With CSS, links can be styled in many different ways.
Styling Links #
Links can be styled with any CSS property (e.g. color, font-family, background, etc.).
a {
color: hotpink;
} In addition, links can be styled differently depending on what state they are in.
The four links states are:
a:link– a normal, unvisited linka:visited– a link the user has visiteda:hover– a link when the user mouses over ita:active– a link the moment it is clicked
/* unvisited link */
a:link {
color: red;
}
/* visited link */
a:visited {
color: green;
}
/* mouse over link */
a:hover {
color: hotpink;
}
/* selected link */
a:active {
color: blue;
} When setting the style for several link states, there are some order rules:
- a:hover MUST come after a:link and a:visited
- a:active MUST come after a:hover
Text Decoration #
The text-decoration property is mostly used to remove underlines from links:
a:link {
text-decoration: none;
}
a:visited {
text-decoration: none;
}
a:hover {
text-decoration: underline;
}
a:active {
text-decoration: underline;
} Background Color #
The background-color property can be used to specify a background color for links:
a:link {
background-color: yellow;
}
a:visited {
background-color: cyan;
}
a:hover {
background-color: lightgreen;
}
a:active {
background-color: hotpink;
} Link Buttons #
This example demonstrates a more advanced example where we combine several CSS properties to display links as boxes/buttons:
a:link, a:visited {
background-color: #f44336;
color: white;
padding: 14px 25px;
text-align: center;
text-decoration: none;
display: inline-block;
}
a:hover, a:active {
background-color: red;
} a.one:link {color: #ff0000;}
a.one:visited {color: #0000ff;}
a.one:hover {color: #ffcc00;}
a.two:link {color: #ff0000;}
a.two:visited {color: #0000ff;}
a.two:hover {font-size: 150%;}
a.three:link {color: #ff0000;}
a.three:visited {color: #0000ff;}
a.three:hover {background: #66ff66;}
a.four:link {color: #ff0000;}
a.four:visited {color: #0000ff;}
a.four:hover {font-family: monospace;}
a.five:link {color: #ff0000; text-decoration: none;}
a.five:visited {color: #0000ff; text-decoration: none;}
a.five:hover {text-decoration: underline;} Another example of how to create link boxes/buttons:
a:link, a:visited {
background-color: white;
color: black;
border: 2px solid green;
padding: 10px 20px;
text-align: center;
text-decoration: none;
display: inline-block;
}
a:hover, a:active {
background-color: green;
color: white;
} This example demonstrates the different types of cursors (can be useful for links):
<span style="cursor: auto">auto</span><br>
<span style="cursor: crosshair">crosshair</span><br>
<span style="cursor: default">default</span><br>
<span style="cursor: e-resize">e-resize</span><br>
<span style="cursor: help">help</span><br>
<span style="cursor: move">move</span><br>
<span style="cursor: n-resize">n-resize</span><br>
<span style="cursor: ne-resize">ne-resize</span><br>
<span style="cursor: nw-resize">nw-resize</span><br>
<span style="cursor: pointer">pointer</span><br>
<span style="cursor: progress">progress</span><br>
<span style="cursor: s-resize">s-resize</span><br>
<span style="cursor: se-resize">se-resize</span><br>
<span style="cursor: sw-resize">sw-resize</span><br>
<span style="cursor: text">text</span><br>
<span style="cursor: w-resize">w-resize</span><br>
<span style="cursor: wait">wait</span> 
