Know the Difference Between CSS and CSS3

In the world of web development, design is everything, and CSS is an essential tool in shaping the way a website looks and feels. 

But have you heard about CSS3? 

While CSS has long been the backbone of web styling, CSS3 brings new and exciting features that allow developers to take design to the next level. 

Whether you are a seasoned web developer or just starting out, understanding the key distinctions between CSS and CSS3 is crucial for crafting modern, responsive, and visually stunning websites. 

Let’s dive into the evolution of CSS and explore how CSS3 has transformed the way we design for the web.

What is CSS?

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is a stylesheet language web designers use to craft HTML or XML websites. 

Using CSS, web designers can incorporate their creative ideas, including the placement of different buttons, the font style, the color theme, and the spacing of the elements on the website to enhance its overall look and feel and grab a visitor’s attention. 

This syntax language is easy to use and understand and was launched 27 years ago, in 1996, by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

★ Example of CSS

➢ Purpose and Functionality of CSS

One of the primary purposes of CSS is to separate content from presentation. 

For instance, when a website is designed with a markup language like HTML, including headings, paragraphs, and links, the layout tends to look pretty plain and basic. 

CSS resolves this problem and makes the website more appealing and presentable. With CSS, developers can customize the complete site design, including font size, color, and style. 

Key functionalities of CSS are mentioned below:

•  Layout Modification

• CSS plays a crucial role in modifying the layout. With CSS, developers can create visually appealing designs without complex codes. They can be modified by changing the position of the elements, creating unique grid patterns, and improving a website’s responsiveness.

• With features like box model, flexbox, grid layout customization, legacy layout techniques, etc., developers can breathe life into a website and make it captivating through innovative concepts.

•  Style Alteration

• With CSS, developers can change colors and backgrounds, update text and font styles, alter border styles, add animations and transitions, and implement hover and focus effects.

• All in all, CSS empowers developers to style web elements, making the website attractive, responsive, and cohesive in design.

•  Animations and Transitions

• One of CSS’s exciting features is that developers can add animations and transitions to web pages, making them look stunning. With just a few code lines of CSS, developers can animate elements like buttons, images, and text. 

• They can also create transitions, such as background color changes when a button is clicked. Furthermore, CSS allows them to control the duration and delay of the transitions and animations, resulting in an unimaginable output. 

➢ Comprehensive Overview of CSS Features and Capabilities

Some of the features of CSS are listed below:

•  Transitions

• With CSS, developers can create smooth transitions between different states of an element. This enhances the quality of the content and makes it more appealing to the audience.

•  Font Control

• CSS allows developers to use tools to specify font size, line heights, and letter spacing. It also enables responsive typography adjustments for different screen sizes, granting developers complete flexibility over the appearance and behavior of the fonts.  

•  Color

• The color feature in CSS is a crucial aspect of website design. It allows users to specify the appearance of different HTML elements. Beyond this, CSS allows for transparency effects and color adjustments.

• With a wide range of operations, the color feature of CSS is essential for developing creatively amazing websites.

•  Background Images

• The Background Images feature in CSS allows web developers to craft visually striking websites by setting images as the backgrounds of HTML elements.

• CSS offers several properties to control background images, such as positioning, size, and attachment. With such controls developers can ensure that the background images adapt to different screen sizes and the website maintains a seamless and scalable layout.

➢ Core Benefits of Using CSS in Web Development

•  Improved Website Speed

• CSS separates the style (design) of a webpage from its content (text/images). This reduces the size of your HTML files, helping your website load faster.

• Example: Instead of writing the same style for every button in the HTML file, you define it once in a CSS file and apply it to all buttons.

•  Low Maintenance

• CSS allows you to make changes in one place that reflects across your entire website.

• Example: If your website has 20 pages and you decide to change the font, you only need to update it in your CSS file, not on all 20 pages.

•   Consistent Design

• CSS ensures the same styling across all pages of your website, making it your website look professional.

• Example: The headers, fonts, and colors on your homepage will match those on your contact or blog pages, creating a uniform experience.

•  Website Customization

• With CSS, you can give your website a unique look that matches your brand.

• Example: You can create a rounded, shadowed button that changes color when hovered over:

•  Time-saving

• By reusing CSS rules, you save time during development.

• Example: Define a style for all your website’s headings in one CSS file, and apply it to all pages of a website without rewriting the code.

•  Improved Content Management

• CSS keeps the content (HTML) and design (CSS) separate, making updates easier.

• Example: If you’re updating the text on a page, you don’t accidentally mess up its styling since the design is managed in a separate file.

•  Impressive Layout Customizations

• CSS lets you create advanced layouts that look good and are functional.

• Example: Arrange a product listing into a neat grid:

•  Responsive Website

• CSS makes your website look good on all devices (desktops, tablets, phones).

