Cascading Style Sheets
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What's new?

• 010905 WestCiv released version 2.0 of the CSS editor Style Master. Supports CSS2 and includes a browser-compatibility guide. (Mac & Windows)
• 010817 The KDE project released version 2.2, including the Konqueror browser and the KHTML library. A table outlines its (impressive) CSS2 support. (OpenSource, Unix)
• 010806 A Perl CSS project has been started on SourceForge, to develop CSS-DOM and SAC libraries for Perl.
• 010803 XMLmind has released a beta version of XMLmind Editor (XXE), an XML 1.0 editor, that also features a WYSIWYG editing mode using CSS2.
• 010711 Morphon Technologies released a beta of the Morphon Standalone CSS Editor, supporting CSS2 (Java, free trial)
• 010704 Visicom MŽdia released version 4.30.0 of WebExpert 2000, an HTML editor with support for CSS2, in French.
• 010627 Westciv offers a 12-week, online CSS1 course, starting 25 June 2001. (Free if followed in real time.)
• 010622 Maxro Software has released CSS-Styler 3.0, a CSS editor for Windows (free trial version)
• 010621 JustStyle CSS Editor (version 1.1) is an editor for CSS1 style sheets. (30-day free trial, Java)
• 010613 WestCiv has released Layout Master, a program to design page layouts in HTML/CSS2 by drag & drop. (Mac, Windows forthcoming)
• 010530 Bradbury Software has released version 2.10 of TopStyle, a CSS editor for Windows. Includes support for Netscape 6, IE 6 and Opera 5. (Shareware)
• 010523 Westciv published version 3 of their online CSS guide, covering all of CSS2 as well as browser compatibility issues. (Free online, enhanced version for sale.)
• 010517 Opera Software has released the Linux version of the Opera browser version 5.0.
• 010515 Espial's Escape 4.7 browser implements CSS support for HTML, XML and XHTML. Written in Java for the embedded software market. Evaluation download available, registration required.
• 010427A Perl module that implements SAC, called CSS::SAC, has been written by Robin Berjon. (OpenSource.)
• 010426 iCab, a browser for the Mac, is starting to support CSS. The preview release of version 2.5 reportedly supports most of CSS1. (Free)
• 010326 Openwave's mobile browser implements XHTML and CSS and is expected to ship in cell phones 2nd half of 2001. Also see data sheet [PDF].
• 010326 Nokia will start selling mobile phones that support XHTML and CSS during 2001. See demo [Flash], press release and white paper [PDF].
• 010323 Westciv is offering online courses, which you can follow for free on their site or buy. HTML/XHTML starts now, CSS1 will follow in June.
• 010220 The Browser upgrade initiative of the WaSP (Web Standards Project) aims to rid the world of old, non-standards compliant browsers that hold back progress.
• 010215 Version 5.02 of the Opera browser has been released for Windows. There are beta versions for EPOC. Shareware.
• 010130 W3Schools is a site with tutorials on many Web technologies, including CSS.
• 010123 The Arachne WWW browser for DOS and Linux supports CSS1 since version 1.70 (free for non-commercial use).
• 010113 A page from the tutorial of the Morphon XML editor (see below) explains why CSS is a good choice for XML.
• 001211 The Zvon site has published a complete CSS2 reference with examples. Also on that site: the CSS1 reference by Miloslav Nic is an index to the CSS1 spec by property name, enhanced with examples. There is also a tutorial on CSS for XML.
• 001208 Aurelia Systems offers Aureleon, a printer driver for Windows 95/98/NT/2000 that converts anything you can print to HTML + CSS.
• 001115 Netscape has released Netscape 6, with one of the best CSS implementations to date.
• 001102 Thomas Meinike has released StyleAssistant (German page), a menu-driven program for writing CSS1 style sheets. (Freeware, Windows)
• 001014 Quanta is an HTML editor for the KDE desktop. CSS 1 & 2 support is in the beta for KDE2 (Unix, OpenSource)

Something to add? Let me know!

Learning CSS

CSS Browsers

The easiest way to start experimenting with style sheets is to download one of the browsers that support CSS1. Not all of the browsers below implement the full specification, but releases are coming out fast so this should soon change.

