Tables vs. CSS: What Makes a Better Layout?

Joanna Cox    – NYC, NY
123Triad: Web Design & SEO Company

Tables vs. CSS: What Makes a Better Layout?

Tables were mainly designed for presenting tabular data. But as designers soon figured, the borderless attribute allowed an invisible grid where text and images could be efficiently laid out. Pretty soon, we were rolling out pages with such streamlined designs that you could hardly tell they were laid out on tables.

But tables aren’t exactly state-of-the-art anymore. For the most part, they’ve been replaced by cascading style sheets: a simple language designed to work with HTML so that page styles are treated separately from the page content. While CSS is mostly used for text formatting, developers have recently discovered its value in page layout and positioning. These include:

-smaller page sizes
-faster loading (the text can load before the graphics)
-low tag-to-content ratio, which means better search engine indexing
-a wider range of formatting options
-more flexible layouts and styles

Another thing that works in favor of CSS is browser support. The main players in the browser industry—Mozilla, Internet Explorer, Netscape, and Opera—tend to update frequently, and new versions have increasingly low support for table layouts. So while a table-dependent site might play well on older browsers, the page can look quite different when the user upgrades. CSS, on the other hand, is widely supported on most new browsers. Using CSS layouts can save you a lot of time on browser testing, especially for large websites.

Accessibility options are also limited with table-based layouts. Alternative browsers for disabled users have far fewer features than their mainstream counterparts. On a screen reader or text-only browser, the table tags might be visible on the page right along the content. But because CSS is separate from the content, the text shows up clean, even when the styles and formatting aren’t properly read.

Of course, tables still have their place in web design. For one thing, they’re still a valuable tool for aligning text and graphics and displaying grid information. That’s why it hasn’t been ruled out in the newest HTML specifications. It’s not really a matter of one or the other—tables and CSS can be used together to create a smooth, dynamic website where each element is in its proper place.

123Triad webdesign offers affordable custom website design. Our full service website design company only hires certified website designers. Please contact us today on 1-800-720-0816 for your next web site design project.

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