Sep15
Tags: books, CSS, review, web design
Author: Andy Budd, Simon Collison & Cameron Moll.
Publisher: Friends of Ed.
I had originally thumbed through this book, subtitled “Advanced Web Standard Solutions” in my local bookstore and shrugged it off as covering pretty much most of what I’d already digested from other popular CSS books. It wasn’t until a friend showed me some cool techniques from the book that I properly read though it and regretted not buying it sooner!
Though it’s aimed at the intermediate web designer, it is well written and I would certainly recommend this as an essential buy for all web designers. The book begins with Clear:Left’s Andy Budd provides most of the content starting with a chapter about well-structured and meaningful mark-up. It’s these best practices that will help catapult you into the realms of CSS Master! It then recaps on the box model, positioning and floats, making it easy for a beginner to pick up this book and run with it, before moving into the techniques, with clear and concise examples, including a couple of good chapters on bugs and hacks.
The final two chapters are where Simon Collison & Cameron Moll step in to demonstrate these examples in two real-world showcase websites. This book is absolutely the best book currently on offer for CSS web design.
Buy CSS Mastery at amazon.co.uk
Buy CSS Mastery at amazon.com
Sep15
Tags: books, CSS, review, web design
Author: Rachel Andrew.
Publisher: SitePoint.
This is one of the first CSS books I bought and I still feel it’s one of the best for those trying to make the jump from HTML table-layouts to XHTML & CSS layouts. My copy has done the rounds in my office and it’s one of the most worn-out, dog-eared books on our shelf which certainly says something about it’s popularity and usefulness!
What I like most is the way this book works. It’s based around questions, such as “How do I create rollovers in CSS without JavaScript?” or “How do create a fixed-width, centred, two-column layout?” with a solution, clear example images and discussion of the technique. If you’re buying your first CSS book then this is an essential purchase.
Buy The CSS Anthology at amazon.co.uk
Buy The CSS Anthology at amazon.com
Sep15
Tags: books, CSS, review, web design
Author: Dan Cederholm.
Publisher: Friends of Ed.
Another popular CSS book at our office is Dan Cederholm’s ‘Markup & Style Handbook’ providing a sound foundation of best practices for CSS & XHTML web design. In a similar way to The CSS Anthology, this book asks a question, such as, “What is the best way to mark up a numbered list of items?” or “How can I use CSS to replace text with an image?” However, this book really becomes it’s own, by proceeding to suggest 3 or 4 methods with clear and concise examples, before summarising with the pro’s and con’s of each method.
It’s sectioned into chapters including lists, headings, forms, tables and layouts with the familiar Friends of Ed thumb-indexing for quick and easy access. This is one of those books that you’ll keep on your desk for regular reference rather than gather dust on your shelf.
Buy Web Standards Solutions at amazon.co.uk
Buy Web Standards Solutions at amazon.com
Sep15
Tags: books, CSS, review, web design
Author: Dan Cederholm.
Publisher: New Riders.
A best practice CSS & XHTML book aimed at the intermediate-advanced web designer. If you’re a beginner looking to learn CSS web design I suggest you look at The CSS Anthology, CSS Mastery or Web Standards Solutions books first, then come back to this book to polish your skills.
The book dives straight into common approaches to everyday techniques. It makes an explanation as to why it may not be the best solution and suggests ‘a bullet-proof approach’ and justifies its reasoning. The book is one of few with colour illustrations which is nice and makes for clearer example images. The book concludes with a chapter demonstrating all the examples in a single website. There are some good techniques in this book and there’s bound to be something new even for the seasoned CSS web designer.
Buy Bulletproof Web Design at amazon.co.uk
Buy Bulletproof Web Design at amazon.com
