The style of the link should distinguish different states by pseudo-classes. 1. Use a:link to set the unreached link style, 2. a:visited to set the accessed link, 3. a:hover to set the hover effect, 4. a:active to set the click-time style, 5. a:focus ensures keyboard accessibility, always follow the LVHA order to avoid style conflicts, can improve usability and accessibility by adding padding, cursor: pointer, and retaining or customizing focus outlines. You can also use border-bottom or animation underscore to ensure that the link has a good user experience and accessibility in all states.
Styling links in CSS is straightforward, but it's important to understand the different states of a link and how to target them effectively. Here's how to do it right.
Use Link Pseudo-Classes for Different States
Links have several states (like unvisited, hovered, active, etc.), and CSS provides pseudo-classes to style each one:
-
a:link– Styles unvisited links -
a:visited– Styles links the user has already visited -
a:hover– Applies when the user hovers over the link -
a:active– Styles the link during the moment it's being clicked -
a:focus– Applies when the link has keyboard focus (important for accessibility)
Example:
a:link {
color: blue;
text-decoration: none;
}
a: visited {
color: purple;
}
a:hover {
color: red;
text-decoration: underline;
}
a:active {
color: orange;
}
a:focus {
outline: 2px solid green;
}? Tip: Always follows the LVHA order —
:link,:visited,:hover,:active— to avoid unexpected style overrides.
Style All Links Uniformly (Optional)
If you want all links to look the same regardless of state, you can style the base a element:
a {
color: #007bff;
text-decoration: none;
font-weight: bold;
}But this removes visual feedback, which isn't great for usability.
Make Links More Clickable and Accessible
Improve usability by increasing the clickable area and ensuring focus visibility:
- Add padding to make small links easier to tap on mobile
- Use
cursor: pointerto indicate interactivity - Never remove focus outlines without replacing them with a custom accessible alternative
Example:
a {
padding: 4px 8px;
cursor: pointer;
display: inline-block;
}Bonus: Remove Underlines or Add Custom Effects
You can get creative:
- Remove underlines:
text-decoration: none; - Add a bottom border instead:
border-bottom: 1px solid currentColor; - Animate the underline on hover:
a { position: relative; text-decoration: none; }
a::after { content: ''; position: absolute; width: 0; height: 1px; bottom: 0; left: 0; background-color: black; transition: width 0.3s; }
a:hover::after { width: 100%; }
Basically, just remember to style the different link states, keep usability in mind, and don't forget accessibility. It's simple but easy to overlook the details.
The above is the detailed content of How to style links in CSS?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!
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