Less vs CSS: The main differences and how to add them in Magento 2

Less vs CSS is one of many new features of Magento. The LESS syntax is a little different from the CSS one, as the stylesheet language is a CSS preprocessor. In this post, we also reveal everything you need to know about Less vs CSS and how to add them in Magento 2. Let’s begin!

What is CSS in Magento 2?

The main benefit of CSS is that it allows you to create a uniform appearance for several or even all pages of the website. Instead of manually defining styles for each element, a developer specifies all the visual configurations in a single CSS document. This helps them save a lot of time and effort. Moreover, any alterations in the style are automatically used for all the web pages it was used for. Besides, CSS is compatible with multiple devices and browsers, which means no sophisticated optimization is asked.

With all these advantages, CSS has become a crucial aspect of Magento frontend development. If you want to become a good Magento developer, CSS knowledge and skills are a must-have element.

CSS in Magento 2

What is LESS in Magento 2?

In a nutshell, less is a CSS pre-processor that encompasses the CSS language. It extends the capabilities and functions of CSS which enables using variables, features, mixins, nested rules, and operations when writing styles. When you utilize LESS in Magento 2, you ultimately improve productivity in the development of front-end styles. Moreover, LESS also comes with the Lazy Loading function; you may define your variables anywhere and can use it anytime and anywhere you need.  A horde of benefits of using LESS consists of the following:

  • It provides a reorganized code and the repetition of code over and over again can be evaded.
  • It supports you to save a lot of time as needless recurrence of CSS code does not occur.
  • It is simply to understand and keep up, as definite values are restructured simply once, not all over the place they come about.

Due to all profits discussed above, LESS is definitely an effective solution to style a website that helps you save a lot of time and effort. Also, it is a useful tool to speed up development and it can be implemented on websites in numerous methods and it falls perfectly into the desired style. What is more, LESS can be conveniently picked up and can be used without going through the learning process. Due to all these reasons, it is slowly but certainly gaining popularity in the web development world.

LESS in Magento 2

What is the main difference between Less vs CSS?

It’s important to know the basic difference between Less vs CSS. The main difference between LESS and CSS lies in the syntax because the LESS syntax is a little different from CSS. The stylesheet language is a CSS preprocessor. LESS is a more normalized format, as compared to CSS. One of the undeniable benefits of LESS is that it simplifies the management of a large volume of CSS styles and makes CSS more flexible. Moreover, this stylesheet language adds multiple effective features to CSS; it offers variables, nesting, operators, functions, and mixins..etc

With CSS alone, you have to write out the styles you want exactly where you want them. Your CSS files will not update once they are loaded. What you write is what you get. If you want hard code your styles that’s fine. Pre-processors just make it easier to do that.

less-vs-css-in-magento-2

How Plain CSS And Less CSS Look Different?

  • CSS Styles
.main-section {
position: relative;
padding: 20px 0;
margin: 0 0 15px;
background: #cccccc;
}
.main-section > .navigation
  • LESS Styles
// Variables
@grey-color: #cccccc;
@padding: 10px 0;
.main-section {
& {
position: relative;
padding: @padding;
margin: 0 0 15px;
background: @grey-color;
}
> .navigation {
display: block;
padding: @padding;
width: 100%;
font-style: 15px;
color: @grey-color;
&:hover {
text-decoration: none;
color: @grey-color;
background: @grey-color;
}
}
}

How to add custom CSS files in Magento 2

CSS in Magento 2

Where to change styles on Magento 2 website? You can change them either in the added LESS or CSS files or in the Magento module files. If you are looking for a solution to add your own styles for a specific module, you can utilize 2 files in the module folder in your theme:

 _module.less includes the basic styles for the module in which it is located. As a rule, we generate this file in the theme when we want to adjust the styles of this module remarkably.

_extend.less comes with additional styles for the module in which it is located. As a rule, we generate this file to add minor adjustments to the module or styles for new elements that have not been designed in the current module before. If we don’t want to rewrite existing module styles, we recommend you create such a file

How to add custom LESS files in Magento 2

Apart from native files, you can also use custom-style files, for example, files of third-party libraries, custom-style files, and so on.

As a rule, such files are connected in the following file:

<your_theme_dir>/Magento_Theme/layout/default_head_blocks.xml

For connection, add to <head/> tag at default_head_blocks.xml file the <css/> or <link/>. The first tag is utilized specifically for style files, while the second can connect both style files and JavaScript. Since these tags have similar syntax, we will take the <css/> tag as an example:

<css src=”<path>/<file>” media=”print|<option>”/>

Where

  • <path> is the path to the file relative to <your_theme_dir>/web. If you want to add a link to the file, situated in your theme’s module folder, use <Namespace>_<Module>::<path_to_file> (for instance, if you add Magento_Theme::, the path will begin relative to <your_theme_dir>Magento_Theme/web/).
  • <file> is the name of the connected file in .css format.
  • media is the attribute used to determine additional parameters of file attachment. For instance, a file with media=”print” parameter will be utilized for the printed version of the webpage, while the file with media=”screen and (min-width: 768px)” file will be applied solely for devices with screen dimensions of 786 pixels and more.
  • src_type=”url” is an additional attribute, denoting that the file connects from another server and the “src” path will be specified absolutely, not relative to the theme. Therefore, use this attribute to connect styles from other websites.
<head>
<link src="Magento_Catalog::css/source/lib/test.less" />
</head>

accordingly, the following file will be added:

<your_theme_dir>Magento_Catalog/web/css/source/lib/test.css

Magesolution hope that you got a comprehensive guide on Less vs CSS in Magento 2 and understand how to use it on your Magento 2 website. However, if you find anything unclear about these solutions or any other procedure related to this method, then feel free to contact our Support Team. We’re very pleased to support you.

Besides, if you are looking out for a cost effective Magento package for your eCommerce store, then look nowhere other than Magesolution. We not only offer an affordable Magento Development Package for all size and budget but also ensure that it helps your online business grow and sustain. Contact us for a free consultation!less-vs-css-in-magento-2