CSS
declarative language for styling web pages
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used for specifying the presentation and styling of a document written in a markup language, such as HTML or XML (including XML dialects such as SVG, MathML, or XHTML). CSS is a cornerstone technology of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and JavaScript.
CSS is designed to enable the separation of content and presentation, including layout, colors, and fonts. This separation can improve content accessibility, since the content can be written without concern for its presentation; provide more flexibility and control in the specification of presentation characteristics; enable multiple web pages to share formatting by specifying the relevant CSS in a separate .css file, which reduces complexity and repetition in the structural content; and enable the .css file to be cached to improve the page load speed between the pages that share the file and its formatting.
Separation of formatting and content also makes it feasible to present the same markup page in different styles for different rendering methods, such as on-screen, in print, by voice (via speech-based browser or screen reader), and on Braille-based tactile devices. CSS also has rules for alternative formatting if the content is accessed on a mobile device.
The name cascading comes from the specified priority scheme to determine which declaration applies if more than one declaration of a property match a particular element. This cascading priority scheme is predictable.
The CSS specifications are maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Internet media type (MIME type) text/css is registered for use with CSS by RFC 2318 (March 1998).
“CSS” enters the record as declarative language for styling web pages. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what declarative, language and styling can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“CSS” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, declarative, language and styling provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q46441. The Library of Congress control number is sh2001004461. 2 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 4 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1998.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
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- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “CSS” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.