Learn CSS Variables In 7 Minutes

Summary

In this educational video, the presenter introduces CSS variables, a powerful feature that simplifies color management in web design. By using custom properties, designers can store color values in one place and reference them throughout the website, making it easy to update multiple elements at once. The video demonstrates how to create and apply CSS variables to change the color scheme of a website efficiently, highlighting the benefits of scalability and ease of maintenance.

Takeaways

• 🎨 CSS variables, also known as custom properties, are a powerful feature in CSS that allows values to be stored and reused throughout a document.
• 🔧 By using CSS variables, designers can manage colors and other properties more efficiently, making it easier to update and maintain a consistent look across a website.
• 🚀 The process starts by defining custom properties with two hyphens and a unique name at the root level of the document.
• 🎯 Once defined, these variables can be assigned values, such as color codes, which can then be used in various parts of the CSS.
• 🔄 CSS variables can be applied to different elements by using the `VAR()` notation, which references the variable's name within parentheses.
• 📝 Updating a CSS variable's value in one place automatically updates all instances where that variable is used, simplifying color and design changes.
• 🌈 This approach is particularly useful for large websites where a color or design element is reused extensively, as it reduces the need for manual updates across multiple elements.
• 📚 The video provides a practical example of using CSS variables to manage different color schemes, such as dark, light, slate, and primary colors.
• 🛠️ The example demonstrates how to apply CSS variables to various HTML elements like headings, paragraphs, and links, and how to update them easily.
• 🎓 The lesson emphasizes the scalability and maintainability benefits of using CSS variables in web design and development.
• 🔗 A full CSS course is available for those interested in learning more about utilizing CSS variables and other advanced CSS techniques.
• ❤️ The video encourages viewers to like, subscribe, and check out the course for a comprehensive understanding of CSS.

Q & A

What is the main topic of the video?

The main topic of the video is the introduction and usage of CSS variables, also known as custom properties, and how they can be used to manage and update colors efficiently in a website's design.

How do CSS variables help in managing colors on a website?

CSS variables allow you to store a value in one place and reference it in multiple other places within your CSS. This makes it easier to manage and update colors across a website, especially when dealing with a large number of elements that share the same color.

What is the syntax for declaring a CSS variable?

To declare a CSS variable, you use two hyphens followed by the name of the variable. For example, `--my-color: #ff0000;` declares a variable named `my-color` with a red color value.

How can you use a CSS variable in your styles?

To use a CSS variable, you employ the `var()` notation. For example, `background-color: var(--my-color);` applies the value of the `my-color` variable to the `background-color` property.

What are the benefits of using CSS variables over traditional color assignment?

CSS variables make it easier to maintain and update colors across a website. Instead of manually changing each instance of a color, you only need to update the variable's value once, and all instances using that variable will be updated automatically.

How does the video demonstrate the use of CSS variables?

The video demonstrates the use of CSS variables by creating color variables for dark, light, slate, and primary colors. It then shows how these variables can be used to update the background color, text color, and link color of different elements in the HTML document.

What is the purpose of the Border box reset in the video?

The Border box reset is used to ensure that the width and height properties of an element include the content, padding, and border, making it easier to size elements accurately.

How does the video show the process of changing a website's primary color?

The video shows the process by changing the value of the `--my-color-primary` variable from red to purple. This change is reflected across all elements using this variable as their color, without the need to update each element individually.

What shortcut does VS Code offer for using CSS variables?

VS Code offers a shortcut where by typing two hyphens (`--`), a list of all available CSS variables is displayed, allowing you to easily select and insert the desired variable into your code.

What is the advantage of using CSS variables for a growing website?

As a website grows, the same color might be used in hundreds of different places. Using CSS variables makes it manageable to update these colors in a centralized way, avoiding the need to search through and manually change each instance of the color in the codebase.

How can you tell if a CSS variable has been successfully applied in the video?

In the video, after assigning a CSS variable to an element's property using the `var()` notation, the change is reflected in the visual representation of the website, showing the updated color as defined by the variable.

Outlines

00:00

🎨 Introduction to CSS Variables

This paragraph introduces the concept of CSS variables, also known as custom properties, which are a powerful feature in CSS that allows values to be stored and reused throughout a stylesheet. The video demonstrates how to use CSS variables to manage colors more efficiently, starting with a simple example of changing the background and text colors in an HTML document. The speaker explains the problem of managing multiple color values as a website grows and how changing a single color value can become a tedious task, emphasizing the need for a scalable solution like CSS variables.

