Since the early days of the Internet, if you wanted more than just a flat color, you had to use images for your web designs. Gradients, drop shadows, and other elements had to be added in Photoshop—but things have since changed. Over the past couple of years, CSS has advanced to the point that you can add these things using coding that is interpreted in the browser. Although CSS3 doesn't have full support from every browser just yet, it is a huge step ahead for the design community. And here are just a few of the reasons why.
Better usability. Using coding instead of images means that your pages will load faster. It cuts down on the amount of HTTP requests, which means less bandwidth is taken up and the network runs more smoothly. Furthermore, using images isn't always good for universal usability; it could make it difficult for people using devices other than a desktop or laptop computer to access and navigate the pages. This is especially true for smart phones. The small screen size causes the images to load slowly and become distorted. By using hard coding, then the website's overall layout and design will look better in all browsers.
Smaller file sizes. One of the reasons why web pages using CSS3 load faster is because the file sizes are smaller. In addition to loading faster, having smaller file sizes saves room on the server and the computer, both when the page is created and when it is loaded in the browser window. Using CSS3 means that less resources are used.
Faster development time. Another area that CSS3 excels at is saving time when it comes to the development stages of building a website. Coding takes less time than creating the effects in Photoshop and going back and forth between your computer and the FTP client. Furthermore, when you need to make changes and see what they look like live, you can simply tweak the coding in the CSS file and save it, then refresh the page, whereas using image files, you'd have to save the images and upload them all to the FTP before you could refresh the page. Although the time may seem negligible for each image, managing more than a couple of images will cause the time to build up.
Although it may be some time before CSS3 is instated as protocol, it is already being utilized and steps are being taken towards making it standard. There are too many benefits to let it fall by the wayside. So even though there are still browsers that don't fully support CSS3, it is beneficial to use it along with a fallback, to make your sites ready for the future.
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CODANK is a top rated Web Design and Internet Marketing firm located in Charlotte, NC. We are dedicated to providing the highest quality, cost effective custom software development services, delivering a broad range of business consulting and outsourcing services.
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