What is CSS?

Hello,

In this course, we will learn CSS, a software language that will increase the visuality of our web pages.

If you are not familiar with HTML, firstly complete the HTML Getting Started course. 

If you say I already know HTML, let's get started.

In this part of our course we will learn why we need CSS.

First of all, let's ask the first question that stuck in my mind while learning CSS.

What HTML cannot do, we have to learn an extra language?

First of all, let's recall what HTML does. 

HTML is a language we use to present the data we have on web pages (Text, Visual, Formula, etc.) more accurately to users.

For example, let's imagine that we are writing an article in a notebook. 

If we remove the dot, comma, and other punctuation marks from our article, we can misrepresent what we want to tell the people who will read our article.

There are also HTML tags that we use to express the information we want to give to users more clearly on the web pages.

And a web page is an HTML document, and browsers are looking for an HTML document to run the page. So you can think of an HTML document as the base of a web page.

So what does CSS do?

CSS is a technology developed to provide the visuality that HTML is insufficient during the presentation of the data we have.

Let's think with another analogy. Imagine you are building a house. The main task of a house is to serve as a shelter for people who will live in it. This is what HTML does.

The primary purpose of a web page is to provide information to people who open this page in their browser. CSS is a technology that provides the exterior paint of this house, decorations of the house, and the proper placement of windows.

Even if ideal web pages do not have CSS (e.g., Wikipedia), HTML fulfills the primary task because it carries data. However, CSS helps HTML to present this data to the user in a more meaningful and beautiful way.

The image above is a screenshot of the wikipedia.com site with styles disabled. 

In other words, using only HTML language, we can get an output as you see above for our visitors.

Now let's look at the output by re-enabling the CSS code.

As you can see, the data presented within the site does not change, but with CSS, our site only becomes friendly for users.

With the current version of CSS, CSS3, it has gained many visual abilities.

We learned what CSS is. Before moving on to the next section,

let's see the most frequently asked questions about CSS.

Since when has CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) been used?

CSS is a technology used since 1996.

Can I make a web page without using CSS?

Yes, you can. But it will probably look so bad that no users enter. Without CSS, a web page cannot be literally called a web page.

Do major web apps like Facebook, Google, and Amazon use CSS?

Yes, not only these but every web page you open in the browser uses CSS.

Is CSS challenging to learn?

CSS is easy to learn. We will write code as if we speak English. However, in a few minor issues, software developers often find it difficult. 

For example, how to position the blocks on the page. We will focus on these and similar issues. By the end of our course, you will definitely learn CSS.

Do you have any advice you would like me to do while learning CSS?

Yeah. You can learn CSS very quickly by practicing a lot.

Congratulations. 🥳🥳🥳

You have finished the What is CSS lesson.

In the next section, we will learn the Introduction to CSS.

You can click to continue in the next section.