The main difference between themes/skins and CSS are the HTML & Server Side Controls (SSC) only. We use skin files to format & cosmetics SSC which are not in HTML like <asp:Label>, <asp:TextBox> & </asp:RadioButtonList> etc…
But what if we use the rendered HTML SSC in CSS instead skin files to handle <asp:Label> & <asp:TextBox> etc…
ie: when SSC <asp:TextBox> rendered on browsers it shows <input type="text"> so if we write following style in my CSS file instead Skin, it also works…
input[type=text], textarea, select {
outline: none;
padding: 3px 0px 3px 3px;
margin: 5px 1px 3px 0px;
border: 1px solid #cccccc;
background: #ffffff;
width: 150px;
color: #484848;
font-size:
12px;
}
So my question is, if we still can handle SSC with CSS do we really need skins? Or if I am missing anything please correct me, thanks.
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It’s a question of choice; I have never needed to use skins, I have always been able to do all the styling I wanted to with pure css.
Looking at your example it is purely the look and feel of controls you want to control – so I see no reason for you to use skins. Html for mark-up, JavaScript for client-side functionality and css for how things look. Keeping your mark-up free from script or style has its advantages and css is the best tool for styling.
I wouldn’t mix and match css and skins for the simple reason that I would then find it more difficult to know whether I needed to look in a skin file or a css file to make a style change.
If you had need of setting properties on your SSC then a skin file would be something to consider, but as we’ve both said you’re only looking for styling then I wouldn’t complicate things by introducing skin files. StackOverflow has an answer to skin vs css that might be interesting to read.
1