Markup and Presentation Intertwined

Symptoms

• proprietary HTML extensions
• making text into images
• proliferate use of "spacer" 1px by 1px GIF images
• deprecated HTML elements and/or attributes
• using tables for layout

Consequences

• Changing design can be a major undertaking
• HTML/XHTML very complex; can easily lead to errors
• Unnecessary content constraints

Separated

• Allows structure and presentation to be separate.
• Allows greater control over presentation than XHTML/HTML alone.
• Improves accessibility.
• Simplifies XHTML/HTML markup, both in term of structure and size