The Art and Science of CSS

The Art and Science of CSS
| 2007-03-09 00:00:00 | | 0 | CSS


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 gclich. Create funky tables. And lots more From the Publisher

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. 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 systemsusing 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.` 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.

User review
This is more of a cookbook
This book is good, but it is more of a cookbook approach to CSS than a learn from scratch approach. If you don't already know CSS and have had enough experience playing with it, this book may not provide the best starting point.


The language and flow of the book is great and it is very readable. Some of the CSS ideas presented on images, flash replacement of text are good and the authors build them up from simple versions to complete ones which is really nice.

User review
Great Examples
This is probably the best CSS book I've ever seen. It's got lots of interesting and creative ways to use CSS. It's more for experienced users than for people unfamiliar with style sheets. My only knock on it is that it only gives you the CSS, and sometimes assumes that the reader knows the HTML needed to make use of the styles.


But the examples the book uses are inventive and unlike any I've seen in other books. This book shows you how the page should look, explains why, and gives you the code.


It's pretty easy to understand and has a lot of visuals to help explain concepts.

User review
Excellent Manual for Modern CSS
This is a most excellent and timely book of CSS examples that can be put to quick and good use. Though the book is a couple of years old at this point, it is a great way for a semi-experienced HTML designer or developer to jump in and produce some really good content with CSS. There are loads of code snippets that can be implemented right away.


The book is broken up into sections like Images, Navigation and Forms making it easy for the reader to locate what he or she is after. There is a whole section on Rounded Corners which is definitely worth a look. Overall I really enjoy Sitepoint's formatting of their books -- this one included -- which makes it easy to pick out what I'm look for quickly.


I've been writing CSS since 1997, and I'm always looking for new ideas and tricks. I found a couple in this book -- you just never know what's going to spark your creativity.


This is a particularly good book to pick up if you've been exposed to CSS and now want to put it into use and be really creative with it.

User review
Great value - probably too short
I really like this book. It is EXACTLY what I seek in a design/development book. I want examples, code and explanation. Nothing more.


I've been doing this stuff for 7 years, so much of this wasn't particularly new to me, but the value is in seeing what experts think (and why) and then taking what you want from it. No cruft; just good solutions.


My only gripe is that it could be considerably longer. The book covers 7 topics really well. I'd like at least 10 more, please. I'm sure this is the most common complaint. Additionally, I could do without the fancy book layout design, but I guess it doesn't hurt.


Definite value here. It's next to my desk all the time and I use almost all of their techniques in my projects. It's disappointing that more publishers don't create this kind of book.

User review
Very short, disappointing
I think there are many books that cover this ground a lot better and cheaper as well. Friends of Ed actually has a couple that I would recommend before this. And most certainly Bulletproof Web Design by Cederholm.


This book is really light on details and light on content. It's not at all worth its price, and it's only covering the very basics in a small number of areas. This is definitely not one of the first books you should be looking at about CSS.