What is CSS? A Simple Guide for Beginners

August 31, 2025 ~5 min read

Hey, future coder! Ever wonder how websites look so cool and colorful? That's all thanks to something called CSS! It's like the makeup artist for the web, making everything look pretty. The full name is Cascading Style Sheets, but you can just call it CSS.

CSS is used to add style to a website, like colors, fonts, and design. You can change how big or small the words are, what color the background is, and where everything sits on the page.

3 Ways to Use CSS

There are three main ways to add CSS to your website. Each way is good for a different reason, kind of like having different tools for different jobs!

First, Inline CSS. This is for when you want to change just one small thing on a single tag.

Second, Internal CSS. This is for when you want to style one whole page.

Third, External CSS. This is the best way when you want to use the same style on many different pages!

1. Inline CSS

An illustration of Inline CSS code with a red text example.

Inline CSS is super simple. You write the style right inside the HTML tag you want to change. It's great for quick, one-time changes.


<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Inline CSS Example</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <p style="color: red;">This is red text</p>
  </body>
</html>

2. Internal CSS

An illustration of Internal CSS code with a blue text example.

Internal CSS is a bit different. You write all your styles in a special `<style>` tag at the top of your HTML file. This makes it easy to change the look of a whole page at once.


<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Internal CSS Example</title>
    <style>
      p {
        color: blue;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <p>This is blue text</p>
  </body>
</html>

3 External CSS

An illustration of External CSS code with a green text example.

External CSS is the most powerful! You put all your styles in a separate file (like `style.css`) and then link it to your HTML file. This means you can change the style of your whole website just by editing one file!

index.html


<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>External CSS Example</title>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css">
  </head>
  <body>
    <p>This is green text</p>
  </body>
</html>

style.css


p {
  color: green;
}

Keep Learning!

So, inline is for small changes, internal is for one page, and external is used if you want to use the same CSS on multiple pages. Now you know the three main ways to style your websites!

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