Beginning CSS3

CHAPTER 1

Introducing CSS—the Language of Web Design

Building a website with HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is only half the story. HTML controls the structure of a web page, using tags such as <p> for paragraphs, <img> for images, and <input> for form elements. This structural role has become even more important with the introduction of semantic elements, such as <article> and <nav>, in HTML5. But HTML says nothing about how the page should look. That’s the role of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Even default styles are controlled internally by the browser’s own CSS.

Instead of applying styles directly to individual elements, the most common—and ...