In htmlArea RTE, the following style sheets apply to the contents of the editing area and are linked in the following order:
the htmlarea-edited-content.css file from the skin in use; it contains selectors for use in the editor, but not intended to be applied in the frontend;
a css file generated from the mainStyleOverride and inlineStyle assignments in Page TSConfig;
the css file specified by property contentCSS in Page TSConfig: you may define the styles you want to use in an external CSS file and assign the file name to this property.
An additional Page TSConfig property is recognized by htmlArea RTE: ignoreMainStyleOverride. If set, htmlArea will ignore the mainStyleOverride and inlineStyle sets of assignments and will use only files 1 and 3 mentioned above. This allows the Classic RTE to apply the css definitions defined in Page TSConfig and the htmlArea RTE to use the external css file (presumably containing the same or similar css definitions).