CSS Style Sheet Resources:

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a simple mechanism for adding style (e.g. fonts, colors, spacing) to Web documents.

What's new?

• 2003-07-22 The CSS Zen Garden is a project where graphic artists invent many beautiful styles for one single HTML file. Participation is open. There are also versions in French, Dutch, Russian and other languages.
• 2003-07-10 Infinity Loop released new versions of upCast and downCast, which convert between XML+CSS and MS Word or RTF. Word and upCast together can also be used as a CSS editor: named styles will be saved as a CSS style sheet. (Many platforms, requires Java, free demo)
• 2003-07-10 WestCiv released Style Master 3.0 for Mac OS X, a CSS2 editor with a style wizard, built-in documentation about CSS, document preview and more. The Windows version was already available (Windows and Mac, free trial)
• 2003-07-09 Apple has released version 1.0 of the Safari Web browser. It uses KHTML (from the KDE project) as rendering engine. (free, Mac OS X)
• 2003-07-03 Mozilla released Mozilla 1.4, a Web browser, mail client, news reader, HTML editor and IRC client. (Windows, Mac, Linux, other platforms, Open Source)
• 2003-07-03 Netscape released Netscape 7.1, which is based on Mozilla 1.4. (Windows, Mac, Linux, free),
• 2003-07-02 Abstract thought Lab. published Astyle 1.10, a "fairly easy to use" (in their own words) editor for CSS2 (Windows, shareware)
• 2003-07-01 Westciv has updated its courses in CSS, HTML and XHTML to the latest specifications, including a free course, that can be followed on-line in weekly installments.
• 2003-07-01 The Literary Moose has a page of advanced CSS demos, called "CSS Destroy" (probably since they will crash your browser ☺). Creative and often beautiful.
• 2003-07-01 Nigel Peck (MIS Web Design) has written a simple tutorial on margins, borders and padding.
• 2003-06-26 YesLogic has released Prince 2.1, a batch formatter for XML and CSS (even some experimental CSS3), producing PDF or Postscript. (Windows & Linux, free demo)
• 2003-06-26 MacEdition's CodeBitch publishes a table (and an abridged version) of CSS support in Mac browsers.
• 2003-06-08 CreaText 1.5pr2, by Marius Soutier, is an HTML source editor with a dialog-driven CSS2 editor (Mac, free)
• 2003-06-08 MacRabbit released CSSEdit 1.0.1, an editor for CSS2 with features for managing folders of style sheets. (Mac, shareware)
• 2003-06-08 Fogli di stile (CSS) is a tutorial on CSS2 in Italian.

Something to add? Let me know!

CSS Browsers

The easiest way to start experimenting with style sheets is to download one of the browsers that support CSS. Not all of the browsers below implement the full specification, but releases are coming out fast so this should soon change. Various sites describe bugs and work-arounds.

