Update 15

Some common CSS attributes for HTML5

This list includes some very common CSS properties. It is not intended to be complete. In many cases the list of possible values is also incomplete. Some properties can be used with additional tags.

Commonly used with body, div, and table tags

• background-color : value Common values:
  • #rrggbb
  • aqua, black, blue, fuchsia, gray, green, lime, maroon, navy, olive, purple, red, silver, teal, white, or yellow
• background-image : url(file name)

Commonly used with p, span, div, h1...h6, body, and table tags

• font-family : value Allows comma separated list. Example:
  

  font-family: "Helvetica", "Arial", sans-serif

  This paragraph actually uses this font-family. In this example, the browser would attempt to use a "Helvetica" family-font first. If it wasn't available, it would try to use "Arial". If neither were available it would use "sans-serif", a generic font available in every browser. One should always include a generic-family font as the last font because a viewer's computer may not have a particular family-name font available. Note: "Times New Roman" and "Arial" are commonly found on Windows computers while "Times" and "Helvetica" are common on Macs. It generally recommended that if you use a family-name, you specify a font that is commonly found on Macs, one commonly found on Windows computers, and a third generic font just in case neither family font is available on the user's computer. Common values:
  • generic-family : The name of a generic-family: serif, sans-serif, cursive, monospace, fantasy. Recommended! (Note: Do not use quotes around generic-family names.) Note: The generic fonts actually used may vary between browsers and operating systems. For example, the following samples were collected using Windows 7:
    
  • family-name : The name of a font-family, like "Times", "Courier", "Arial", etc. (Note: Quotes are required for font names that include blanks and are commonly used around all family-names.)
• font-size : value Common values:
  • xx-small, small, medium, large, x-large, or xx-large
  • smaller or larger
  • xxx% (where xxx >= 100)
  • xxpx (where xx is the number of pixels - use with great caution)
• font-style : value Common values: normal or italic
• font-weight : value Common values: normal, bold, bolder, or lighter
• color : value See color value list above
• text-align : value Possible values: left, right, center, justify
• text-decoration : value Common values: none, underline, overline, line-through
• text-indent : value Indents first line. Values can be positive or negative.
• width : value Examples:

     width:  500px

     width:  40%

Commonly used with ordered and unordered lists

• list-style-type : value Common values

  Ordered lists	Unordered lists
  decimal, lower-roman, upper-roman, lower-alpha	none, disk, circle, square

• list-style-image : url(file name)

Commonly used with img and div tags

Used to make the text wrap around the image or division

• float : value Possible values: left, right, or none

Centering items

• Text: Use the text-align property for the paragraph.
• Images: HTML treats images as oversized text. Put the image in a centered paragraph.
• Tables and divisions: Examples

     aTable.center {                   aDiv.center {
        margin-left: auto;                  margin-left: auto;
        margin-right: auto;                 margin-right: auto;
     }                                 }

Box properties: margins, padding and borders

These apply to all elements and are commonly used with div (divisions), paragraphs, lists and headers, for example. They apply to the "box" containing the element.

• margin : widthValue (the value sets the width of the external margin outside the border around the element and determines how close the element's border can be to other elements.)
• padding : widthValue (the value sets the width of the internal padding inside the border of the element and determines how close the contents of the box can be to the border.)
• border-width : widthValue Common values: thin, medium, thick, or a number as described below.
• border-style : styleValue A few common values: none, dotted, dashed, solid, groove, inset .
• border-color : colorValue See the color value list near the top of the page or may be transparent.

widthValues number values for margin, padding and border-width are commonly set in px (pixels), in (inches), cm (centimeters) or percents. The above listing is short. One can control the top, right side, bottom, and left side of the box independently using -top, -right, -bottom, -left following the words margin, padding, or border.

Tables

When formatting tables, you typically define CSS for the <table>, <tr>, <th>, <td>, and <caption> tags as needed. The following properties discussed above may be useful: border, width, height, text-align, padding, background-color, color, margin-left: auto, and margin-right: auto, for example, are often useful. Important Some browsers require using HTML5 and start with the tag <!DOCTYPE html>. Some special properties:

• border-collapse:collapse Collapses table and cell borders into a single border line instead of having both table cell borders.
• caption-side: value Used with the caption tag to specify location of the caption. Common values: top (default) or bottom.

CSS measurement units

Changing hyperlink colors

• a:link, a:visited, a:hover, a:active The order is important! Example:

    a:link {color:green}
    a:visited {color:maroon}
    a:hover {color:black}
    a:active {color:blue}

  The "with style" version of this page uses the above statements. See the links at the end of this page to see how they work.

Three ways to use CSS

1. style tag: Example:

   <style  type="text/css">
       body {background-color: #ffffcc;
           ... }
       p.center {text-align:center}
       .special {color: blue}
   </style>
   ...
   <p class="special">   

2. in-line: Example:

   <body style="background-color: #ffffcc"; ... >
   <p style="text-align:center">

3. external: Example:

   <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="filename.css"> 

One can specify different style sheets for different types of devices:

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="all" href="filename_a.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="handheld" href="filename_h.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="print" href="filename_p.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" href="filename_s.css">

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" 
      media="handheld, screen and (max-width: 500px)"
      href="filename_n.css">

says to apply the specified style sheet to handheld devices or to screens that are 500 pixels or less wide. (Use "," for "or".) Do an internet search for "CSS media" for additional details.

This page uses the above 5 stylesheet link statements using the style sheets CommonCSS_all.css, CommonCSS_handheld.css, CommonCSS_print.css, CommonCSS_screen.css, and CommonCSS_narrow.css. The first contains all the common CSS. The second changes the <pre> font to green, the third changes that color to red (check with print preview), the fourth changes that font color to blue, while the last one change the background color for <pre> to light red.

View this page using CSS
View this page without any CSS
You may want to view the source file to see the CSS used in this file.

These files are exactly the same except the <style> tag in the head section was removed in the "without" page.

Maintained by brinkje@plu.edu
Updated Sept. 12, 2016.