Glossary
R: What are you playing at?
G: Words, words. They're all we have to go on.
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Color value: #RGB
A shorthand form of the hexadecimal color value format #RRGGBB in which each digit is duplicated. For example, #06C is equivalent to #0066CC and #FFF is the same as #FFFFFF.
Color value: #RRGGBB
The hexadecimal color format which was used in traditional HTML styling, and which persists to this day. Each pair of digits is a hexadecimal number in the range 00 through FF, which corresponds to the range 0 through 255 in decimal notation. Examples of this notation include #000000 (black), #808080 (medium gray), #900080 (a medium purple), and #FF9933 (light orange). Any such value that is made of three "twins" (that is, identical digits for each pair) can be expressed with the more compact notation #RGB.
Color value: rgb(rrr%,ggg%,bbb%)
This color value format allows the author to express colors as percentages of the red, green, and blue channels. For example, black would be rgb(0%,0%,0%) and white would be rgb(100%,100%,100%), while medium gray is rgb(50%,50%,50%) and tan color might be rgb(95%,92%,81%). Fractional value are permitted, so rgb(57.5%,100%,77.3%) is a valid value, although older browsers may have trouble understanding it.
Color value: rgb(rrr,ggg,bbb)
Expresses colors as three numbers ranging from 0 through 255 in each of the three color channels. Thus white would be rgb(255,255,255) and medium gray would be rgb(127,127,127). This is the decimal version of the color format #RRGGBB.
color value: named
One of a predefined list of keywords that correspond to a certain color. The mapping between a name and an RGB value can vary by browser—although there is agreement on a core set of sixteen color names. These are shown, along with some equivalent RGB values, in the following table.
| Color | Number | RGB (%) Value | RGB (number) Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aqua | #00FFFF | rgb(0%,100%,100%) | rgb(0,255,255) |
| Black | #000000 | rgb(0%,0%,0%) | rgb(0,0,0) |
| Blue | #0000FF | rgb(0%,0%,100%) | rgb(0,0,255) |
| Fuchsia | #FF00FF | rgb(100%,0%,100%) | rgb(255,0,255) |
| Gray | #808080 | rgb(50%,50%,50%) | rgb(128,128,128) |
| Green | #008000 | rgb(0%,50%,0%) | rgb(0,128,0) |
| Lime | #00FF00 | rgb(0%,100%,0%) | rgb(0,255,0) |
| Maroon | #800000 | rgb(50%,0%,0%) | rgb(128,0,0) |
| Navy | #000080 | rgb(0%,0%,50%) | rgb(0,0,128) |
| Olive | #808000 | rgb5(0%,50%,0%) | rgb(128,128,0) |
| Purple | #800080 | rgb(50%,0%,50%) | rgb(128,0,128) |
| Red | #FF0000 | rgb(100%,0%,0%) | rgb(255,0,0) |
| Silver | #C0C0C0 | rgb(75%,75%,75%) | rgb(192,192,192) |
| Teal | #008080 | rgb(0%,50%,50%) | rgb(0,128,128) |
| White | #FFFFFF | rgb(100%,100%,100%) | rgb(255,255,255) |
| Yellow | #FFFF00 | rgb(100%,100%,0%) | rgb(255,255,0) |
See http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-color/ for more details on colors and color value equivalents.
declaration
Any property-value pair, such as color: red; or position: absolute;. The property is separated from its value by a colon, and the declaration is terminated with a semicolon. One or more declarations form a declaration block.
declaration block
A set of one or more declarations bounded by curly brackets. For example, {color: purple;} and {color: yellow; position: absolute;} are both declaration blocks. A declaration block may contain any number of declarations, but cannot contain another declaration block. A declaration block is combined with a selector to form a rule.
descendant selector
A selector that chooses elements based on their being descended from other elements. For example, to select any h1 element that is a descendant of a div element, you would write the descendant selector div h1 and follow it with a declaration block that contains the styles to be applied to such elements. Any number of descendant relations can be chained together, so that selectors like html body div ul li ol li a em are perfectly valid.
DOCTYPE
A directive, found at the top of an HTML document, that indicate the document type used in the markup of the document itself. A DTD (Document Type Definition) describes the markup that can be used in a document that uses the DTD. The DOCTYPE is used when validating a document, and is used by some browsers to determine which rendering mode to use in the display of the document (see DOCTYPE switching).
DOCTYPE switching
The mechanism by which a browser analyzes the DOCTYPE found at the beginning of an HTML document and uses it to decide how to render the page. Not all browsers do this, and even those that do may not always behave in the same ways. See "Picking a Rendering Mode" for more details.
em unit
In CSS, a unit of measure based on the value of the property font-size. For example, if an element's font-size is 15px, then 1em is equal to 15px for that element alone. Another element with a font-size of 1.5cm would make 1em equivalent to 1.5cm for that element. This unit is useful for defining padding and margins that are sized relative to the text size of the element, all without having to know the text size ahead of time. For example, h1, h2, h3 {margin-top: 2em;} will give all three element types a top margin twice as big as the text size of the elements themselves.
keyword
A component of a value. This can be whatever is permitted for a given value, including length and color units, as well as named keywords like center or underline. One or more keywords are combined to form a value. Therefore, white url(bg.gif) top left repeat-x is a single value composed of five keywords.
offset properties
The positioning properties top, right, bottom, and left. Each of these defines the distance between the outer margin edge of a positioned element and the corresponding edge of its containing block; thus, top: 50px; defines a 50-pixel distance between a positioned element's top outer margin edge and the top of the containing block. This distance is sometimes called an "offset," and therefore we have the offset properties.
property
One aspect of the presentation of an element that can be altered or affected. For example, color, background, font-weight, text-decoration, and position are all properties. A property is associated with a value to form a declaration.
rendering mode
The way in which a page is laid out. As of this writing, those browsers that support DOCTYPE switching have two rendering modes, generally referred to as "quirks" and "standard." See "Picking a Rendering Mode" for more details.
rule
The combination of a selector and a declaration block. A very basic example is h1 {color: green;}, but rules can be arbitrarily long.
selector
The portion of a rule that determines which elements (if any) will be styled by the associated declaration block. Selectors can be very simple or highly complicated; a simple example is h1 or div#help p (this last is an example of a descendant selector). Multiple selectors can be grouped together in the same rule by separating them with commas, as in: h1, h2, h3.
URI
Uniform Resource Identifier. This describes a unique address on the Internet, although it may not correspond to a physical document or resource. One such example is the optional URI in a DOCTYPE, which does not necessarily point to an actual DTD on the Web. Thus URIs are a superset of URLs.
URL
Uniform Resource Locator. Every time you type a Web site address into a Web browser, you're typing in a URL. The Web is not the sole province of URLs, however; other communication protocols, such as newsgroups and FTP site, can also be described by means of a URL. A URL is always supposed to point to an actual resource that is available on the Internet, as opposed to URIs, which do not have the same restriction.
value
One or more keywords. A value is associated with a property and together they form a declaration. Examples of values include 13px, yellow, underline overline, and black url(stars.gif) center repeat fixed. Each of those examples is a single value; the latter two are composed of multiple keywords.