CSS Redefining Layout or Cascading Style Sheets Specifications is a computer-style sheet language that is used to write the formatting rules or instructions for the webpages written in HTML or XHTML language. Such rules direct a web browser to show the content of a webpage in terms of its layout (comprising of the alignments, positions, width, etc.) and its style (comprising of font-weight, color, border, typeface, etc.). This language can also be applied to XML-based documents as well. Usage of CSS has become the heart of web designing. It allows the developer to have control over the various components in multiple web pages of a website.
CSS language was created to cater to the aesthetic requirements placed on HTML. It is important to know that CSS only defines and sets out the presentation and structure of the website. The design of the website is still to be defined at the time of its creation. A single CSS sheet defines the font, look, color schemes, margins, background images, alignment, advanced positions, etc.
CSS and its benefits include:
Reduced Effort
Using CSS helps in time-saving. In a typical HTML design, the formatting elements have to be defined on each page. Every time a new page is created, such d have to be defined. With CSS, you need to define the detail only once for each element and then the formatting rules and styles are automatically applied whenever the element occurs.
Delimits content with presentation
CSS rules are provided in a file that is separate from the main content. The look and feel of all the linked pages can be changed in one go by modifying the CSS Redefining Layout file. Similarly, the developer needs to be worried only about the content and not the formatting part.
Reduced webpage size and increased download speed
CSS is lighter than the table-based layouts. On average, the page weight of a table-based layout is almost twice as of the CSS-based. Thus the download time for such pages reduces as the style sheet gets downloaded only once and stores itself in the cache memory. Subsequent pages take less time to download
Allows Consistency
With one single CSS style sheet defining the rules and formatting style, it presents a consistent viewing experience of all the web pages. Multiple layouts for multiple devices
Higher hit rate
CSS style sheets allow web developers to position the elements anywhere in the web application. This positioning helps to project the real content first so it is quickly captured by the various search engines. A clean HTML code will reduce the effort of this web spider and distinguish the real content from the junk code.
