Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) is used by designers for the presentation of documents written in the markup language like HTML, XML, and XHTML. Before the inception of CSS, designers had a difficult time in organizing web contents that would appeal to users ("Speaking in Styles: Fundamentals of CSS for Web Designers", 2010). With the use of CSS, web developers can choose how and where contents are displayed on the website. It has given web designers the capabilities to manage visual style and user interfaces of web pages. The layouts, color combinations, spacing among other design elements have an impact on readability and usability of web pages. Whereas markup languages are concerned with the structure and content of the website, a single CSS file can control the colors, fonts, and styling of data for the entire site. This helps a user to navigate the website easily and locate contents. CSS also ensures flexibility and compatibility in the presentation of contents for different types and version (old/new versions) of the browsers without distorting the original structure of the website.
CSS comes with different capabilities that are beneficial to users and web designers. Web pages that have incorporated CSS styles tend to load quickly (Zahringer, 2008). This is possible since the sheets are downloaded only once and cached. These makes the pages load fast, and is convenient to the users. According to Zahringer (2008), competent web designers also use CSS to develop print-friendly web pages. In this case, developers can choose images, colors as well as the font styles that can be printed easily. Another dominant feature of the CSS is that it can allow users of websites to customize the themes or layout of the website; without altering the content. Expert developers can also implement CSS to make a website Search Engine Optimization (SEO) friendly (Tuknov, 2006). This is achieved by using external style sheets to create the design attributes of the web pages. This will result to clean HTML codes that are easily recognizable to search engines. The CSS codes can also be manipulated to position contents anywhere on the site. Designers can use this capability to make it easy for web crawlers to get to relevant contents easily.
Consistency in web pages also influences the usability and readability. This can be realized by use of external CSS files. A single style, for example, font style, can be applied to many pages via a link to external style sheets. In the case of any change in characteristics of the HTML elements in a web page, this can be altered easily using the CSS. Professional web developers can also use CSS to lend portability of web contents. During coding, different styles sheets are developed for various Medias, presenting them in a flexible way to suit the need of the current situation. Another important feature of the cascading style sheet is the ability to present different viewing options based on the devices used by users. It is a common design concern for web developers to make websites easily accessible. CSS coders address this challenge by allowing same markup pages to be presented differently. They can create separate style sheets to suit views in mobile devices, tablets, or desktop computers among other computing devices. Given that designers can separate web contents from the CSS files; this makes it easy for maintenance and redesigning of the website layout at any given time (Zahringer, 2008). All a web developer is required is to modify the CSS files, and the changes will be reflected across the entire website structure.
References
Speaking in Styles: Fundamentals of CSS for Web Designers. (2010). Choice Reviews Online, 47(05), 47-2619-47-2619.
Tuknov, M. (2006). Benefits of CSS in Search Engine Optimization - Search Engine Journal. Search Engine Journal. Retrieved 20 April 2016, from https://www.searchenginejournal.com/benefits-of-css-in-search-engine- optimization/4149/
Zahringer, D. (2008). Why CSS is Important. Trademark Productions. Retrieved 20 April 2016, from https://www.tmprod.com/blog/2008/why-css-is-important/