• 010817 The KDE project released version 2.2, including the Konqueror browser and the KHTML library. A table outlines its (impressive) CSS2 support. (OpenSource, Unix)
• 010517 Opera Software has released the Linux version of the Opera browser version 5.0.
• 010515 Espial's Escape 4.7 browser implements CSS support for HTML, XML and XHTML. Written in Java for the embedded software market.
• 010426 iCab, a browser for the Mac, is starting to support CSS. The preview release of version 2.5 reportedly supports most of CSS1. (Free)
• 010326 Openwave's mobile browser implements XHTML and CSS and is expected to ship in cell phones 2nd half of 2001. Also see data sheet [PDF].
• 010326 Nokia will start selling mobile phones that support XHTML and CSS during 2001. See demo [Flash], press release and white paper [PDF].
• 010215 Version 5.02 of the Opera browser has been released for Windows. There are betas of version 5 for EPOC. BeOS version is 3.62. Shareware.
• 010123 The Arachne WWW browser for DOS and Linux supports CSS1 since version 1.70 (free for non-commercial use).
• 001115 Netscape has released Netscape 6, with one of the best CSS implementations to date.
• 000815 NetClue Corp. released the Clue browser 3.0, a Java component with support for CSS1, DOM and Javascript.
• 000327 Microsoft shipped Internet Explorer 5 for the Macintosh. It apparently supports full CSS1, the first browser to do so.
• 991202 Closure is a Web browser written in Common Lisp; supports CSS1.
• 991022 Hewlett Packard released their "embedded microbrowser" ChaiFarer, supporting CSS1. CSS2 will come later.
• 990924 ICE Soft released v.5 of their two embeddable browsers: the "base" one is a viewer for HTML/XML+CSS2, the "pro" one adds networking and more. Both in Java. Does MathML, too.
• 990412 Microsoft has released Internet Explorer 5.0 for Windows, Solaris and HP-UX
• Silicon Graphics has an embeddable CSS-enhanced web browser that is used in a number of applications and their desktop
• Amaya is W3C's Web client that is both a browser and an authoring tool. It has partial (but growing) support for CSS1.
• Arena, previously W3C's testbed browser, is now being developed by Yggdrasil. It has a partial implementation of CSS1.
• Emacs-w3, a.k.a. Gnuscape Navigator, supports some CSS1.

These sources document the level of support in various browsers:

• 000328 RichInStyle.com has lists of bugs for various browsers.
• 990909 Western Civilisation compares CSS1 support in Netscape, Internet Explorer and Opera.
• 990412 Do you have fear of style sheets? Jeffrey Zeldman has the cure.
• The CSS Pointers Group documents CSS bugs in major browsers.
• ProjectCool documents CSS properties and tells you what works in which browser.
• WebReview's The Browser Compatibility Chart is a thorough review of how the implementations match the specification.
• Braden N. McDaniel has documented MS IE3 for Windows95/NT

CSS Authoring Tools

Currently, most Web Authoring tools provide some sort of support for CSS style sheets. A ZDnet article described some of them. The list below is far from complete, but contains (in chronological order) all tools that have been reported to us.

