The emergence of html style sheet is a very welcome event for web page designers because this tool gives them more freedom for creativity and a wider room to improve the presentation of their websites.

Unlike earlier layouting applications meant for static or “still-life” rich content (images and text); html codes for website entail a structured and often tedious process just to resolve issues like paragraph indention, color assignments for backgrounds and for text, font appearances and other creative manipulations. This is because the web cannot read and interpret these commands like static programs can (like Adobe PageMaker, Publisher or InDesign.)

Several processes were adopted to get past these limitations, which further complicates the use of html. To resolve the issues once and for all, the online community of html users devised a way to use a unified html presentation mechanism that is inter-operative, simplifies web page construction and is user-friendly. The result is the html style sheet.

An html style sheet makes it easier for designers to specify spaces, assign colors for page elements, specify font appearances and make other creative controls in the web page.

Take for instance this style sheet (CSS) for color assignment of a text and its background.

P.special {
color : green;
border: solid red;
}

Web page authors can easily link this style sheet to their source html file with the link element.

Html style sheets enables the following conveniences in web designing: flexibility in placing style information, can work independently from other language style sheets, enables cascading or allowing various style information from various sources to be blended, and applies to a specific media like print screens or a specific Operating System.