The Art & Science of CSS

Posted September 2nd, 2007 by Taran

Using Cascade Style Sheets (CSS) can be a tricky business, and there are many books out there on the topic. Finding the one which suits you can be a difficult task, especially considering the amount of information that there is related to CSS. For a beginner, it can be not only confusing - it can be downright scary. Still, CSS as a tool on the internet is invaluable - the way in which content can be represented in different ways is easily demonstrated through sites such as CSS Zen Garden and CSS Edge.

The Art and Science of CSS enters the fray weighing in at 208 pages and 7 chapters, each covering different practical aspects of CSS. The book itself looks like a workbook - and in some ways, it is a workbook. In other ways, it is a reference. Most of all, the layout makes it easy to glance to what you are looking for on a page - something not done as often as it could or should.

The 7 chapters cover a fair amount of practical material:

Headings: Covers tips and tricks for dealing with headings (such as the title of this review). This chapter includes explanations of Hierarchy, Identity, Image Replacement and last - and most interesting for me - Flash Replacement. As someone who steers away from Flash, I found it particularly interesting to read about how to use Flash to permit for different fonts within CSS.
Images: Creating image galleries and dealing with contextual images (Images associated with content on a website)..
Backgrounds: The basics of CSS for backgrounds, as well as a case study which demonstrates practical and attractive CSS for backgrounds.
Navigation: Different ways of creating navigation with CSS - vertical, horizontal, tabbed (including variable width tabs) and the advanced horizontal navigation system. If there is a practical use of CSS, this would be it - especially for content management systems and weblogs with themes. Which reminds me I'm supposed to spruce up KnowProSE.com sometime soon.
Forms: Not just formatting forms, but also dealing with required fields and error messages.
Rounded Corners: Yes, those rounded corners which seem like magic to new CSS folk has the secret revealed.
Tables: Brightening up tables with CSS, and some notes on the CSS 3 specification(read: future) which will make our lives easier in some ways.

The book was a pleasure to read. Cameron Adams, Jina Bolton, David Johnston, Steve Smith and Jonathan Snook covered everything as simply as possible without losing the rhythm of each particular section. Explanation leads to code quickly, and the layout of the book itself allows for a no nonsense read on topics, with the code examples leaping out of the page when needed. I was very impressed with that.

The Art and Science of CSS gets a KnowProSE.com 9 out of 10 as a practical reference and workbook for Cascade Style Sheets - the information is easily presented, easily found, and covers the practical aspects of CSS in a way that can be easily grasped. This is a good book for people exploring CSS for the first time, or people who would rather focus on other aspects of web design and need a practical reference at their fingertips.

Practical CSS At Your Fingertips

Sep 1, 2007 by Taran Rampersad product

The Art And Science of CSS

The book was a pleasure to read. Cameron Adams, Jina Bolton, David Johnston, Steve Smith and Jonathan Snook covered everything as simply as possible without losing the rhythm of each particular section. Explanation leads to code quickly, and the layout of the book itself allows for a no nonsense read on topics, with the code examples leaping out of the page when needed. I was very impressed with that.

The Art and Science of CSS gets a KnowProSE.com 9 out of 10 as a practical reference and workbook for Cascade Style Sheets - the information is easily presented, easily found, and covers the practical aspects of CSS in a way that can be easily grasped. This is a good book for people exploring CSS for the first time, or people who would rather focus on other aspects of web design and need a practical reference at their fingertips.

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