Art and Science Of CSS, SitePoint
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The Bottom Line
Contents
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C# Online.NET Book Review
SitePoint is rapidly becoming one of my favorite publishers: The reason is that they are able to define a niche readership and address it with authority and style. This book is solidly in that marketing tradition. (If you do not know how to do rounded corners, then this book is definitely for you.)
In this case, the niche is defined as intermediate Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) developers wanting to learn and use some of the tricks and techniques of professional Web developers. Many of the techniques involve using Javascript and CSS in concert. Beginners will not find enough background or detail here. Advanced developers may already know most of these techniques—although they might appreciate being able to reference the techniques quickly.
This brief book (200-odd pages) is an enjoyable, concise, easy, focused, practical read. The editors—somehow—manage to smooth out the erratics of having multiple authors. A bit like a cookbook, intermediate CSS developers will find a discerning collection of CSS techniques to make their Web sites more professional and spicy. The book is a great jumping off point for developers wanting to take their Web sites to the next level.
The book is packed with ideas, information, and inspiration. Each of the seven chapters develops a basic design premise related to branding, ergonomics, style, visual impact, etc. Then, the details of creating a beautiful Web page to address the premise are revealed. Lastly, advanced concepts are explained which illustrate how to achieve a sophisticated result using simple techniques.
Although the book does not cover the CSS fundamentals—e.g., class, div, id, span— the text is so lucid and comfortably paced that the astute beginning reader will have little trouble filling in any gaps as they read: Chapters evolve in palatable increments.
The book features attractive color screenshots of Web pages and of code snippets—making learning CSS techniques both interesting and pleasureable visually. Examples are specific and well-chosen. The source code examples downloaded from the publisher's Web site actually work "as is" and across various browsers and operating systems.
All of the source code examples are in the Javascript language. Perhaps a future version would collect the full code listings into an appendix and include only the relevant sections in line.
Bottom line
The Art & Science Of CSS is packed with ideas, information, and inspiration for budding Web page designers.
Publisher's description
This book will show you how to:
- Break out of the square box cliche
- Make your backgrounds sparkle
- Design headings that stand out
- Create amazing navigation menus
- And do it all with cross browser-compatible markup
The answers to these questions and more are in this book.
CSS-based design doesn't need to be boring. The Art & Science of CSS brings together a talented collection of designers who will show you how to take the building blocks of your web site's design (such as headings, navigation, forms, and more) and bring them to life with fully standards-compliant CSS. This full color book helps you to design web sites that not only work well across all browsers, are easy to maintain, and are highly accessible, but are also visually stunning.
- Create truly attention-grabbing headings.
- Discover multiple ways to present images effectively.
- Use background images to give your site zest.
- Build usable and attractive navigation.
- Design forms that are stylish and functional.
- Learn how to break away from the square box clich ©.
- Create funky tables.
- And lots more
Publisher's overview
Jonathan Snook, Steve Smith, Jina Bolton, Cameron Adams, and David Johnson, five of the biggest names in CSS design have joined forces to bring you The Art & Science Of CSS.
Beautifully presented in full color, this book will teach you how to apply innovative CSS-based techniques to create visually stunning headings, forms, menus, navigation, backgrounds, and much more...
Using The Art & Science Of CSS, you’ll see just how easy it is to unleash your creative talents and design inspirational web sites with CSS.
All designs in this book are visually appealing and inspiring. The CSS code used to create each of the components is included and guaranteed to be simple, efficient and cross-browser compatible.
The book’s full-color layout and large format (8" x 10") make this one of the most usable and enjoyable CSS books available.
What will you learn?
Among its many treasures, this book will show you how to:
- Format calendars, menus and table of contents using CSS
- Create horizontal, vertical and tab-based navigation systems using CSS
- Create rounded corners using CSS
- Design stylish Website headings
- Put together funky & artistic Website backgrounds
- Use CSS to render blockquotes, dates and lists in a visually appealing manner
All designs in this book are visually appealing and inspiring. The code CSS code used to create each of the components is provided and is guaranteed to be simple, efficient and cross-browser compatible.
What’s inside?
This book contains seven chapters that engage with the fundamental elements of the web page—headings, images, backgrounds, navigation—as well as applied styles such as those used in forms, rounded corners for content boxes, and tables. CSS is inherent in the approaches we’ll use in the exercises presented here. These exercises will encourage you to address the questions of art and science in all the design choices you make, as a means to considerations of usability are always paramount—both in terms of users of mainstream browsers and those employing assistive technology.
Who Should Read This Book?
This book is ideal for anyone who wants to gain the practical skills involved in using CSS to make attractive web sites, especially if you’re not the type who likes to learn by memorizing a formal specification and then trying to work out which browsers implemented it completely (does anyone enjoy reading specifications?). The only knowledge you’ll need to have is some familiarity with HTML. This book will give designers the skills they need to implement their ideas, and provides developers with creative inspiration through practical examples.
About the author(s)
Cameron Adams has been adding to the Internet for over seven years and now runs his own design and development business. He likes to combine the aesthetic with the technological on his weblog which contains equal parts of JavaScript, design, and CSS.
Jina Bolton, interactive designer, holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Computer Arts and Graphic Design from Memphis College of Art. In addition to being featured in CSS Professional Style and Web Designing magazine, Jina consults for various agencies and organizations, including the World Wide Web Consortium. She enjoys traveling, is learning Italian, and considers herself a sushi enthusiast.
David Johnson is one of those evil .NET developers from Melbourne, Australia. He is the senior developer at Lemonade, and his role includes C# programming, database design using SQL Server, and front-end development using XHTML and CSS. He makes up for his evil deeds by being a firm believer in web standards and accessibility, and forcing .NET to abide by these rules. His favourite candy is Sherbies.
Steve Smith lives with his wife, son, and a few miscellaneous animals in South Bend, Indiana, USA. As well as maintaining his personal web site, Steve works as an independent web designer, developer, and consultant. He does his best to convince his clients and friends that web standards should be a way of life.
Jonathan Snook has been involved with the Web since ’95, and is lucky to be able to call his hobby a career. He worked in web agencies for over six years and has worked with high-profile clients in government, the private sector, and non-profit organizations. Jonathan Snook currently runs his own web development business from Ottawa, Canada, and continues to write about what he loves on his blog.
Table of Contents (abbreviated)
- 1. Headings
- 2. Images
- 3. Backgrounds
- 4. Navigation
- 5. Forms
- 6. Rounded Corners
- 7. Tables
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