= Stylesheet Modes //When applying a stylesheet to the generated HTML, you can configure the HTML converter to either embed the CSS directly into the HTML or link to the stylesheet file. The HTML converter can be configured to embed the CSS of the stylesheet directly into the HTML, link to the stylesheet file, or disable it entirely. These modes are available regardless of whether you're using the xref:default-stylesheet.adoc[default stylesheet] or a xref:custom-stylesheet.adoc[custom stylesheet]. This page covers the document attributes that control how the stylesheet is applied. IMPORTANT: The HTML converter will only apply a stylesheet when generating a standalone HTML document. That's because the stylesheet goes inside the HTML `` element, and the converter only generates that element for standalone output. [#embed] == Embed the stylesheet When the xref:ROOT:safe-modes.adoc[safe mode] is server or lower, the default behavior of the HTML converter is to read the stylesheet file, enclose its contents in a `