| Cascading Style Sheets, otherwise known as CSS, | | | | developer completely understands CSS and its |
| are a method of styling virtually any element found in | | | | importance on the web. Your website should be |
| a website. They allow web developers to style and | | | | standards compliant and should also be written in |
| format web pages to precision using a standard | | | | such a way that ensures it will be downloaded as |
| format that is recognised by the W3C. CSS is literally | | | | efficiently as possible. A lightweight yet beautiful |
| just like an onion in that it allows designers to layer | | | | website is hard to come by, however with CSS, it is |
| styles upon one another to form a complete styling | | | | quite possible. We are at that point in time where |
| definition for the entire site. | | | | designers are only just starting to embrace CSS for |
| First of all, it is important to understand that websites | | | | what it truly is and as a business owner making an |
| are not just a bunch of text objects thrown | | | | investment, you want to ensure that your designer |
| together on the screen. They are a graphically driven | | | | completely understands this technology. |
| content rich medium that support various element | | | | So, why is CSS just like an onion? Well, because |
| types such as text, images, movies, flash animations, | | | | styles can cascade from their parent element to their |
| databases, form objects and more. For this reason | | | | child elements thus allowing developers to layer up on |
| alone, web designers needed a simple way of styling | | | | styles. This provides a lightweight stylesheet that can |
| and formatting each of these elements that would | | | | be quickly downloaded on almost any connection to |
| not only be recognised by all web browsers but | | | | style the entire site in seconds. Any designer can |
| would also be user friendly. The answer to their calls | | | | code a CSS file but only a true CSS developer can |
| was CSS and it's definitely here to stay. | | | | design a CSS file that will style your site without |
| CSS is favored for a number of reasons, however | | | | forming a huge file. The smaller the CSS file the |
| one of the primary factors that contribute to its | | | | better. |
| popularity is that it is now an industry standard. | | | | At the end of the day, your developer should |
| Websites can meet this standard and it ensures both | | | | understand the importance of CSS and its effects on |
| the developer and the user that the site will appear | | | | your website. They should understand how CSS can |
| exactly the same in every web browser. | | | | help with Search Engine Optimisation and how they |
| Unfortunately, due to browsers incompatibility with all | | | | can utilise the technology to create not only a |
| CSS methods and their inadequate approach to | | | | beautiful site for the end user but also an elegantly |
| supporting the technology, not all browsers display | | | | written piece of code for other developers. The |
| CSS as they should. This is still a huge issue, however | | | | world needs to embrace CSS. From designers to |
| it is slowly being addressed. | | | | software vendors - they all need to contribute to |
| If you are looking to have a website developed in | | | | make this thing truly work. With CSS, the future of |
| the near future, you will want to ensure that your | | | | the World Wide Web is definitely an amazing one. |