What are pseudo-elements?
Pseudo-elements are fictional elements that do not exist in HTML. They address the element’s sub-part (non-existent in HTML) and not the element itself. In CSS1 there are two pseudo-elements: ‘first-line pseudo-element’ and ‘first-letter pseudo-element’. They can be attached to block-level elements (e.g. paragraphs or headings) to allow typographical styling of their sub-parts. Pseudo-element is created by a colon followed by pseudo-element’s name, e.g:
P:first-line
H1:first-letter
and can be combined with normal classes; e.g:
P.initial:first-line
First-line pseudo-element allows sub-parting the element’s first line and attaching specific style exclusively to this sub-part; e.g.:
P.initial:first-line {text-transform: uppercase}
The first line of this paragraph will be displayed in uppercase letters
First-letter pseudo-element allows sub-parting the element’s first letter and attaching specific style exclusively to this sub-part; e.g.:
P.initial:first-letter { font-size: 200%; color: red}
The first letter of this paragraph will be displayed in red and twice as large as the remaining letters