HTML, XHTML, and CSS Bible, Fifth Edition

Chapter 38. The Future of CSS: CSS3

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Modularity

• Using CSS3 Properties Today

• More Control over Selections

• Revisiting the Brass Ring of CSS: Rounded Corners

For the development of Web content, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) have become the inseparable sibling of HTML. Without CSS, designers cannot create elaborately designed documents; without HTML, designers cannot create any platform for documents.

Introduced in late 1996, CSS level 1 brought a whole new design perspective to the Web. Later, in mid-1998, CSS level 2 was responsible for a new dimension of Web content, positional element, a third dimension of elements, media types, and more. In 2005, CSS level 2.1 was released to fix existing bugs in CSS but did not provide any evolutionary changes to Web design.

CSS level 3, currently in development, promises another leap forward on the Web, introducing new properties and values that bring the current realm of the Web that much closer to printed medium. Although full coverage of the new version could fill a book of its own, this chapter provides an overview of some of the more globally anticipated features of CSS level 3.

Note

As mentioned, CSS3 is currently still in development. Because this chapter was written based on the current draft specification, it is likely that some of the material presented here will change. Visit the W3C working site to follow the development of this new version: www.w3.org/Style/CSS/current-work#table.

Just Better

Much of the work going into this new ...