Difference Between CSS vs CSS3
Web applications play a very important role in today’s world. Internet taking over almost everything needs designer web pages. Users must be attracted to particular web pages so that they will be accessed more. The role of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is hence very important. CSS works together with HTML and provides a basic style and structure. It defines how the HTML elements will look like on the web page. CSS3 is the latest version of CSS. It provides JavaScript like capabilities. In addition to this, it also provides mobile development features. It also has additional features like images, gradient, transition, etc. Let us have a look at the difference between CSS and CSS3.
Head to Head Comparison Between CSS and CSS3 (Infographics)
Below is the top 5 difference between CSS and CSS3:
Key difference between CSS and CSS3
Both CSS vs CSS3 are popular choices in the market; let us discuss some of the major difference between CSS and CSS3:
- The main difference between CSS and CSS3 is that CSS3 has modules.CSS is the basic version and it does not support responsive design. CSS3, on the other hand, is the latest version and supports responsive design.
- CSS cannot be split into modules but CSS3 can be split in modules. Being an older version of CSS is slower than CSS3.
- In addition to these CSS3 has many alignment features. CSS3 provides a box-sizing tool which allows the user to get the correct size of any element without making any changes in dimensions or padding of the element. CSS does not have any box-sizing tool and hence the user needs to use the standard procedures defined to align text.
- The animations and 3D transformations are better in CSS3. Elements can be moved on the screen with the help of flash and JavaScript. Using this the elements will also be able to change their size and color. All kinds of transitions, transformations, and animations can be done using CSS3. CSS does not provide 3D animation and transformations.
- CSS provides basic color schema and standard colors. CSS3 supports RGBA, HSLA, HSL and gradient colours. It also supports rounded image corners for text boxes.
- Multi-column text blocks can be defined in CSS3. CSS only supports single text blocks.
CSS and CSS3 Comparison Table
The primary Comparison between CSS and CSS3 are discussed below:
| The Basis Of Comparison Between CSS vs CSS3 | CSS | CSS3 |
| Compatibility | CSS1 is not compatible with CSS3. Its main focus was on providing various formatting features. They also added positioning capabilities for texts and objects. But all this were gradually updated to CSS3. Hence we can say that CSS has risen to CSS3. | CSS3 is backward compatible with CSS1. It will not make any code written in CSS1 as invalid. It makes the look and feels of a web page even better. They load faster and the time required to build a page is even less. |
| Rounded corners and Gradients | Before CSS3 was launched developers used to design images which looked like rounded corners to different structures and background gradients. The process included the developer designing the particular border, uploading this design over the server, placing the image on the web page and in the end CSS had to correctly position this border. | From the time CSS3 has been introduced the developer just needs to write the code like “.roundBorder{border-radius:10px;}”. Tada! It’s done. The user need not place the code on the server and perform the other activities. The gradients can be set by using code like “.gradBG{background: liner-gradient(white,black);}” |
| Animation and Text Effects | Animations in CSS were written in JavaScript and JQuery. CSS did not have features in the design layer and the page elements also could not have special effects like text shadowing, text sections, etc. | Using CSS3 a developer can add text shadow to make it easier to read. They can also add visual effects to break lines and longer words so that they fit properly inside the columns and word wraps. Other features also include a continuous change of size and color of text. The time of change can be set. Even an action like hovering a mouse can be set for the change. |
| Lists | CSS allows a user to : 1) Set different lists for ordered lists2) Set different lists for unordered lists3) Set an image for a list item marker4) Add background colors to list and list items.The different list item markers are list-style-type.These can be set as circle, square, etc. |
To use a list in CSS3 the ‘display’ property must have list item defined in it. The list item has a counter and is directly affected by counter increment and counter reset properties. CSS3 does not support numbering system and hence might ignore it being used. The list style image property in CSS3 enables that an image is set against the list item marker. Once the image is available it will be set to list style type marker. It also has the list style position property which will specify the position of marker box in a principal box. It can be set as either inside the box or outside the box. |
| Pseudo-Classes | Pseudo-classes are used to specially define a state of an element.
Syntax:
selector: pseudo-class {
property: value; } It provides different properties like Hover on(), Simple tooltip hovers (). The: first-child pseudo class matches the first child of any element. |
Pseudo-classes in CSS3 are pretty similar to CSS. But they have some additional features that make it easier and famous to use. These include: 1): root target which document’s root element.2):nth-child(n) uses numeric values within (n) to target child elements with respect to their position in the parent. For instance, you could use this to add alternating background colors to blog comments 3) :empty targets elements that do not have text or children, like empty elements such as <p></p> |
Conclusion
The above difference between css and css3 show that how CSS has gradually transformed into CSS3. The smooth transitions, clean design, and faster performance have brought CSS to the place it is today. CSS can be used for all web applications development. CSS3 now supports all browsers and hence is used all over. With time CSS4 is soon going to be introduced. Until then CSS3 is all available for all current users with the small improvements in the present framework. Cascading Style Sheet is hence going to stay in the software industry and help users to create interactively and the most stylish web applications and pages.
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