HTML and CSS: Are they Complements or Substitutes in Web Design

HTML and CSS are web design standards each with its own characteristics. One complements the other and must not be looked upon as substitutes. Web designers are using both is creating outstanding web pages.

In case you are thinking of choosing web designing as a career then you need to have an artistic bent of mind coupled with acumen for technical coding. A creative web design could only be achieved when these two attributes are possessed in equivalent measures. To become an accomplished web designer, you need to thoroughly learn different standards of web designs. Among them HTML (hypertext markup language) and CSS (cascading style sheets) are two most predominant ones.

HTML as a Web Designing Tool

Since the beginning of web designing, HTML is being used as a standard for creating professional websites. HTML is a code or language used in editing and positioning of images, texts and any such related web page element. For viewing the code used in designing a website you just need to click ‘view’ and ‘source’ in succession through web browser. An elementary webpage could be created by learning certain basic codes. Usage of complex HTML makes a web page more experimental. A fair idea of certain HTML codes could be helpful in creating a standard webpage conveniently.Adding more elements and features to the website will complicate it further and might not be needed at all for the small or medium businesses

A continuous effort is on to simplify the process of web page creation such that even those without proper HTML knowledge could create websites. These editors termed WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) enables creating web pages without using codes. In fact, these editors determine the HTML that is needed for creating a web page and completes the task on your behalf. There are some software programs that have an option of converting a document to its HTML form integrated into them. For beginners in web designing this could be a boon. However, selecting the proper editing code could be tough and might lead to mistakes and frustrations.

CSS as a Web Designing Tool

Compared to HTML, CSS (cascading style sheets) is not familiar to beginners in web designing. CSS allows greater creativity and more control on web designs. As of now there are multiple types of Internet browsers which could prove risky for HTML web page designers. CSS saves this trouble and economizes on the effort and resources spent on creating web pages. Designers by using CSS are able to cascade changes in all pages by making change in a singular page.

HTML and CSS Compared

CSS for all practical purposes is not looked upon as a substitute for HTML, but rather as a complement. HTML is the most feasible coding type for a website’s main structure, while CSS enhances its appearance by a choice of colors, background, image positioning or contests. Though a web design could well be created by using HTML only, CSS enables web designers to incorporate features like overlapping words, setting of margins, font selection and so on.