It’s tidy
A much cleaner set of stylesheets can be obtained by splitting them into different files. This is known as encapsulation – where each stylesheet only contains the relevant, associated information.
For different media types
Different stylesheets can be used to support different devices. Three of the most popular are:
- Screen – for display on a monitor
- Print – for printing a webpage
- Handheld – for mobile and handheld devices such as the Kindle
Stylesheets catering specifically to handheld users is becoming more popular now, with the boom in the range of smartphones and tablets available since 2011. By using a stylesheet for handheld devices you can omit things such as background images and scale down/compress decorative and informative images further, both to fit on the screen and to reduce the bandwidth needed for a handheld user to view your site.