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CSS

Brief history of CSS

The history of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) begins in November 1994, when Hakon Wium Lie presented the first draft of a cascading style sheet project called Cascading HTML Style Sheets at a web technology conference in Chicago. Unfortunately, the project he presented caused a lot of stormy discussions. The solution was very simplified and many opponents accused the project of too much simplicity and low usability. The opponents wanted a fully programmable language, not a simple style sheet.

The CSS language came back on stage only at a conference in April 1995. Hakon then presented a detailed specification of cascading style sheets and presented the first Arena browser modified by Dave Raggett to support CSS technology. The creators of the technology proved that CSS language can provide a quick and easy way to modify the appearance of delivered content, both on the part of its authors and recipients.

In August 1996, cascading CSS style sheets (not yet recommended by W3C – World Wide Web Consortium) were first implemented in the commercial browser Microsoft Internet Explorer 3. Four months later, in December 1996, CSS1 was officially approved and recommended standard. The recommendation resulted in significant and rapid development of the technology. Only a year and a half passed, and in May 1998 another version of the language, codenamed CSS2, was published and officially recommended again by W3C.

With the completion of the first version of CSS and receiving the subsequent recommendation, browser developers began to massively implement the new standard in their products. Although individual elements of CSS technology were easy to implement, combining them into different combinations resulted in quite a lot of implications and difficult to predict results. This caused many of the initial versions of cascading style sheet browsers to have a lot of bugs, and the different browsers differed greatly both in the way they were implemented and in the type of results they received.

The second browser (after Microsoft Internet Explorer 3) that decided to implement CSS solutions for its project was Netscape’s Navigator 4.0. Unfortunately, the created product became very imperfect. Programmers didn’t spend enough time on testing their product, which resulted in a long list of unsupported CSS features and a significant number of dissatisfied users.

The third browser supporting CSS technology was Opera in November 1998. The new version of the browser, compared to Netscape’s Navigator 4.0, supported the vast majority of available CSS1 features.

When a new version of CSS called CSS2 was released in May 1998, the developers of the technology immediately started working on an even better version of CSS3, and in the meantime they started developing a revised version of CSS2 called CSS2.1.

The new version of CSS3 was systematically published as a series of theoretical, autonomous modules, which together formed one monolithic specification of the technology. In 2012, the three main CSS language modules (Color Level 3, CSS Namespaces, Selectors Level 3), combined with the previous CSS1 and CSS2.1 modules, achieved the status of technology recommended by the W3C consortium. The CSS3 language (which is in fact many different modules) has never obtained its own (combined, unified) specification, as was the case with its previous versions.

Currently, work is ongoing on another version of the language with the suggested CSS4 code name, which, again like its predecessor, will be built from different modules such as the already published Selectors Level 4 specification.

Design websites with CSS3

CSS is a very important tool for website design nowadays. Although many CMS systems make it easier to set up a site, CSS still needs detailing. HTML and CSS are closely linked to the W3C, the World Wide Web consortium. The panel deals with the development of standards and specifications for various formats. The W3C is responsible for ensuring that the new CSS3 standard prevails.

Almost all new browsers support this version. The advantage of CSS3 is that changes and improvements can be better implemented. The appearance of websites looks much better than with the older versions. Especially on tablets and smartphones shows the strength of CSS3. The sites load faster, which of course represents a huge plus for mobile optimization. Of course, the best CSS does not work without HTML. In short, HTML is responsible for capturing and governing the structure of a site. It’s about determining whether a single ingredient is a paragraph, a headline, or a bullet. CSS, on the other hand, sets the appearance of the content. These include layout, colors and typography.

Which browsers support CSS3?

Firefox is one of the most popular Internet browsers. He can usefully implement the most popular CSS3 formats. The new technical possibilities such as multi-column layouts, transformations and transitions are no problem for the browser. Microsoft has improved the implementation of CSS3 with every advancement of Internet Explorer. Meanwhile, Microsoft has reached the browser Edge, which is compatible with the new format and IE11 replaced. However, many people still use older versions that are no longer supplied with updates by the Group and therefore do not yet support CSS3.

Safari and Chrome are among the applications that can best implement CSS3. Both browsers rely on this advanced standard. Google in particular offers many of its products, which immediately build on the new version. Opera is a free browser where the ad blocker is integrated as standard. It’s available for Mac, Linux and Windows, and it’s up to the speed of the other browsers. Numerous enhancements ensure that the user can set up other useful functions. Its advantages Opera plays mainly on smartphones. The program supports CSS3 from Opera Presto 2.6.

The most important changes for the website design

A new feature is the CSS3 fonts. This makes it possible to embed any font in the website. Previously, the presentation of a non-standard font was only possible if the user had previously downloaded it to his PC. However, there is still a restriction on CSS3 fonts. As previously described, older browser versions do not depict the new formats. Another new feature is the Media Queries, which use different formatting depending on the screen size. In plain language, this means that when accessing a website via a smartphone smaller style details are activated.

Another advantage of CSS3 is that background images can be better controlled. The size of background images can be specified with the command “background-size”. In addition, you can assign several background images to a picture. The command also determines where (the frame, content, padding) the background image is to be aligned. Furthermore, CSS3 can make the line breaks and blocks more meaningful. An additional important point is that animations can be created without the use of JavaScript. This is especially useful if users have turned off or blocked the use of JavaScript. The animations are called anyway and are not dependent on JavaScript.

The application of CSS3 in everyday life

CSS3 is used more and more in everyday professional life. Most CMS systems and design templates are already based on it. As already described, Google also relies on the new effects in many of its applications. However, it also turns out that many websites are still based in part on the very old functions. Many still fear disadvantages in the presentation of the content, because (as already described) the older browser versions do not support CSS3. But the benefits of CSS3 definitely outweigh. This is reflected above all in the fact that CSS3 plays its advantages in the presentation of mobile content.

As more and more people access the content of websites from their mobile phones, it is essential that CSS3 become increasingly established.

The majority of users actually assume that the websites are very well prepared graphically and in terms of content, while at the same time running smoothly. You also do not want to open JavaScript applications that unnecessarily delay loading time. The further development in the coming years is difficult to predict. What is certain, however, is that the trend is increasingly towards improving loading time and presentation. So there will be a further development at CSS in the near future, so that the new requirements can be better put into reality. It remains to be seen which new functions will come to us.

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