A style sheet is a feature in
desktop publishing
Desktop publishing (DTP) is the creation of documents using dedicated software on a personal ("desktop") computer. It was first used almost exclusively for print publications, but now it also assists in the creation of various forms of online co ...
programs that store and apply
formatting to text.
Style sheets are a form of
separation of presentation and content: it creates a separate
abstraction
Abstraction is a process where general rules and concepts are derived from the use and classifying of specific examples, literal (reality, real or Abstract and concrete, concrete) signifiers, first principles, or other methods.
"An abstraction" ...
to keep the presentation isolated from the text data.
Style sheets are a common feature in most popular desktop publishing and word processing programs, including
Corel Ventura,
Adobe InDesign,
Scribus,
PageMaker,
QuarkXPress,
WordPerfect, and
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word is a word processor program, word processing program developed by Microsoft. It was first released on October 25, 1983, under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platf ...
, though they may be referred to using slightly different terminology. For example, in
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word is a word processor program, word processing program developed by Microsoft. It was first released on October 25, 1983, under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platf ...
a style sheet is known as a template.
The most well-known form of style sheet is the Cascading Style Sheet (CSS), which is used for styling Web pages.
Use
Individual styles are created by the user and may include a wide variety of commands that dictate how a selected portion of text is formatted:
*
Typeface
A typeface (or font family) is a design of Letter (alphabet), letters, Numerical digit, numbers and other symbols, to be used in printing or for electronic display. Most typefaces include variations in size (e.g., 24 point), weight (e.g., light, ...
or
font
In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design.
For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...
*
Boldfacing
*
Italicizing
*
Underlining
*
Justification (left, right, center, justify, force justify)
*Space before and after paragraphs
*
Tab stops and
indentation
*Type size
*
Leading
In typography, leading ( ) is the space between adjacent lines of type; the exact definition varies.
In hand typesetting, leading is the thin strips of lead (or aluminium) that were inserted between lines of type in the composing stick to incre ...
*
Kerning
In typography, kerning is the process of adjusting the spacing between Character (symbol), characters in a Typeface#Proportion, proportional font, usually to achieve a visually pleasing result. Kerning adjusts the space between individual le ...
*
Tracking
*
Color
Color (or colour in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, see spelling differences) is the visual perception based on the electromagnetic spectrum. Though co ...
*Borders or strokes
*
Superscript
A subscript or superscript is a character (such as a number or letter) that is set slightly below or above the normal line of type, respectively. It is usually smaller than the rest of the text. Subscripts appear at or below the baseline, wh ...
or
subscript
*
Dropcaps
*
Letter case
Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (more formally ''majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (more formally '' minuscule'') in the written representation of certain languages. The writing system ...
*
Strike through
*
Outline font style
*
Hyphenation
In most programs with style sheets, there is a window or menu listing the style sheets the user has associated with the document. For example, a newspaper may have a style sheet for its story text called "Body copy" that sets the type at 10 point Nimrod with 11 point leading and justified alignment.
Most programs allow users to name their own styles. Usually easy-to-remember names are used that describe what the style is used for. Common names might include "headline," "subhead" and "byline."
To apply a style to a portion of text, most programs allow users to select the text with their mouse and then click on the desired style in a style panel.
Some programs split style sheets into two classes: paragraph and character.
Paragraph style sheets are applied to an entire paragraph while character styles are applied to only a select number of characters. Character styles are useful when a user needs to format only a small portion of a paragraph. For example, a newspaper may publish lists of current movies by starting with the name of a movie in a bold,
sans serif typeface. Then, without starting a new paragraph, the review starts in the standard story text format. In this case, the designer could highlight the movie title and select the appropriate character style to apply the formatting only to the title. The rest of the paragraph can then be styled independently.
More advanced layout programs allow users to format more complex paragraphs with a single paragraph style. Using our movie review example above, say the newspaper always places a colon after the movie title and runs 10 short movie reviews as one large story. In this case, the style could be programmed to apply the bold, sans serif typeface at the start of a new paragraph until it encounters a colon. After the colon, the style switches to the standard story text style. Therefore, the designer could highlight the entire collection and apply only one style that will automatically format the entire story without having to go through and apply separate character styles to each of the 10 reviews.
Some
scorewriters, including
MuseScore and
Sibelius, implement style sheets to control the appearance and layout of sheet music.
Benefits
Style sheets help publications maintain consistency, so common elements such as story text,
headlines
The headline is the text indicating the content or nature of the article below it, typically by providing a form of brief summary of its contents.
The large type ''front page headline'' did not come into use until the late 19th century when incre ...
and
bylines always appear the same. Style sheets also help save time allowing a designer to click once rather than having to apply each element one at a time and risk using an incorrect value.
Finally, style sheets are also useful if a publication decides to make changes to a design - say, make the story text slightly smaller. A user with proper administrative access can make the change to the master style sheet and then "send" the revised style sheets to all users, so the change is automatically reflected.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Style Sheet (Desktop Publishing)
Desktop publishing software
de:Formatvorlage
es:Plantilla
fr:Gabarit (mise en page)