• Example: Use media queries to adjust the layout for smaller screens.

What is CSS3?

CSS3 (Cascading Style Sheet 3) is an improvised version of CSS that allows developers to create more visually appealing, interactive, and responsive web designs. 

With additional features and better personalization tools, CSS3 takes website customization to another level. As CSS3 is based on the CSS model, understanding it is not difficult and can be easily implemented by developers.

★ Example of CSS3

➢ Purpose and Functionality of CSS3

CSS3 has several vital purposes and functionalities in web development and design. 

Some of them are listed below:

•  Improved User Experience

• CSS3 has notably improved the user experience with exciting features like animations and transitions, responsive design with media queries, and improved typography.

• These advanced features enhance the visual and functional aspects of websites. The advancements not only improve the aesthetics but also the responsiveness and efficiency of the website. 

•  Enhanced Accessibility

• Through improved design techniques, responsive layouts, and features that help in content presentation, CSS3 helps make content more accessible to users with disabilities, ensuring a seamless user experience for all.

• Adaptable design, a focus on readability, color and contrast accessibility, and keyboard navigation are some of the attributes that help enhance the website’s accessibility.   

•  Optimized Website Performance

• CSS3 plays a big role in optimizing website performance by offering tools and techniques that enhance both the speed and efficiency of web pages. Faster load times and smooth interactions contribute to improved user experience and make websites more responsive and accessible on various devices.  

•  Customized Website Design

• With flexible layouts like Flexbox and Grid, custom typography, backgrounds and effects, animations and transitions, custom borders, and much more, CSS3 enables developers and designers to create unique and customized website designs.

➢ Comprehensive Overview of CSS3 Features

CSS3 offers a great package of features that expands developers’s design and customization capabilities. Some of them are listed below:

•  CSS Grid Layout

• CSS grid layout is a powerful layout system developed for building complex two-dimensional layouts. Unlike Flexbox, which works only in a single dimension, CSS grid layout allows working in two dimensions, which means one can focus on rows and columns simultaneously.

•  Rounded Corners

• With CSS3’s border-radius property, developers can add smooth curves to the edges of elements and enhance the website’s visual appearance. By specifying the border radius for each element, developers have complete control over how rounded an element looks.

•  Calc() Function

• It is a powerful feature of CSS3 that permits developers to perform mathematical calculations directly over CSS property values. This attribute makes it easier for developers to generate layouts that adapt to varying content and screen sizes.

➢ Unlocking the Key Advantages of CSS3 for Modern Web Design

CSS3 is a powerful tool that helps designers make websites look great and work better. Here’s a simple breakdown of its key advantages, with examples:

•  Integration with HTML5

• CSS3 works well with HTML5, the structure of a webpage. This means it can style new features like videos or animations without extra plugins.

• Example: You can use CSS3 to style a video player created with HTML5, making it look custom instead of a default design.

•  Advanced website maintenance

• CSS3 makes it easier to update and manage a website’s look. Changes can be made to the style without touching the content or structure.

• Example: If you want to change the color of all headings on your website, you can do it in one place (the CSS file) instead of changing each page individually.

•  Empowering control over layouts

• CSS3 gives you better control over how elements are arranged on a page. You can create flexible and responsive designs that adjust to different screen sizes, like on phones or desktops.

• Example: A CSS3 grid can create a responsive layout where content automatically adjusts when viewed on mobile or desktop.

•  Improved Typography

• Websites use amazing fonts & you find the website fonts of other websites & want to implement something amazing like that. With CSS3, you can use custom fonts, making your text look unique and more readable.

• Example: Instead of using the default fonts, CSS3 allows you to choose stylish fonts like Google Fonts for a more personalized look.

•  Optimized Load Times

• CSS3 allows you to reduce the number of files a website needs to load, speeding up how quickly a page appears to users.

• Example: Using CSS3 to animate elements (instead of using heavy image files) can reduce load time and improve website performance.

•  Improved User Experience

• CSS3 enhances how users interact with a website, making it feel smoother and more engaging. It supports animations, transitions, and other effects that improve visual appeal.

• Example: You can add smooth transitions with CSS3, so when a user hovers over a button, it changes color or size gracefully, making it feel more interactive.

Key Differences Between CSS & CSS3

Compatibility Issues Between CSS & CSS3

Conclusion

Understanding the key differences between CSS and CSS3 is crucial for developers and designers to explore the possibilities for creating modern, responsive, and visually appealing websites. 

CSS is the foundational language for styling web pages and has served its purpose, providing basic styling capabilities with HTML. Whereas, CSS3 represents a remarkable evolution in web design and, with its advanced features and advantages, has raised the bar in web design.

Now, as we have discussed both CSS and CSS3 in depth, it is up to you to decide which stylesheet is most appropriate for you and serves your purpose.