• 2003-07-09 Apple has released version 1.0 of the Safari Web browser. It uses KHTML (from the KDE project) as rendering engine. (free, Mac OS X)
• 2003-07-03 Mozilla released Mozilla 1.4, a Web browser, mail client, news reader, HTML editor and IRC client. (Windows, Mac, Linux, other platforms, Open Source)
• 2003-07-03 Netscape released Netscape 7.1, which is based on Mozilla 1.4. (Windows, Mac, Linux, free),
• 2003-04-21 InDelv XF Framework, see under authoring tools.
• 2003-02-11 The KDE project released KDE 3.1, which includes the Konqueror Web browser and file manager. It has improved support for CSS 2.1, including fixed table layout and positioning. (Unix/X, Open Source)
• 2003-01-31 Opera released version 7 of its browser, with some new CSS-based goodies: small-screen mode (“handheld”), alternative styles, etc. (multiple platforms, shareware)
• 2002-07-24 The Chimera project released version 0.4. Chimera is a browser for Mac OS X, based on Mozilla's Gecko layout engine. (Mac, Open Source)
• 2002-01-22 The X-Smiles team has released version 0.5 ("Oulu") of the X-Smiles XML browser, which supports, among other things, XHTML, SMIL, XForms and the CSS Mobile Profile. (Java, Open Source)
• 2002-01-08 NetClue released Clue Browser v4.1.1. It supports HTML, XML/XHTML, namespaces, CSS (level 1 and part of level 2), DOM, Javascript, etc. (Java)
• 2001-12-19 Microsoft released Internet Explorer for the Mac 5.1, with bug fixes and improved performance. Supports full CSS1 and partial CSS2. (Mac IE 5 was the first browser to reach better than 99% support for CSS1, in March 2000.) (free; Mac OS 8, 9 & X)
• 2001-12-18 OmniWeb 4 is a Web browser for the Mac (OS X) and has a built-in source editor (with HTTP PUT support). (Shareware)
• 2001-11-28 Galeon 1.0 is a Web browser for Gnome. It uses the Gecko rendering engine from Mozilla internally. (Open Source, Unix)
• 2001-11-07 Adobe produces an SVG plugin for browsers under Mac and Windows and for Mozilla 0.9.1 under Linux & Solaris. Supports SVG with CSS styling. (free)
• 2001-10-31 K-Meleon version 0.6 has been released, a lightweight browser based on the Gecko rendering engine of Mozilla (Windows, Open Source)
• 2001-05-15 Espial's Escape 4.7 browser implements CSS support for HTML, XML and XHTML. Written in Java for the embedded software market.
• 2001-04-26 iCab, a browser for the Mac, is starting to support CSS. The preview release of version 2.5 reportedly supports most of CSS1. (Free)
• 2001-03-26 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].
• 2001-03-26 Nokia will start selling mobile phones that support XHTML and CSS during 2001. See demo [Flash], press release and white paper [PDF].
• 2001-01-23 The Arachne WWW browser for DOS and Linux supports CSS1 since version 1.70 (free for non-commercial use).
• 2000-12-11 CSIRO released the CSIRO SVG Toolkit, with a viewer for SVG + CSS and other utilities. (Java, Open Source)
• 2000-08-01 IONIC offers the Ionic SVG toolkit, with a viewer for SVG + CSS and other tools. (Java)
• 2000-06-29 The Koala team wrote Jackaroo, an SVG + CSS viewer. (Jackaroo has now merged with Batik and is no longer supported.) (Java, Open Source)
• 2000-03-27 Microsoft shipped Internet Explorer 5 for the Macintosh. It apparently supports full CSS1, the first browser to do so.
• 1999-12-02 Closure is a Web browser written in Common Lisp; supports CSS1.
• 1999-10-22 Hewlett Packard released their “embedded microbrowser” ChaiFarer, supporting CSS1. CSS2 will come later.
• 1999-09-24 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.
• 1999-04-12 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
• 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:

• 2002-09-27 Johannes Koch has a nice page with work-arounds for various browser bugs.
• 2002-04-09 The SVG working group has a detailed list of the features (including CSS support) of various SVG implementations.
• 2000-03-28 RichInStyle.com has lists of bugs for various browsers. (Careful: as of Oct 2001, there are still several bugs in the list of bugs itself.)
• 1999-09-09 Western Civilisation compares CSS1 support in Netscape, Internet Explorer and Opera.
• 1999-04-12 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. The list below is far from complete, but contains (in chronological order) all tools that have been reported to us.

