In a world of multiple stylesheet languages, web developers find themselves facing many options. Well, I’m here to shed a little bit of light on one of the more common stylesheet languages: CSS. CSS, as you may have guessed is the initialization of the term cascading stylesheets. But what is a cascading stylesheet, you ask? Allow me to provide a brief overview.

As mentioned above, cascading stylesheets are just one of a number of multiple stylesheet languages. Stylesheets, as you know, are the computer languages used to describe the presentation of structured documents whose sections are clearly defined and categorized. Web developers use cascading stylesheets to help readers of web pages define colors, fonts and layouts. More importantly, cascading stylesheets are used to separate document content from document presentation.

So how do cascading stylesheets improve content accessibility? In separating content and presentation, the developer is afforded greater flexibility and control in the specification of presentation characteristics. Furthermore, cascading stylesheets allow the same markup page to be presented in different styles for different rendering methods. Cascading stylesheets assign priorities to determine which rules take precedence should multiple rules match against a particular element. Each stylesheet is essentially a list of rules.

Cascading stylesheets are used to simplify HTML development. Before cascading stylesheets rose to prominence, authors would have to repeatedly define the parameters of fonts, borders, alignments and sizes. The cascading stylesheets allowed the developers to place all that information into one place: the stylesheet. In short, the cascading stylesheet made working in HTML much easier.

However, while cascading stylesheets are very helpful, they do have their limitations. Certain web browsers will read cascading stylesheets differently. Furthermore, cascading stylesheets do not contain variables or allow for column declaration. Additionally, cascading stylesheets are limited in their abilities to contain float, control element shapes, control vertical limitations and specify property values as simple expressions. Aside from the limitations, there are a few more I have not specified. But, we don’t need to drill too deep into the limitations of cascading stylesheets as new users will likely not be dealing with such limitations.

As you develop your web dev skills, you will get to know more about cascading stylesheets and their effectiveness. Just remember to be patient, learning a new language takes time!