Cascading Style Sheets

What's new?

2002-03-07 Infinity Loop has released version 3.0.5 of UpCast, an MS-Word (& RTF) to XML converter in Java that can generate structured XML or XHTML with an internal or external CSS1 style sheet.
2002-02-27 Westciv has released their "self paced course" for CSS level 2 in the form of weekly installments (for free), or as a single package (for a fee).
2002-02-22 Graphic-Group has released "G-G CSS," a tool to create style sheets from within a browser. (Needs a server that supports ASP, an Access database and any browser with JavaScript)
2002-02-15 A possible compromise of privacy, outlined by Andrew Clover on www-style, exists with CSS's ':visited' pseudo-class: an attacker could find out if you've seen a certain page before or not. More details in the article.
2002-02-04 A new book about CSS has been published: Jim Pence, Cascading Style Sheets: A Beginner's Guide. Osborne/McGraw-Hill, Dec. 2001.
2002-02-04 A mailing list, css-discuss@westciv.com, has opened for Web authors to discuss real-world use of CSS.

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.

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)
2001-12-05 Netscape released version 6.2.1, based on Mozilla 0.9.4 and the Gecko engine. (Open Source, many platforms)
2001-11-28 Galeon 1.0 is a Web browser for Gnome. It uses the Gecko rendering engine from Mozilla internally. (Open Source, Unix)
2001-10-31 K-Meleon version 0.6 has been released, a lightweight browser based on the Gecko rendering engine of Mozilla (Windows, Open Source)
2001-08-17 The KDE project released version 2.2, including the Konqueror browser and the KHTML library. A table outlines its (impressive) CSS2 support. (Open Source, Unix)
2001-05-17 Opera Software has released the Linux version of the Opera browser version 5.0.
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].
2001-02-15 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.
2001-01-23 The Arachne WWW browser for DOS and Linux supports CSS1 since version 1.70 (free for non-commercial use).
2000-11-15 Netscape has released Netscape 6, with one of the best CSS implementations to date.
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
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:

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. 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.

2002-02-22 Graphic-Group has released "G-G CSS," a tool to create style sheets from within a browser. (Needs a server that supports ASP, an Access database and any browser with JavaScript)
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.
2001-12-28 Price Media has released version 2.0 of "Cascade DTP," a simple DTP application to create page layouts, which can be saved in HTML + CSS. (free, Windows)
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.
2001-11-20 Bradbury Software has released version 2.5 of TopStyle, a CSS1 & 2 editor featuring site-wide reports, color palettes, info about CSS support in browsers and optional integration with various Web editors. (Windows, free trial)
2001-11-13 WestCiv released version 2.1 of the CSS editor Style Master, with built-in information about CSS support in major browsers. (Mac & Windows, free trial)
2001-10-26 Maxro Software has released CSS-Styler 4.0, a CSS editor for Windows (free trial version, German and English)
2001-10-23 XMLmind has released "Milestone 1.2" of XMLmind Editor (XXE), an XML 1.0 editor, that also features a WYSIWYG editing mode using CSS2.
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.
1999-10-26 Amaya, W3C's Web client that is both a browser and an authoring tool, is in version 2.2.
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 scriping language, allows you to create HTML-based animations.
1997-10-06 Macromedia has released a preview release of DreamWeaver, an HTML authoring tool with rich support for CSS, including CSS Positioning.
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.
1996-03-02: 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

2002-03-07 Infinity Loop has released version 3.0.5 of UpCast, an MS-Word (& RTF) to XML converter in Java that can generate structured XML or XHTML with an internal or external CSS1 style sheet.
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)
2001-08-06 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 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.

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. the CSS Mobile Profile specification became a W3C Candidate Recommendation in Oct 2001.

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 Håkon Wium Lie and Bert Bos (2nd ed., 1999, Addison Wesley, ISBN 0-201-59625-3)