Open In App

CSS Links

Improve
Improve
Improve
Like Article
Like
Save Article
Save
Share
Report issue
Report

A link is a connection from one web page to another web page. CSS property can be used to style the links in various different ways.
States of Link: Before discussing CSS properties, it is important to know the states of a link. Links can exist in different states and they can be styled using pseudo-classes. 

There are four states of links given below: 

  • a:link => This is a normal, unvisited link.
  • a:visited => This is a link visited by user at least once
  • a:hover => This is a link when mouse hovers over it
  • a:active => This is a link that is just clicked.

Syntax: 

a:link {
color:color_name;
}

color_name can be given in any format like color name (green), HEX value (#5570f0) or RGB value rgb(25, 255, 2). There is another state ‘a:focus’ which is used to focused when a user uses the tab key to navigate through the links. 

The default value of links: 

  • By default the links created are underlined.
  • When the mouse is hovered above a link, it changes to a hand icon.
  • Normal/unvisited links are blue.
  • Visited links are colored purple.
  • Active links are colored red.
  • When a link is focused, it has an outline around it.

Example: This example shows the basic use of links in CSS.

html




<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
 
<head>
    <title>CSS links</title>
    <style>
        p {
            font-size: 25px;
            text-align: center;
        }
    </style>
</head>
 
<body>
    <p>
        <a href="https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/">
            GeeksforGeeks Simple Link
        </a>
    </p>
</body>
 
</html>


Output: 

links

GIF Output showing the appearance of links in different states using CSS

CSS Properties of Links: Some basic CSS properties of links are given below: 

  • color
  • font-family
  • text-decoration
  • background-color

color: This CSS property is used to change the color of the link text. 

Syntax:

a {
color: color_name;
}

Example: This example shows the use of the color property in links.

html




<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
 
<head>
    <title>Link color property</title>
    <style>
        p {
            font-size: 20px;
            text-align: center;
        }
 
        /*unvisited link will appear green*/
        a:link {
            color: red;
        }
 
        /*visited link will appear blue*/
        a:visited {
            color: blue;
        }
 
        /*when mouse hovers over link it will appear orange*/
        a:hover {
            color: orange;
        }
 
        /*when the link is clicked, it will appear black*/
        a:active {
            color: black;
        }
    </style>
</head>
 
<body>
    <p>
        <a href="https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/">
            GeeksforGeeks
        </a>
        This link will change colours with different states.
    </p>
</body>
 
</html>


Output: 

statee

GIF Output

font-family: This property is used to change the font type of a link using font-family property. 

Syntax: 

a {
font-family: "family name";
}

Example: This example shows the use of the font-family property in links.

html




<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
 
<head>
    <style>
        /*Initial link font family arial*/
        a {
            font-family: Arial;
        }
 
        p {
            font-size: 30px;
            text-align: center;
        }
 
        /*unvisited link font family*/
        a:link {
            color: Arial;
        }
 
        /*visited link font family*/
        a:visited {
            font-family: Arial;
        }
 
        /*when mouse hovers over it will change to times new roman*/
        a:hover {
            font-family: Times new roman;
        }
 
        /*when the link is clicked, it will changed to Comic sans ms*/
        a:active {
            font-family: Comic Sans MS;
        }
    </style>
</head>
 
<body>
    <p>
        <a href="https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/" id="link">
            GeeksforGeeks
        </a>
        a Computer Science Portal for Geeks.
    </p>
</body>
 
</html>


Output: 

es

GIF Output

Text-Decoration: This property is basically used to remove/add underlines from/to a link. 

Syntax: 

a {
text-decoration: none;
}

Example: This example shows the use of the text-decoration property in links.

html




<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
 
<head>
    <title>Text decoration in link</title>
    <style>
        /*Set the font size for better visibility*/
        p {
            font-size: 2rem;
        }
 
        /*Removing underline using text-decoration*/
        a {
            text-decoration: none;
        }
 
        /*underline can be added using
        text-decoration:underline;
        */
    </style>
</head>
 
<body>
    <p>
        <a href="https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/" id="link">
            GeeksforGeeks
        </a>
        a Computer Science Portal for Geeks.
    </p>
</body>
 
</html>


Output: 

abc

GIF Output

background-color: This property is used to set the background color of the link. 

Syntax: 

a {
background-color: color_name;
}

Example: This example shows the use of the background-color property in links.

html




<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
 
<head>
    <title>background color</title>
    <style>
        /*Setting font size for better visibility*/
        p {
            font-size: 2rem;
        }
 
        /*Designing unvisited link button*/
        a:link {
            background-color: powderblue;
            color: green;
            padding: 5px 5px;
            text-decoration: none;
            display: inline-block;
        }
 
        /*Designing link button when mouse cursor hovers over it*/
        a:hover {
            background-color: green;
            color: white;
            padding: 5px 5px;
            text-align: center;
            text-decoration: none;
            display: inline-block;
        }
    </style>
</head>
 
<body>
    <p>
        <a href="https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/" id="link">
            GeeksforGeeks
        </a>
        a Computer Science Portal for Geeks.
    </p>
</body>
 
</html>


Output: 

pp

GIF Output

CSS Link Button: CSS links can also be styled using buttons/boxes. The following example shows how CSS links can be designed as buttons. 

Example: This example shows the use of links as a button.

html




<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
 
<head>
    <title>Link button</title>
    <style>
        /*Setting font size for better visibility*/
        p {
            font-size: 2rem;
        }
 
        a {
            background-color: green;
            color: white;
            padding: 5px 5px;
            border-radius: 5px;
            text-align: center;
            text-decoration: none;
            display: inline-block;
        }
    </style>
</head>
 
<body>
    <p>
        <a href="https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/" id="link">
            GeeksforGeeks
        </a>
        a Computer Science Portal for Geeks.
    </p>
</body>
 
</html>


Output: 

giff

GIF Output



Last Updated : 08 Aug, 2023
Like Article
Save Article
Previous
Next
Share your thoughts in the comments
Similar Reads