Contents

Terminology

CSS
Cascading Style Sheets
CSS1
Cascading Style Sheets, level 1. CSS1 is a simple style sheet mechanism for the web.
declaration
a property (e.g. 'font-size') and a corresponding value (e.g. '12pt')
HTML
Hypertext Markup Language
pseudo-element
pseudo-elements are used in CSS selectors to address typographical items (e.g. the first line of an element) rather than structural elements.
pseudo-class
pseudo-classes are used in CSS selectors to allow information external to the HTML source (e.g. the fact that an anchor has been visited or not) to classify elements.
property
a stylistic parameter that can be influenced through CSS. This specification defines a list of properties and their corresponding values.
rule
a declaration (e.g. 'font-family: helvetica') and its selector (e.g. 'H1')
selector
a string that identifies what elements the corresponding rule applies to. A selector can either be a simple selector (e.g. 'H1') or a contextual selector (e.g. 'H1 B') which consists of several simple selectors.
simple selector
a selector that matches elements based on the element type and/or attributes, and not he element's position in the document structure. E.g., 'H1.initial' is a simple selector.
style sheet
a collection of rules