Wide World Of Web Design

CSS: The Definitive Guide
Without a doubt, Cascading Style Sheets has forever changed and enriched the web design landscape, finally giving Designers a chance to properly wield their craft within the parameters of the World Wide Web, as well as give it’s viewers a sense of style which until recently had been somewhat limited, seriously compromising the standard of web page esthetics altogether. In the past there have been some wonderful web pages constructed with Tables (meant specifically for tabular data) but with the depth and versatility of CSS there is now a science to creating a website, one that can engage the user as well as compete as a real media presence . . . although there’s still a ton of debris floating around on the cyber network as every hack and their neighbor can put up a web page, at least now we can also be treated to some mastery at work, whether it be in the form of clever devices to achieve an effect or approaches to style that for a long time weren’t even possible.

One of the Masters of this discipline, even widely considered to be the Guru of CSS, is Eric Meyer whose books on the subject are well known throughout web development circles, and who may be in a Class of his own especially after ascending to Rock Star status on the techno-geek circuit (he even goes so far as to sport the ‘devil-horns’ hand gesture on the promotion of his latest software release, CSS Sculptor).

One of the toughest things I’ve had to do in terms of indecision and time spent was deciding on what Reference material I needed for CSS, because even though there’s the usual ton of info and resources freely available on the net, not to mention a ton of authors with books published on the topic, I like to rely on one really dependable source as a reference guide, and I spent a long time reading reviews and trying to decide on just the right vehicle to help me navigate the troubling technical waters of CSS (browser compatibility can be a real bitch).

Well, I’m happy to say that CSS: The Definitive Guide by Eric Meyer is easily the best choice I’ve ever made when it comes to having the Bible, or the A-Z study on any particular subject, and I know it because where I once thought CSS was some hit-and-miss series of coding hacks that was more confusing than helpful, I’ve now started to understand it as the science it really is. The chapters on padding and margins, and floats and positioning are themselves worth the price of the Book, and although it can be pretty dry reading and perhaps overkill in terms of practical knowledge, what good technical reference isn’t ?

Other Resources I’ve also found to be valuable assets in understanding and learning more about CSS from a variety of experts include:

The Art and Science of CSS (Book)

CSS Zen Garden (Website, Book)

CSS Beauty (Website)

Position Is Everything (Website)

A List Apart (Website)