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Styling With CSS

Section overview

In this lesson, we'll style our tip calculator to make it more visually appealing and user-friendly using CSS.

Setting up the CSS file

First, create a new file called styles.css, create this alongside the index.html inside your project folder. Add this line in the <head> section of your HTML, just above the title:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="styles.css" />
<title>Quick Tip</title>
  • The <link> element defines a relationship between the document and the resource/file we are linking to.
  • We declare the relationship is a stylesheet using rel="stylesheet".
  • href="styles.css" points to our CSS file we just created.

Adding class names

A CSS class is a reusable selector that can be applied to one or more HTML elements. It is like adding a label to a single or group of elements so we can apply CSS styling.

We set them using a class attribute to a HTML element such as <div class="bill">. Update the HTML to include class names as below:

<main id="container">
    <h1>Quick Tip</h1>

    <section>
    <div class="bill">
        <label for="yourBill">Bill</label>
        <input type="number" placeholder="Your bill" id="yourBill" />
    </div>
    <div>
        <div class="space-between">
        <label for="tipInput">Select tip</label
        ><span id="tipPercent"></span>
        </div>
        <input type="range" value="0" id="tipInput" />
    </div>
    <div class="space-between">
        <span>Tip</span>
        <span id="tipValue"></span>
    </div>
    <hr />
    <div class="space-between total">
        <span>Total</span>
        <span id="totalWithTip"></span>
    </div>
    </section>

    <section>
    <div>
        <div class="space-between">
        <label for="splitInput">Split</label>
        <span id="splitValue"></span>
        </div>
        <input type="range" min="1" max="10" value="1" id="splitInput" />
    </div>
    <div class="space-between">
        <span>Bill each</span>
        <span id="billEach"></span>
    </div>
    <div class="space-between">
        <span>Tip each</span>
        <span id="tipEach"></span>
    </div>
    </section>
</main>

Base styles

Let's begin with some basic styles to set up our default font size and color. Update the styles.css file with the following:

html {
  font-size: 10px;
  color: #4e4d4d;
}
  • We set the base font size to 10px to make it easier to work with rem units (1rem = 10px).
  • The text color is set to a dark gray (#4e4d4d) for better contrast.

Main container styling

Next, let's style the main container. This was the main wrapper for our project:

main {
  max-width: 50rem;
  margin: 2rem auto;
  padding: 3rem 1.6rem 6rem 1.6rem;
  background: linear-gradient(30deg, #3dc0c0, #5bceae);
  border-radius: 4rem;
  box-shadow: 0 2px 2px lightgray;
}
  • max-width: 50rem limits the width of the container so the content does not stretch too far.
  • margin: 2rem auto centers the container horizontally, 2rem of space on the top/bottom. The auto value will automatically distribute the remaining space equally between the left/right sides.
  • The gradient background blends between two values at a 30 degree angle.
  • border-radius rounds all four corners.
  • box-shadow adds subtle depth to the wrapper.

Heading styles

The app title was set in a level-1 heading, apply the following to style the title:

h1 {
  text-align: center;
  font-size: 3rem;
  margin: 0;
  padding-bottom: 3rem;
}
  • text-align: center; Centers the heading.
  • Sets a large font size (30px).
  • margin: 0; Removes default margin.
  • Adds padding at the bottom for spacing.

Section styling

Now let's style the sections that contain our inputs and results:

section {
  background-color: white;
  font-size: 1.8rem;
  margin-bottom: 1.6rem;
  padding: 0 1.6rem;
  border-radius: 1rem;
  box-shadow: inset 0 2px 2px lightgray;
}

section > div {
  padding: 1.6rem 0;
}
  • background-color: White background for contrast.
  • Comfortable font size (18px).
  • border-radius: Rounded corners for all sections.
  • box-shadow: Inset shadow for depth.
  • Padding for content spacing.
  • section > div: This targets any <div> that is a direct child of a <section> element. The padding of 1.6rem on the top and bottom creates vertical space inside each section.

Bill input styling

The bill section has a class="bill", use this to style the section:

.bill {
  display: flex;
}
.bill label {
  flex: 1;
  align-self: center;
}
.bill input {
  flex: 3;
}
  • display: flex: The CSS flexbox is used to layout content in one direction. Either horizontally or vertically.
  • flex: Label takes up a single space value, and the bill attempts to take up three times the space if available.
  • align-self: center;: Vertically centers the label.

Input field styling

Let's style all number inputs:

input[type='number'] {
  font-family: inherit;
  background: #f4f4f5;
  font-size: 1.6rem;
  border: 1px solid lightgray;
  border-radius: 0.5rem;
  padding: 0.8rem 0 0.8rem 1rem;
  box-shadow: inset 0 2px 2px lightgray;
}
  • input[type='number']: This will select the input element with the number type set.

Space between utility class

Let's create a utility class for spacing elements. This is re-used on multiple <div> elements to apply consistent styling:

.space-between {
  display: flex;
  justify-content: space-between;
}
  • display: flex: Defines this element to be a flex container.
  • justify-content: Sets this aignment of child items along the main axis. We have not set a flex-direction property, therefore defaulting to row (horizontal content).
  • space-between: When the flex container contains multiple child items, these items have equal space between them, after placing the first and last items on the start/end of the line.

Total amount styling

Our final styling is for the total amount:

.total {
  font-size: 2rem;
  font-weight: bolder;
}

Final CSS code

Here's the complete CSS code for our tip calculator:

html {
  font-size: 10px;
  color: #4e4d4d;
}

main {
  max-width: 50rem;
  margin: 2rem auto;
  padding: 3rem 1.6rem 6rem 1.6rem;
  background: linear-gradient(30deg, #3dc0c0, #5bceae);
  border-radius: 4rem;
  box-shadow: 0 2px 2px lightgray;
}

h1 {
  text-align: center;
  font-size: 3rem;
  margin: 0;
  padding-bottom: 3rem;
}

section {
  background-color: white;
  font-size: 1.8rem;
  margin-bottom: 1.6rem;
  padding: 0 1.6rem;
  border-radius: 1rem;
  box-shadow: inset 0 2px 2px lightgray;
}

section > div {
  padding: 1.6rem 0;
}

.bill {
  display: flex;
}
.bill label {
  flex: 1;
  align-self: center;
}
.bill input {
  flex: 3;
}

input[type='number'] {
  font-family: inherit;
  background: #f4f4f5;
  font-size: 1.6rem;
  border: 1px solid lightgray;
  border-radius: 0.5rem;
  padding: 0.8rem 0 0.8rem 1rem;
  box-shadow: inset 0 2px 2px lightgray;
}

.space-between {
  display: flex;
  justify-content: space-between;
}

.total {
  font-size: 2rem;
  font-weight: bolder;
}