A CSS (cascading style sheet) file allows you to separate your web sites (X)HTML content from it’s style. As always you use your (X)HTML file to arrange the content, but all of the presentation (fonts, colors, background, borders, text formatting, link effects & so on…) are accomplished within a CSS.
At this point you have some choices of how to use the CSS, either internally or externally.
So with all these various ways of inserting CSS into your (X)HTML files, you may now be asking well which is better, and if I use more than one method, in what order do these different ways load into my browser?
All the various methods will cascade into a new “pseudo” stylesheet in the following order:
- Inline Style (inside (X)HTML element)
- Internal Style Sheet (inside the <head> tag)
- External Style Sheet
As far as which way is better, it depends on what you want to do. If you have only one file to style then placing it within the <head></head> tags (internal) will work fine. Though if you are planning on styling multiple files then the external file method is the way to go.
Choosing between the <link related=> & the @import methods are completely up to you. I will mention that the @import method may take a second longer to read the CSS file in Internet Explorer than the <link related=> option. To combat this see Flash of unstyled content
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