Alternate STYle Sheets

Alternate style sheets can be used to offer the user options on how the information is presented. Users can conveniently change options such as font-size, contrast, color schemes, printing, or displaying on small devices.

Just as css can handle the presentational aspect of your page, it can also handle other uses of the information on your web page.

Presentational CSS Versions

Multiple css options can offer the user options on how the information is presented – through a high contrast version (www.johnpointer.com) , varying font sizes (www.jimthatcher.com), or completely different presentational layouts (www.csszengarden.com).

Printer CSS

Offer the user a print style sheet – optimizing the formatting of the information for those printing the page:

Normally, people are printing the page for the content – in this case the print style sheet would be most effective if it excluded everything else – navigation, menus, ads – and offered the content to the printer.

But what happens if someone wants to print the page because they like what they see on the screen? Is there a disconnect when you push print and the printout looks nothing like what is online?

Handheld CSS

Same rationale – different device. This css can provide an alternate presentational layout for those devices which recognize and use the handheld css:

This css will focus on providing content in a device with limited screen space, modified ability to select items and users who are often multi-tasking while accessing the information.

CSS Layout | Scripting