],:hover, etc - Element Selectors ：
div,h1,p, etc - Universal Selector ：
*
The higher up the list, the higher the priority, and the lower down, the lower the priority.
How to Calculate Specificity
CSS priority is calculated by quantifying the 'weight' of each selector. The weight of each selector is represented as follows.
- Inline styles: Inline styles are the most powerful and are always prioritized.
- ID selectors: One ID selector corresponds to '100 points'.
- Class, attribute selectors, pseudo-classes: These correspond to '10 points'.
- Element selectors, pseudo-elements: These correspond to '1 point'.
The rule with the highest score is applied.
Example:
1/* ID Selector */
2#header {
3 color: blue;
4}
5
6/* Class Selector */
7.header {
8 color: red;
9}
10
11/* Element Selector */
12h1 {
13 color: green;
14}1<h1 id="header" class="header">Example of CSS Specificity Rule</h1>Here, the <h1> tag has three different styles applied:
h1element selector (1 point).headerclass selector (10 points)#headerID selector (100 points)
In this case, since the ID selector has the highest priority, color: blue is applied.
Overriding priority with !important
Use !important if you want to force a style and ignore the usual priorities. !important has the most potent influence over all rules, overriding everything else.
Example:
1#important-header {
2 color: blue;
3}
4
5.important-header {
6 color: red !important;
7}1<h1 id="important-header" class="important-header">Example of <code>!important</code></h1>- Here,
color: red !important;is specified, socolor: redtakes precedence.
Inheritance and Priority
CSS has the capability to inherit styles from parent elements to child elements. For example, properties like color and font-family are inherited by default. However, if a specific child element is directly styled, the directly applied style takes precedence over inherited styles.
Example:
1footer {
2 color: gray;
3}
4
5p {
6 color: black;
7}1<footer>
2 <p>This paragraph's text will be black.</p>
3 <span>This text will be gray.</span>
4</footer>- Here,
color: gray;is applied to thefootertag, but sincecolor: black;is explicitly specified for thepelement, the text of thepelement is displayed in black. Meanwhile, thespanelement inherits thecolorproperty from thefooterand appears in gray.
CSS Cascade and Priority
As the name 'Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)' implies, styles 'cascade'. This means that if there are multiple stylesheets or rules, the last defined rule takes precedence. If the priorities are the same, the style written later is applied.
Example:
1.text {
2 color: red;
3}
4
5.text {
6 color: blue;
7}1<p class="text">This text will be blue.</p>- Here,
color: blue;is defined later, so the text is displayed in blue.
Summary
CSS's precedence is determined using algorithms such as specificity, but here we have only considered the basic parts.
The basic rules are as follows:
- Inline styles always have the highest priority.
- ID selectors are powerful and take precedence over classes and tags.
- Class selectors and pseudo-classes have a moderate level of precedence.
- Tag selectors and pseudo-elements have the lowest level of precedence.
- !important overrides normal precedence and forcibly applies the style.
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