• 2003-07-10 WestCiv released Style Master 3.0 for Mac OS X, a CSS2 editor with a style wizard, built-in documentation about CSS, document preview and more. The Windows version was already available (Windows and Mac, free trial)
• 2003-07-02 Abstract thought Lab. published Astyle 1.10, a "fairly easy to use" (in their own words) editor for CSS2 (Windows, shareware)
• 2003-06-08 CreaText 1.5pr2, by Marius Soutier, is an HTML source editor with a dialog-driven CSS2 editor (Mac, free)
• 2003-06-08 MacRabbit released CSSEdit 1.0.1, an editor for CSS2 with features for managing folders of style sheets. (Mac, shareware)
• 2003-05-24 Macromedia's WYSIWYG HTML editor and Web-site development tool Dreamweaver MX supports partial CSS2 and integrates TopStyle (Windows & Mac, free trial)
• 2003-05-18 CSSEdit 1.0 is an editor and organizer for CSS2 style sheets (Mac OS X, free trial)
• 2003-05-10 Adobe's GoLive 6 is a WYSIWYG HTML editor and site management tool, which supports CSS2 (Windows & Mac)
• 2003-04-23 W3C released version 8.0 of Amaya, a WYSIWYG, structured editor/browser for (X)HTML, SVG, MathML and CSS. Supports remote editing and annotations (Open Source, Solaris, Linux, Mac, Windows)
• 2003-04-21 InDelv Software announced the release of its XF Framework 0.8.1. XF creates and renders XSL, XML, CSS and XHTML content with both standalone desktop and class library versions. Output can be displayed, printed or exported as PDF. (.NET and Java platforms, free trial)
• 2003-03-31 HTML-Kit is an HTML, XHTML and XML editor with plug-ins that provide, among other things, CSS and CSS manuals. (Windows, free)
• 2003-02-14 Bradbury Software has released version 3.10 of TopStyle Pro, a CSS1 & 2 editor. New in this version: support for Opera 7, the W3C HTML & CSS validators and Bobby. (Windows, free trial)
• 2002-12-09 Price Media has released version 3 of Cascade DTP, a simple DTP application to create page layouts, which can be saved in HTML + CSS. This version adds the ability to edit external style sheets. (free, Windows)
• 2002-05-03 Graphic-Group released a new G-G CSS, a cascading style sheet editor. It is browser-based and includes an embedded http/1.1 web server allowing real-time preview of HTML, ASP and XML. (Windows. Free demo)
• 2002-05-02 Daniel Glazman (daniel @glazman.org) has announced a CSS editor add-on for Composer, the content editor of Mozilla/Netscape 6. This CSS editor is an open-source work in progress and can be freely downloaded
• 2002-04-05 Westciv has released version 1.1 of Layout Master, an HTML + CSS page layout editor (Win & Mac, free trial)
• 2002-03-28 “Uncle Wingnut” wrote a thing that is apparently a simple style sheet creator, but also creates objects for a MOO that you can see if you visit the MOO with a telnet client with a Mozilla rendering engine...
• 2002-01-15 Mozilla Composer is a WYSIWYG editor for HTML. It generates valid HTML 4.01. A configuration option allows the choice between deprecated HTML elements and inline CSS.
• 2001-11-26 JustStyle CSS Editor (version 1.2.2) is an editor for CSS1 style sheets. (30-day free trial, Java)
• 2001-11-22 BrowserEdit is an HTML editor that runs inside the IE browser. It uses CSS to position objects on a page.
• 2001-10-26 Maxro Software has released CSS-Styler 4.0, a CSS editor for Windows (free trial version, German and English)
• 2001-07-11 Morphon Technologies released a beta of the Morphon Standalone CSS Editor, supporting CSS2 (Java, free trial)
• 2001-07-04 Visicom Média released version 4.30.0 of WebExpert 2000, an HTML editor with support for CSS2, in French.
• 2000-11-02 Thomas Meinike has released StyleAssistant (German page), a menu-driven program for writing CSS1 style sheets. (Freeware, Windows)
• 2000-10-14 Quanta is an HTML editor for the KDE desktop. CSS 1 & 2 support is in the beta for KDE2 (Unix, Open Source)
• 2000-09-28 Software602 has an office suite 602 Pro Suite for Windows that can edit HTML+CSS (freeware).
• 2000-08-02 Lunatech Research has released beta version 7 of the Morphon XML editor, which includes a CSS editor. Written in Java.
• 2000-07-04 AceHTML 4 by Visicom Media is an HTML/CSS editor for Windows. Both commercial and freeware versions are available.
• 1999-12-17 Justsystem (also in English) has released their Java-based, multi-lingual wordprocessor ICHITARO Ark. It uses HTML/CSS as its native format (screenshot).
• 1999-11-19 Bluefish is an Open Source HTML editor for Unix with support for CSS1.
• 1999-08-07 Cascade and Cascade Light are CSS editors for the Mac.
• 1999-08-04 En Vogue is a (non-WYSIWYG) editor running on the Atari ST. It supports CSS1 & 2.
• 1999-05-29 SoftQuad's XMetaL authors & displays XML documents with CSS style sheets.
• 1999-05-25 CorelDraw 9 exports HTML + CSS.
• 1998-09-29 SoftQuad's HoTMetaL PRO 5.0 authors, as well as displays, CSS and HTML.
• 1998-08-29 Lewis Gartenberg has released a version 2 of a shareware tool, W2CSS which converts MS Word documents into HTML and CSS.
• 1998-08-29 Prime Style has become a shareware product and versions 2.0 is now available.
• 1998-08-26 StyleOne is an easy-to-use CSS editor to create Web pages.
• 1998-03-12 CSS Mill by Patrick Corcoran is a visual tool for generating CSS styled HTML.
• 1997-12-16 EDF has released CSSize, a tool which helps you convert HTML documents into HTML+CSS documents.
• 1997-12-16 Hexmac has released HexWeb CSS Edit as a plugin for BBEDit or as a stand-alone Macintosh version.
• 1997-12-05: Cascade is a comprehensive Cascading Style Sheets editor for Mac. There is also a free version called Cascade Light.
• 1997-12-04 A CSS mode for Alpha, a Mac programming editor, is available.
• 1997-12-04 Anansi is reported to support CSS.
• 1997-11-04 Coffeecup Software's StyleSheet Maker++ is a dedicated application for creating CSS style sheets.
• 1997-10-24 mBED's Interactor 1.1 supports CSS Positioning which, when combined with a scripting language, allows you to create HTML-based animations.
• 1997-10-06: Danere has released a new version of StyleMaker which supports CSS Positioning through a drag-and-drop interface.
• 1997-09-12 Optima System's PageSpinner is a shareware HTML editor for MacOS with support for CSS.
• 1997-09-08: Microsoft's beta version of FrontPage98 has some support for CSS.
• 1997-07-10:Sheet Stylist is an application (actually an ActiveX control) for Windows 95 that allows you to create, edit and maintain CSS styles sheets.
• 1997-06-23: Astrobyte has announced BeyondPress 3.0 which will convert QuarkXPress documents into HTML and CSS.
• 1997-04-15: The Interaction dynamic site management system includes a comprehensive Macintosh CSS editor.
• 1997-03-26: Sausage Software's HotDog editor now supports CSS.
• 1997-03-26: Allaire's HomeSite editor (v. 2.5 and above) now supports CSS.
• 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 since version 5.5 can export HTML+CSS.

