CSS Links

With CSS, links can be styled in different ways.

Text Link Text Link Link Button Link Button

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 link
• a:visited - a link the user has visited
• a:hover - a link when the user mouses over it
• a:active - a link the moment it is clicked

Example:

/* 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;}

Advanced - 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;}