• 010905 WestCiv released version 2.0 of the CSS editor Style Master. Supports CSS2 and includes a browser-compatibility guide. (Mac & Windows)
• 010803 XMLmind has released a beta version of XMLmind Editor (XXE), an XML 1.0 editor, that also features a WYSIWYG editing mode using CSS2.
• 010711 Morphon Technologies released a beta of the Morphon Standalone CSS Editor, supporting CSS2 (Java, free trial)
• 010704 Visicom MŽdia released version 4.30.0 of WebExpert 2000, an HTML editor with support for CSS2, in French.
• 010622 Maxro Software has released CSS-Styler 3.0, a CSS editor for Windows (free trial version)
• 010621 JustStyle CSS Editor (version 1.1) is an editor for CSS1 style sheets. (30-day free trial, Java)
• 001101 Bradbury Software has released version 2.10 of TopStyle, a CSS editor for Windows.
• 001102 Thomas Meinike has released StyleAssistant (German page), a menu-driven program for writing CSS1 style sheets. (Freeware, Windows)
• 001014 Quanta is an HTML editor for the KDE desktop. CSS 1 & 2 support is in the beta for KDE2 (Unix, OpenSource)
• 000928 Software602 has an office suite 602 Pro Suite for Windows that can edit HTML+CSS (freeware).
• 000802 Lunatech Research has released beta version 7 of the Morphon XML editor, which includes a CSS editor. Written in Java.
• 000704 AceHTML 4 by Visicom Media is an HTML/CSS editor for Windows. Both commercial and freeware versions are available.
• 991217 Justsystem (also in English) has released their Java-based, multi-lingual wordprocessor ICHITARO Ark. It uses HTML/CSS as its native format (screenshot).
• 991119 Bluefish is an OpenSource HTML editor for Unix with support for CSS1.
• 991026 Amaya, W3C's Web client that is both a browser and an authoring tool, is in version 2.2.
• 990807 Cascade and Cascade Light are CSS editors for the Mac.
• 990804 En Vogue is a (non-WYSIWYG) editor running on the Atari ST. It supports CSS1 & 2.
• 990529 SoftQuad's XMetaL authors & displays XML documents with CSS style sheets.
• 990525 CorelDraw 9 exports HTML + CSS.
• 980929 SoftQuad's HoTMetaL PRO 5.0 authors, as well as displays, CSS and HTML.
• 980829 W3CSS is in a new release.
• 980829 Prime Style has become a shareware product and versions 2.0 is now available.
• 980826 StyleOne is an easy-to-use CSS editor to create Web pages.
• 980312 CSS Mill by Patrick Corcoran is a visual tool for generating CSS styled HTML.
• 980115 Lewis Gartenberg has released a shareware tool, W2CSS which converts MS Word documents into HTML and CSS.
• 971216 EDF has released CSSize, a tool which helps you convert HTML documents into HTML+CSS documents.
• 971216 Hexmac has released HexWeb CSS Edit as a plugin for BBEDit or as a stand-alone Macintosh version.
• 971205: Cascade is a comprehensive Cascading Style Sheets editor for Mac. There is also a free version called Cascade Light.
• 971204 A CSS mode for Alpha, a Mac programming editor, is available.
• 971204 Anansi is reported to support CSS.
• 971104 Coffeecup Software's StyleSheet Maker++ is a dedicated application for creating CSS style sheets.
• 971024 mBED's Interactor 1.1 supports CSS Positioning which, when combined with a scriping language, allows you to create HTML-based animations.
• 971006 Macromedia has released a preview release of DreamWeaver, an HTML authoring tool with rich support for CSS, including CSS Positioning.
• 971006: Danere has released a new version of StyleMaker which supports CSS Positioning through a drag-and-drop interface.
• 970912 Optima System's PageSpinner is a shareware HTML editor for MacOS with support for CSS.
• 970908: Microsoft's beta version of FrontPage98 has some support for CSS.
• 970710:Sheet Stylist is an application (actually an ActiveX control) for Windows 95 that allows you to create, edit and maintain CSS styles sheets.
• 970623: Astrobyte has announced BeyondPress 3.0 which will convert QuarkXPress documents into HTML and CSS.
• 970415: The Interaction dynamic site management system includes a comprehensive Macintosh CSS editor.
• 970326: Sausage Software's HotDog editor now supports CSS.
• 970326: Allaire's HomeSite editor (v. 2.5 and above) now supports CSS.
• 960302: Harlequin has announced support for CSS in their Webmaker Frame-to-HTML application.
• JoyHTML is a shareware Swedish HTML editor that supports CSS. It's not WYSIWYG, but rather source-code oriented. Nice if you would like to see the code without remembering the full CSS1 syntax. And you learn some Swedish as well (Download jh99sv.exe)
• Adobe FrameMaker 5.5 can export HTML+CSS.

Other software

• 010806 A Perl CSS project has been started on SourceForge, to develop CSS-DOM and SAC libraries for Perl.
• 010709 "xselect" is a C program that extracts all elements from an XML document that match a CSS selector. Part of the HTML-XML-utils package. (OpenSource)
• 010427 A Perl module that implements SAC, called CSS::SAC, has been written by Robin Berjon. (OpenSource.)
• 001208 Aurelia Systems offers Aureleon, a printer driver for Windows 95/98/NT/2000 that converts anything you can print to HTML + CSS.
• 000420 Infinity Loop has released UpCast, an RTF to XML converter in Java that can generate structured XML or XHTML with an internal or external CSS1 style sheet.
• 000217 Useful? Or not? Anyway, DeCSS is tiny (Perl) program by Mr. Bad to strip all CSS from an HTML file.
• 991024 SAC (W3C's Simple API for CSS) is in beta. Bindings to C and Java are provided.
• 991024 flute 1.0 is W3C's CSS parser in Java.
• 990922 A beta-version of a Java-based CSS2 parser, with an API conforming to the July DOM2 draft, is available from SteadyState.

CSS Specifications

Cascading Style Sheets, level 1 (CSS1) became a W3C Recommendation in December 1996. It describes the CSS language as well as a simple visual formatting model. CSS2, which became a W3C Recommendation in May 1998, builds on CSS1 and adds support for media-specific style sheets (e.g. printers and aural devices), downloadable fonts, element positioning and tables.

CSS3 is currently under development. You can follow its progress as new drafts are published.

Translations into some languages are available from the CSS1 translations page and the CSS2 translations page. Errata are maintained separately for CSS1 and CSS2.

The history of CSS is described in chapter 20 of the book Cascading Style Sheets, designing for the Web, by HŚkon Wium Lie and Bert Bos (2nd ed., 1999, Addison Wesley, ISBN 0-201-59625-3)