Other software

• 2003-07-10 Infinity Loop released new versions of upCast and downCast, which convert between XML+CSS and MS Word or RTF. Word and upCast together can also be used as a CSS editor: named styles will be saved as a CSS style sheet. (Many platforms, requires Java, free demo)
• 2003-06-26 YesLogic has released Prince 2.1, a batch formatter for XML and CSS (even some experimental CSS3), producing PDF or Postscript. (Windows & Linux, free demo)
• 2002-10-11 XMLmind has released version 2 of the XMLmind XML Editor, a graphical editor for XML, that supports CSS2 for on-screen layout and printing. (Java, free “Standard Edition,” non-free “Professional Edition")
• 2002-01-08 Tidy is a tool to clean up invalid HTML pages (such as generated by some “HTML” editors, unfortunately). It uses heuristics to replace bad mark-up with valid HTML and CSS. BBTidy is a Tidy cast as a plugin for BBEdit on the Mac. (Open Source)
• 2001-12-06 The Apache project released Batik, an SVG browser. Supports SVG with CSS. (Java, Open Source)
• 2001-08-06 A Perl CSS project has been started on SourceForge, to develop CSS-DOM and SAC libraries for Perl.
• 2001-07-09 “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. (Open Source)
• 2001-04-27 A Perl module that implements SAC, called CSS::SAC, has been written by Robin Berjon. (Open Source.)
• 2000-12-08 Aurelia Systems offers Aureleon, a printer driver for Windows 95/98/NT/2000 that converts anything you can print to HTML + CSS.
• 2000-02-17 Useful? Or not? Anyway, DeCSS is a tiny (Perl) program by Mr. Bad to strip all CSS from an HTML file.
• 1999-10-24 SAC (W3C's Simple API for CSS) is in beta. Bindings to C and Java are provided.
• 1999-10-24 flute 1.0 is W3C's CSS parser in Java.
• 1999-09-22 A beta-version of a Java-based CSS2 parser, with an API conforming to the July DOM2 draft, is available from SteadyState.