How can CSS be utilized to customize the appearance of PHP output in web development?

To customize the appearance of PHP output in web development, CSS can be utilized to style the HTML elements generated by PHP. By adding classes or IDs to the HTML elements in PHP code, CSS rules can be applied to those specific elements to customize their appearance such as colors, fonts, sizes, margins, and more.

<?php
echo '<div class="custom-output">Hello, World!</div>';
?>
```

```css
.custom-output {
  color: red;
  font-size: 20px;
  text-align: center;
}