05:01

🔧 Implementing CSS Variables for Color Management

In this paragraph, the speaker walks through the process of implementing CSS variables to manage colors in a more scalable way. The explanation includes creating custom properties with the double hyphen syntax and assigning them values, such as hex color codes. The video shows how to apply these variables to various HTML elements, replacing direct color values with variable references. The speaker also introduces a shortcut in VS Code for easily selecting and applying CSS variables, demonstrating how this can save time and effort when updating multiple elements at once.

Keywords

💡CSS

CSS, or Cascading Style Sheets, is a stylesheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in HTML. In the video, CSS is the central topic, with a focus on its capabilities for styling web pages, particularly through the use of custom properties or variables.

💡Custom Properties

Custom Properties, also known as CSS variables, are a powerful feature in CSS that allows developers to define reusable values for CSS declarations. These variables can be updated in one place, and the changes will propagate throughout the document, making it easier to maintain consistency and update styles.

💡Border Box Reset

The Border Box Reset is a technique used in CSS to ensure that all elements are box-sized based on their content and padding, rather than their content alone. This simplifies the layout process by making the total width and height of an element the sum of its content, padding, and border, rather than just the content.

💡Hex Values

Hex values are a way to represent colors in CSS using hexadecimal numbers. Each hex color code represents a specific color, with the typical format being a six-digit code that includes three pairs of digits, each representing the intensity of red, green, and blue (RGB).

💡VAR Notation

The VAR notation is a CSS function used to reference the value of a custom property or variable. By using 'var()' followed by the variable name in parentheses, developers can apply the value stored in a custom property to any CSS declaration.

💡Scalability

In web development, scalability refers to the ability of a website or application to handle growth in its user base or data without a decrease in performance or efficiency. In the context of the video, scalability is discussed in relation to managing colors and styles as a website grows, emphasizing the benefits of using CSS variables to maintain consistency and ease of updates.

💡Anchor Element

An anchor element, denoted by the '<a>' tag in HTML, is used to create hyperlinks that allow users to navigate between different pages or sections on the web. In the video, an anchor element is used as an example to demonstrate how CSS variables can be applied to change the color of links on a website.

💡Paragraph

A paragraph, in HTML, is a block of text defined by the '<p>' tag. Paragraphs are used to organize and structure written content on web pages. In the video, a paragraph with the class 'description' is added to the HTML document to illustrate how CSS variables can be used to style text content, such as changing its color.

💡Color Management

Color management in web design involves the process of selecting, defining, and applying colors consistently across a website or application. It's crucial for maintaining a cohesive visual identity and user experience. The video emphasizes the importance of color management and how CSS variables streamline this process.

💡Website Growth

Website growth refers to the expansion of a website in terms of content, features, and user base. As a website grows, the complexity of its design and codebase increases, which can lead to challenges in maintaining and updating the site. The video uses the concept of website growth to highlight the benefits of using CSS variables for scalable and efficient design practices.

💡Teaching

Teaching, in the context of the video, refers to the educational content provided by the speaker, who is sharing knowledge about CSS and its features. The video is structured as a lesson, aiming to teach viewers about the practical application and benefits of CSS variables in web design.

Highlights

The video is sponsored by the creator to promote a full CSS course.

The lesson focuses on custom Properties, also known as CSS variables.

CSS variables allow a value to be stored in one place and referenced in multiple other places.

An example is given where an H1 element with the class 'title' displays 'hello, world'.

The Border box reset and everything resets are mentioned as part of the CSS setup.

Changing the background color of the body element is demonstrated using a hex value.

The issue of managing multiple colors as a website grows is discussed.

A scenario is presented where changing a color across the site would require updating each instance manually.

CSS variables are introduced as a solution to the scalability problem.

Custom properties are declared at the top of the file with two hyphens and a name.

Four color variables are created: color-dark, color-light, color-slate, and color-primary.

The hex values from the elements' color properties are assigned to the corresponding CSS variables.

The video demonstrates updating the background color of the body using a CSS variable.

The process of updating the color property of other elements using CSS variables is shown.

A practical application of CSS variables is illustrated by changing the primary color to purple.

The video encourages viewers to like, subscribe, and consider the full CSS course.

