# Component Styles Angular applications are styled with standard CSS. That means you can apply everything you know about CSS stylesheets, selectors, rules, and media queries directly to Angular applications. Additionally, Angular can bundle *component styles* with components, enabling a more modular design than regular stylesheets. This page describes how to load and apply these component styles. You can run the in Stackblitz and download the code from there. ## Using component styles For every Angular component you write, you may define not only an HTML template, but also the CSS styles that go with that template, specifying any selectors, rules, and media queries that you need. One way to do this is to set the `styles` property in the component metadata. The `styles` property takes an array of strings that contain CSS code. Usually you give it one string, as in the following example: ## Style scope
The styles specified in `@Component` metadata _apply only within the template of that component_.
They are _not inherited_ by any components nested within the template nor by any content projected into the component. In this example, the `h1` style applies only to the `HeroAppComponent`, not to the nested `HeroMainComponent` nor to `

` tags anywhere else in the application. This scoping restriction is a ***styling modularity feature***. * You can use the CSS class names and selectors that make the most sense in the context of each component. * Class names and selectors are local to the component and don't collide with classes and selectors used elsewhere in the application. * Changes to styles elsewhere in the application don't affect the component's styles. * You can co-locate the CSS code of each component with the TypeScript and HTML code of the component, which leads to a neat and tidy project structure. * You can change or remove component CSS code without searching through the whole application to find where else the code is used. {@a special-selectors} ## Special selectors Component styles have a few special *selectors* from the world of shadow DOM style scoping (described in the [CSS Scoping Module Level 1](https://www.w3.org/TR/css-scoping-1) page on the [W3C](https://www.w3.org) site). The following sections describe these selectors. ### :host Use the `:host` pseudo-class selector to target styles in the element that *hosts* the component (as opposed to targeting elements *inside* the component's template). The `:host` selector is the only way to target the host element. You can't reach the host element from inside the component with other selectors because it's not part of the component's own template. The host element is in a parent component's template. Use the *function form* to apply host styles conditionally by including another selector inside parentheses after `:host`. The next example targets the host element again, but only when it also has the `active` CSS class. ### :host-context Sometimes it's useful to apply styles based on some condition *outside* of a component's view. For example, a CSS theme class could be applied to the document `` element, and you want to change how your component looks based on that. Use the `:host-context()` pseudo-class selector, which works just like the function form of `:host()`. The `:host-context()` selector looks for a CSS class in any ancestor of the component host element, up to the document root. The `:host-context()` selector is useful when combined with another selector. The following example applies a `background-color` style to all `

` elements *inside* the component, only if some ancestor element has the CSS class `theme-light`. ### (deprecated) `/deep/`, `>>>`, and `::ng-deep` Component styles normally apply only to the HTML in the component's own template. Use the `/deep/` shadow-piercing descendant combinator to force a style down through the child component tree into all the child component views. The `/deep/` combinator works to any depth of nested components, and it applies to both the view children and content children of the component. The following example targets all `

` elements, from the host element down through this component to all of its child elements in the DOM. The `/deep/` combinator also has the aliases `>>>`, and `::ng-deep`.
Use `/deep/`, `>>>` and `::ng-deep` only with *emulated* view encapsulation. Emulated is the default and most commonly used view encapsulation. For more information, see the [Controlling view encapsulation](guide/component-styles#view-encapsulation) section.
The shadow-piercing descendant combinator is deprecated and [support is being removed from major browsers](https://www.chromestatus.com/features/6750456638341120) and tools. As such we plan to drop support in Angular (for all 3 of `/deep/`, `>>>` and `::ng-deep`). Until then `::ng-deep` should be preferred for a broader compatibility with the tools.
{@a loading-styles} ## Loading component styles There are several ways to add styles to a component: * By setting `styles` or `styleUrls` metadata. * Inline in the template HTML. * With CSS imports. The scoping rules outlined earlier apply to each of these loading patterns. ### Styles in component metadata You can add a `styles` array property to the `@Component` decorator. Each string in the array defines some CSS for this component.
Reminder: these styles apply _only to this component_. They are _not inherited_ by any components nested within the template nor by any content projected into the component.
The Angular CLI command [`ng generate component`](cli/generate) defines an empty `styles` array when you create the component with the `--inline-style` flag. ng generate component hero-app --inline-style ### Style files in component metadata You can load styles from external CSS files by adding a `styleUrls` property to a component's `@Component` decorator:
Reminder: the styles in the style file apply _only to this component_. They are _not inherited_ by any components nested within the template nor by any content projected into the component.
You can specify more than one styles file or even a combination of `styles` and `styleUrls`.
When you use the Angular CLI command [`ng generate component`](cli/generate) without the `--inline-style` flag, it creates an empty styles file for you and references that file in the component's generated `styleUrls`. ng generate component hero-app ### Template inline styles You can embed CSS styles directly into the HTML template by putting them inside `