Development history of CSS
Overview
In the early 1990s, websites were in their infancy, and designers had been limited the ability to control the interface of the site. Website content is primarily text-based, HTML is the main tool for structuring web pages. As websites become more visually demanding, the need for a dedicated styling language becomes apparent. And CSS was born from there.
In 1994, Håkon Wium Lie (colleague of Tim Berners-Lee (father of WWW and HTML) at CERN) and Bert Bos (a Dutch programmer) proposed the first CSS specification. Their vision is to separate content (HTML) from presentation (CSS), thus simplifying web development and making it more flexible.
Since its appearance, CSS has had many different versions. New versions will help fix bugs of old versions and bring more improvements.
| Release Year | CSS Version |
|---|---|
| 1996 | CSS 1 |
| 1998 | CSS 2 |
| 2011 | CSS 2.1 CSS 3 |
| 2020s | CSS 4 |
Versions of CSS
CSS 1
CSS 1 was released as a W3C Recommendation on December 17, 1996. Håkon Wium Lie and Bert Bos are credited as the original developers.
The release of CSS 1 supported basic properties, such as font, color, background, margin, padding, border... but is limited in terms of layout control.
Microsoft Internet Explorer became the first browser to support CSS, followed by Netscape.
It was after this release that the Cascading Style Sheets and Formatting Properties Working Group was formed by the W3C to focus solely on CSS.
Currently, W3C no longer recommends maintaining CSS 1.
CSS 2
In May 1998, the W3C released CSS 2 which added new features including z-index, media types, bidirectional text, position (absolute, relative and fixed)...
Not long after the release of CSS 2, a new browser - Opera was released, which also supported CSS.
CSS 2.1
Between 2004 and 2010, they were continuously revised. It wasn't until June 2011 that the W3C released CSS 2.1, which fixed bugs and adapted poor or incompatible features for users.
Currently, W3C no longer recommends maintaining CSS 2.
CSS 3
Unlike CSS 2, CSS 3 is divided into many separate documents called “modules”. Each module adds new features or extends features defined in CSS 2, maintaining backward compatibility with older CSS versions.
The earliest CSS 3 draft was published in June 1999. CSS3 is an alternative to CSS2. It introduces new selectors and properties that allow more flexibility with page layout and presentation. Some updates, such as drop-shadow, allow visual effects to be applied without creating a special image.
From June 2011 to June 2012, the following 4 modules were released as official recommendations: color, selectors level 3, namespaces and media queries. More modules are have reached the working draft or candidate recommendation phase of release and are considered stable.
Currently, most browsers support CSS3, so companies and organizations use CSS3 and HTML5 in their website design and development.
CSS 4
Because CSS 3 is separated into modules, there will be no single CSS 4 release, but level 4 modules may be collectively referred to as CSS 4.
Most of the modules are level 3, a few level 4 modules (such as Image Values, Backgrounds, Borders, Selectors...) build on the functionality of the level 3 modules was released previously. New functions have been added in other modules (such as Flexbox). Modules will continue to be released to continue adding and updating features.
Future of CSS
The history of CSS is a testament to the evolution of the web. Regardless of its development and popularity, CSS is still the foundational technology of the World Wide Web alongside HTML and JavaScript. CSS has greatly contributed to the popularity, ease of use, and accessibility of websites.
From its humble beginnings to its current role in web development, CSS has come a long way. As we look toward the future, CSS4 promises to provide web designers with even more tools and possibilities, ensuring that the history of CSS will continue to evolve and shape the web of the future.