Mastering CSS: A Complete Guide

Table of Contents

1. Introduction to CSS

   • What is CSS?
   • History and Evolution
   • How CSS Works with HTML
   • Setting Up Your First CSS File

2. CSS Syntax and Selectors

   • Basic Syntax
   • Types of Selectors
   • Class vs. ID
   • Attribute, Pseudo-class, and Pseudo-element Selectors

3. CSS Box Model

   • Content, Padding, Border, and Margin
   • Understanding Box Sizing
   • Width, Height, and Overflow

4. Colors and Backgrounds

   • Color Formats (Hex, RGB, HSL)
   • Background Colors and Images
   • Gradients and Patterns

5. Typography and Fonts

   • Font Families and Web Safe Fonts
   • Font Sizes and Units
   • Text Styling (Bold, Italic, Underline, etc.)
   • Line Height, Letter Spacing, and Word Spacing

6. Layouts in CSS

   • Display Property (Block, Inline, Inline-block)
   • Positioning (Static, Relative, Absolute, Fixed, Sticky)
   • Floats and Clearing
   • Flexbox
   • CSS Grid

7. Responsive Web Design

   • Media Queries
   • Mobile-first Design
   • Viewport and Breakpoints
   • Fluid Layouts and Units

8. CSS Animations and Transitions

   • Transition Property
   • Keyframes and Animations
   • Transformations (Scale, Rotate, Translate, Skew)

9. CSS Effects and Advanced Styling

   • Shadows (Text and Box Shadows)
   • Filters (Blur, Brightness, Contrast, etc.)
   • Blend Modes

10. Preprocessors and Modern CSS

• Introduction to SASS and LESS
• Variables and Nesting
• Mixins and Functions

11. Best Practices and Performance Optimization

• Writing Maintainable CSS
• Minification and Compression
• Avoiding Common Mistakes
• Performance Optimization

12. CSS Frameworks and Libraries

• Bootstrap
• Tailwind CSS
• Foundation
• Custom Utility Classes

13. Practical Projects and Case Studies

• Creating a Responsive Landing Page
• Styling a Blog Website
• Building a Modern Dashboard

14. Conclusion and Further Learning

• Resources for Advanced Learning
• Community and Online Support
• Future of CSS

Chapter 5: Typography and Fonts

Font Families and Web Safe Fonts

CSS allows you to define fonts using the font-family property. Some fonts are considered web-safe, meaning they are available on most devices.

Example:

body {
    font-family: Arial, sans-serif;
}

You can also use Google Fonts or other web fonts for more variety:

<link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Roboto:wght@300;400;700&display=swap" rel="stylesheet">

body {
    font-family: 'Roboto', sans-serif;
}

Font Sizes and Units

CSS offers different units for font sizing:

• Pixels (px): Fixed size (font-size: 16px;)
• Ems (em): Relative to the parent element (font-size: 1.5em;)
• Rems (rem): Relative to the root element (font-size: 1.2rem;)
• Percentage (%): Relative to the parent (font-size: 120%;)

Text Styling (Bold, Italic, Underline, etc.)

CSS provides several properties for styling text:

p {
    font-weight: bold;
    font-style: italic;
    text-decoration: underline;
}

Line Height, Letter Spacing, and Word Spacing

To improve readability, use these properties:

p {
    line-height: 1.6;
    letter-spacing: 1px;
    word-spacing: 3px;
}