Benefits of CSS
The other night I attended a local web design meetup and the discussion topic for the night was ‘the benefits of CSS’. Unfortunately we didn’t end up in the private room in the restuarant that we usually get so it wasn’t quite as easy to carry on a roundtable discussion. I noticed that most of the designers that showed up where fairly new to CSS and didn’t fully understand all the positives. In fact most of them seemed to think there wasn’t any benefits, and I even overhead a few say that tables are better.
Well the fact is there is a lot of benefits of using CSS. I’d even go as far as saying I can’t really see any negatives to layouts based on Cascading Style Sheets. The only thing that could possibly be a negative in my opinion is so called browser issues, but once your skills improve it shouldn’t really be a problem. Anyways, here’s some of the benefits that I could come up with, if you have anything I miss please contribute.
Maintenance - Maintaining websites with CSS based layouts is a hundred time easier than maintaining ones that are table based. Seriously! If you’re not making any content changes to the site all you really need to do is update one file, of course that all depends on the size of the site. But even if it is a large site it would still only be a fraction of the total pages.
Accessibility - The W3C says…
CSS benefits accessibility primarily by separating document structure from presentation. Style sheets were designed to allow precise control - outside of markup - of character spacing, text alignment, object position on the page, audio and speech output, font characteristics, etc. By separating style from markup, authors can simplify and clean up the HTML in their documents, making the documents more accessible at the same time.
I’ll also add that it’s far easier to make your site accessible using CSS. Think about all the people using cell phones and other wireless devices to connect to the interent now. Don’t you want to make your site accessible to them?
Cleaner/Less code - CSS generally requires less code than tables, a lot less. This make your code both lighter and a lot cleaner. Clean code makes a huge difference in maintaining your site.
Faster - Your pages will load quite a bit faster with CSS, and for a number of reasons. This also cuts down on your bandwidth, if you have a site that gets a lot of traffic this can make a huge difference in your bottom line.
Easier - When I was first learning to design based on CSS I struggled a lot. But I caught on very quickly. In the beginning you would’ve never catch me saying that CSS is easier. But now, I truely believe that it is. Because you’re only using a fraction of the code it’s so much easier to design with CSS. If you’re still having a hard time don’t worry, once you catch on it will be so much easier. I would even recommend that anyone that’s just starting to learn web design to learn CSS before tables, I believe the learning curve is much quicker.
Creativity/Limitless - We’ve all seen CSS Zen Garden, and if you haven’t go check it out now. The idea behind CSS Zen Garden is…
The code remains the same, the only thing that has changed is the external .css file. CSS allows complete and total control over the style of a hypertext document.
So many more possibilities with CSS. There literally no creativity bounds design wise.
Professional - It’s my belief that if you’re a professional web designer (in other words, you exchange money for your services) then you should be building sites strictly with CSS. If not for the reasons above (which are all more than enough reasons as a professional) then do it to keep up with the current standards and trends in the industry. If you don’t start now it won’t be long before you’re left in the dust.
As you can see there’s a quite a few benefits to CSS. If you’re still not convinced to use CSS then you probably never will be, so let’s just leave it at that. Again, if you have anything to contribute please do.
Cameron Olthuis is the Founder of
I’d say that you covered the main points quite well. One of the toughest arguments to overcome is the initial learning curve. In my experience, that is the biggest barrier to entry for people/developers that still use tables  that or they’re too lazy to do it.
Like Mike said, you hit the nail right on the head with this post. You would think that the maintenance-reducing aspect of CSS alone would be enough to convert even the most stubborn table-addicted designers.
Jim - You would think wouldn’t you? But like Mike said the learning curve probably scares people away. It could also be lack of education, for the masses that don’t read blogs and forums they just don’t know any better.
Benefits of CSS
Are we really all that clear on the specific benefits of using CSS? Faster pages loads is certainly one well known benefit when coded right. But there are others, too…….
I generally agree, but get annoyed every time I have to make special allowances for IE. And now we hear that the next IE might need different hacks that will interefere with our current hacks.
I’m just now trying to avoid Javascript and build some two level drop down menus — eays for Mozilla based browers, even Opera — but what a pain for IE.
Generally, however, I still prefer CSS to the old way with tables for layout.
The maintenence of a css-based layout is a hundred times easier than the maintenence of a table-based layout? That’s just an exaggeration… An UNDER-exaggeration!!!
When I decided to learn CSS as a newbie, but somewhat comfortable HTML coder with no programming background - I was intimidated by the idea of having to learn a whole new set of rules and a whole new way of doing things (of course, once I learned it, I never looked back). But I think the fear of learning something new or learning how to think in a different way is the stumbling block people have to get over.
Besides, if you’re working with anything remotely involved with computers, you should Expect you’ll have to rethink the way you do things and learn to deal with it!
I guess I maybe the only designer that is fully sold on designing with CSS. The other MAJOR factor is language control. I work on multi-language sites. I use CSS and JavaScript to control language encoding. I nuse 4 CSS to serve Western and Eastern European, Cyrillic and Asian pages.
Maintenance - Maintaining websites with CSS based layouts is a hundred time easier than maintaining ones that are table based. Seriously! If you’re not making any content changes to the site all you really need to do is update one file, of course that all depends on the size of the site. But even if it is a large site it would still only be a fraction of the total pages.
ı don’t understand..
I don’t understand anything. My brain is not working well. I’m sorry.
I agree completely with this site by Cameron
I can understand that people who have spent time learning one system find it maybe problematic to start learning a different way of working.
But whether or not css is better is almost irrelevant, for it’s evolution in motion. Either you adapt or fall by the wayside. In a few years, CSS addicts will face the same sort of problems as the Tablesaurs are facing now. Either they knuckle down & learn the next new codes, or they join the Tablesaurs in web oblivion.
The whole process of people continually adapting & learning new code is actually what makes the internet stop being a dull place. Content is of course essential, but interesting coherent design is paramount to keeping the content alive.
One problem with CSS is that the strict definitions aren’t fully implemented across the spectrum. This is what puts certain people off from taking the plunge.
Even the reticent who dip in their toes get scared by the sheer volume of different ways on working with it & different ideas that are out there.
Those who are a bit braver & take the plunge can flounder around for ages looking for the ‘magic’ design that will work for them.
I’m one of those. Keep hovering around looking at fixed/fluid/mixed layouts but can’t work out which will be best. I have a feeling that a truly fluid ems based layout will be best, but the problem is images.
There are solutions, like on Stu Nicholl’s site, but these are almost scarey for a CSS duckling like myself. But it’s fun & luckily there are enough strong swimmers to make CSS work to it’s full potential.
A possible solution for the future would be a solid framework converting system. Perhaps that will see a whole new ‘job’ in web dev ?
[…] Benefits of CSS I remember some of my early forays into CSS back in 1997. I gave up out of frustration over the way different browsers treated cascading style sheets. Browsers have gotten better, and the list of benefits that Cameron provides makes a strong case for their use. […]
We use CSS exclusively…cant imagine not using it…and it has a LOT of SEO benefits as well…which is covered in many articles if you Google it. All professionally desinged wb sites should be in CSS, with few exceptions.
Scott
http://www.imageworksstudio.com