HTML5 (Part 8) New features in CSS3

This post introduces to the new features that can be found in the CSS level 3 specifications—including new CSS selectors such as:



  • structural, 
  • state-based, and 
  • negation pseudo-classes,  


As well as other new types of selectors. It also shows many of the effects that CSS3 offers that would previously have required images to be created using:

  • A separate application and saved as GIF, JPG, or 
  • PNG. 
Such effects
include:
  • Drop shadows on text and boxes, 
  • Rounded corners on borders, and 
  • The use of opacity to create a translucent appearance. 
Many of these features (such as opacity and rounded corners) are relatively widespread in use due to the fact that they degrade very gracefully in legacy Web browsers.

Next post, we will learn about the new multicolumn layouts that can be created using CSS3. These layouts are a throwback to the newspaper layout where text will stretch over a set number of columns or to a particular column width as required. Another feature that will be discussed is the issue of including non-standard Web fonts using the @font-face tag.
Finally, some of the other new CSS3 features will be introduced, such as support for HSL (Hue, Saturation, and Lightness) and RGBA (Red, Green, Blue, and Alpha) color models.