Transcripts

this video is sponsored by myself learn

CSS with my full CSS course which is now

available on my website sling the

dragon. in this lesson we go over one of

my favorite features in the CSS language

custom Properties or also often referred

to as CSS variables CSS variables allow

a value to be stored in one place then

referenced in multiple other places in

my index.html inside my empty body

element I'll add an H1 element

with the class of

title and that displays hello

world then in my CSS we see I already

have the Border box reset and the

everything resets now let's say I wanted

to change the color of the background

I'll select the body

element give it the background color

property and I'll set it to hasht 0 2 0

6 1 7 when I save we see our back ground

is now dark however we don't see our

title anymore so I'll select our Title

by its class name of title and I'll give

it the color

property and I'll set it to # F1 F5

F9 when I save we see our title is now

white I'll head back to my index.html

and under our title I'll add a paragraph

with the class of

description and that displays some

filler

text then in my CSS I'll select a repair

graph by its class name of

description and I'll give it the color

property of #

9483

B8 when I save we see our paragraph is a

darker shade of white and finally back

in my index.html under our paragraph

I'll add an anchor

element with the class of

Link and that dis Place learn

more in my CSS I'll select our anchor

element by its class name of

link and I'll give it the color

property and I'll set it to #

E1 D

48 when I save we see our link is now

red we currently have a total of four

colors a dark color a light color a

grayish color and a red color managing

these four colors for now isn't really a

problem however eventually your website

is going to grow as your website grows

the same color might be used in hundreds

of different places and when that

happens our four colors will be

unmanageable and to make things worse

imagine after weeks of Designing and

coding you suddenly decide that instead

of this red color you want everything

that has this red color to instead be

purple this decision will have you

Scavenging through your entire code base

in search for every property that has

this red color assigned so that you can

replace them with a purple color instead

so in a nutshell this isn't very

scalable the solution of course is CSS

variables to create CSS variables at the

top of the file I'll select the root P

sudo

class and inside the curly braces I can

declare a custom property that begins

with two hyphens followed by whatever we

want to call our variable I want to

create color variable

so I'll call the first one color-

dark we just declared our first custom

property however we need to assign it a

value I'll copy the hex value of our

dark background color and paste it as a

value to our first custom

property I'll create a second custom

property called-- color-

light and I'll copy the hex value from

our title and paste it inside our light

variable

I'll create a third custom property

called-- color-

slate and I'll copy the hex value from

our paragraph and paste it inside our

slate

variable and finally I'll create a

fourth custom property called D- color-

primary and I'll copy the hex value from

our link and paste it inside our primary

variable now that we've created our four

CSS variables on my body element I'll

remove the hex value from the background

color property then on my title I'll

remove the value from the color

property on the description I'll remove

the value from the color property and

finally on our link I'll remove the

value from the color

property when I save we see our colors

are back to their defaults to use our

variables starting with the background

color on our body element I'll assign it

to our dark custom property to do so we

need to use the VAR

notation and inside the parentheses I

can just type out the name of our

variable-- color-

dark when I save we see the background

color property is being assigned to the

value that we defined in our-- color-

dark variable now on our title I'll give

our color property the VAR

notation and inside the parenthesis I

can select the variable I want I want

the light variable so I just need to

type out the name of the variable--

color-

light on our description I'll give the

color property the Slate

variable and finally on our link if you

think typing out the VAR notation each

time is a hassle vs code has a CSS

variable shortcut where by only typing

to hyphens we get a list of all our

variables and when I select the primary

one we see it automatically added the

VAR notation when I save our link is now

red this little project of ours with our

title our paragraph and our anchor

element really doesn't do justice to how

useful CSS variables are just imagine

for 1 second that we had over a 100

different individual elements each with

the primary color of red and then say

you decided you wanted the primary color

of your website to be purple instead

you'd have to individually update the

color property of each element that has

your primary color of red CSS variables

solves this issue because now say I

still had hundreds of elements with the

primary color of red but this time I was

using CSS variables to change the

primary color of my website from red to

purple instead of having to update

hundreds of individual elements I can

just update the value in my custom

property from what it currently is to

what I want it to be I'll change it to

#t

9333

EA and when I save our link is now

purple if you enjoyed this video please

consider giving it a like and hitting

that subscribe button also if my way of

teaching resonates with you do check out

my full CSS course the link to it is in

the description of this video thanks for

watching