> Obviously, the purpose of before/after is to produce a visual effect; then why produce pseudo-content if CSS is oh-so-great a language for presentation? Beca

> Obviously, the purpose of before/after is to produce a visual effect; then why produce pseudo-content if CSS is oh-so-great a language for presentation? Because sometimes the best way to style something is by using a character (bullet points, arrows, ...). Example: you could add a symbol to URLs by giving <a> a slight padding on the left and by adding an image showing an URL symbol. But by using &#x1f517; in a:before, you cheaply get vector graphics, and a symbol which (in a perfect world) will always match the font.