CSS Pseudo Element Styling and Selection Techniques

CSS pseudo elements are a powerful tool for adding dynamic effects to your website. They allow you to style specific parts of an element without modifying the underlying HTML.

You can use pseudo elements to add a before or after content to an element, which can be particularly useful for adding icons or graphics. For example, you can use the ::before pseudo element to add a decorative icon before a heading.

Pseudo elements can be styled independently of the rest of the element, giving you a high degree of control over their appearance. This can be especially useful for creating complex, dynamic effects.

Pseudo elements are denoted by a double colon (::) notation.

They are used to style a specific part of an element that doesn't exist in the HTML markup, such as the first letter of a paragraph or the selected part of a document.

A pseudo-element can be used to add decorative styles, create special effects, and modify the appearance of certain parts of an element.

Pseudo-elements can be used to style portions of the document that don't necessarily map to the document's tree structure. For instance, the ::first-line pseudo-element can select content on the first formatted line of an element after text wrapping.

Only one pseudo-element can be used in a selector, and it must appear after all the other components. For example, p::last-line:hover is invalid.

Here are some pseudo-elements defined in CSS, along with the sections where they are mentioned:

A pseudo-element in CSS is used to style a specific part of an element that doesn't exist in the HTML markup, like the first letter of a paragraph or the selected part in a document.

Pseudo-elements are denoted by a double colon (::) notation, making them easily identifiable in your code.

Only one pseudo-element can be used in a selector, and it must appear after all other components. For example, p::last-line:hover is invalid because it has two pseudo-elements.

Pseudo-elements can be used to add decorative styles, create special effects, and modify the appearance of certain parts of an element that already has a state applied to it.

Some common pseudo-elements include ::before, ::after, ::first-letter, ::first-line, and ::marker.

Here are some examples of pseudo-elements and their uses:

Each pseudo-element has a specific syntax, like ::name-of-pseudo, and is associated with an originating element.

The first letter pseudo-element is a powerful tool in CSS, allowing you to target and style the first letter of an element's text content.

You can use the ::first-letter pseudo-element to style the first letter of elements like div, paragraph, span, etc. It's a great way to add a touch of personality to your text.

Not all CSS properties can be used when targeting ::first-letter. The available properties are: color, background properties, border properties, float, font properties, and text properties.

In languages like Dutch, if the letter combination "ij" appears at the beginning of an element, both letters should be considered within the ::first-letter pseudo-element.

Preceding and following punctuation must also be included as part of the first-letter text in the ::first-letter pseudo-element. This includes all punctuation that precedes the first letter, any punctuation that follows the first letter (excluding opening punctuation and dashes), and any intervening typographic space.

Here are the types of punctuation that are included in the ::first-letter pseudo-element:

The ::first-letter pseudo-element can be used to add decorative styles, create special effects, and modify the appearance of certain parts of an element.

The first-line pseudo-element is a powerful tool in CSS that allows you to style the first line of text in an element.

You can use the ::first-line pseudo-element to target the first line of text in elements like div, paragraph, span, etc. It's denoted by a double colon (::) notation.

The ::first-line pseudo-element is automatically inserted by the user agent at the beginning of every element, so you don't need to add any extra markup.

It's worth noting that the length of the first line depends on a number of factors, including the width of the page, the font size, etc.

Here are some examples of properties that you can apply to a ::first-line pseudo-element:

You can't apply properties like writing-mode, direction, or text-orientation to a ::first-line pseudo-element, though.

Also, keep in mind that setting the line-height property on ::first-line can both increase and decrease the height of the first line box.

Selection is a powerful way to style user-selected text. The ::selection pseudo-element allows you to style how selected text looks, and it can be used to style all selected text or in combination with other selectors for a more specific selection style.

You can use the ::selection pseudo-element to style the user-selected text inside any elements like div, paragraph, span, etc. This is demonstrated in the example code.

Only a subset of CSS properties are allowed for the ::selection pseudo-element, including color, background-color, and text properties. However, background-image is not allowed.

The ::selection pseudo-element can arbitrarily cross element boundaries without honoring its nesting structure, which makes it a flexible tool for styling selected text.

Styling Pseudo Elements can be a powerful tool in your CSS toolkit. You can use ::before and ::after pseudo-elements to insert text contents or images before and after any element.

The ::first-line pseudo-element behaves similarly to an inline-level box, but with certain restrictions. It can be styled with all font properties, color and opacity properties, background properties, and typesetting properties that apply to inline elements.

You can use the ::first-letter pseudo-element to target the first letter of text content, but not all CSS properties can be used when targeting this pseudo-element. The available properties are: color, background properties, border properties, float, font properties, text properties.

Here's a list of properties that can be applied to the ::first-line pseudo-element:

Remember, the ::selection pseudo-element can only be styled with a limited set of properties that do not affect layout. This includes color, background-color, text-decoration, and text-shadow.

The first letter of a paragraph is a great place to add some visual flair with CSS pseudo-elements. You can use the ::first-letter pseudo-element to target the first letter of text content of any element, such as a div, paragraph, or span.

In CSS, the ::first-letter pseudo-element is similar to an inline box, and you can apply various properties to it, including all font properties, color and opacity properties, background properties, and text decoration properties. These properties will help you style the first letter of your text.

The ::first-letter pseudo-element also includes any preceding and following punctuation, such as characters that belong to the Punctuation (P*) Unicode general category. This means that if you have a paragraph that starts with a letter combination like "ij", both letters should be considered within the ::first-letter pseudo-element.

To determine what constitutes the first letter, user agents should tailor their definition of typographic character unit to reflect the first-letter traditions of the content language. This is especially important for languages like Dutch, where the letter combination "ij" is considered a single unit.

Here's a summary of the types of punctuation that are included in the ::first-letter pseudo-element:

By understanding how to style the first letter of your text, you can add a touch of personality to your designs and make your content stand out.

The pseudo-element ::after is used to insert text contents or images after any element. This is a common use case for pseudo-elements in CSS.

You can think of it as adding a layer of content to an element without actually modifying the element itself. For example, you can use ::after to add a background image to an element without affecting its original content.

The ::after pseudo-element is similar to ::before, except that it adds content after the element instead of before it. This can be useful for creating complex shapes or designs without using images.

Here are some key facts about the ::after pseudo-element:

The identity, lifetime, and nullness of the return value of the pseudo() method, which returns the CSSPseudoElement object representing the pseudo-element, is still under discussion.