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CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions (Black & White) by Simon Collison
Over the past couple of years, web designers and developers have begun taking more care in designing and building web sites. Less readily do they turn to old-fashioned techniques such as GIF spacers, tables for layout, and deprecated HTML elements, which can cause accessibility/usability problems and are just bad practice. There are three main web standards married together to create usable, standards-compliant web designs - XHTML for data structure, JavaScript for dynamic effects, and Cascading Style Sheets for styling your data.Working as a companion to our Web Standards Solutions book, this title covers advanced Cascading Style Sheet techniques, and includes are all the techniques you need to master CSS and craft modern, standards-compliant web page designs. You'll already know why you should be using CSS, so we don’t bore you with pages of theory; instead, we jump straight into practical solutions, allowing you to get what you need as quickly as possible.Renowned web designer Andy Budd starts off by introducing the elements of an effective CSS toolkit, including good working practices, the cascade, the box model, relative and absolute positioning, floating, and more. He then delves into advanced techniques like replacing images, styling links and lists, creating navigation menus, making forms look good, debugging and overcoming browser quirks, and hacking and filtering. The book is rounded off with two case studies to give you inspiration for your own designs, written by two more of the world’s finest web designers, Simon Collinson and Cameron Moll.
Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
December 1, 2008
A fine book for everybody working with CSS, great examples.
Though I must add I learned that learning CSS is like learning to ride a bike, one can read about it but only learn by doing it.
Though I must add I learned that learning CSS is like learning to ride a bike, one can read about it but only learn by doing it.
August 8, 2010
One of the better beginners CSS books I've come across. If you are just starting CSS and feel like you're not making enough progress, definitely check this book out.
September 14, 2017
A lot of experience, but some are out of date.
August 19, 2019
Quick, good read for all writers. You will feel buoyed and validated in Goldberg’s hands.
January 30, 2021
the book that made me a decent frontend developer. very good for the time it was published.
April 24, 2024
Intriguing book; I discovered a lot of fascinating points in it. It was easy to follow. I consulted it when I created the website https://gnails.ru
September 9, 2021
Read this a long time ago, a classic.
January 19, 2016
Although it sounds like a cliché, "CSS Mastery" is an excellent book, from the first to the last page. Most of book is written by Andy Budd, with Cameron Moll and Simon Collison contributing with final two chapters.
As easy as it is to find lot of content on Internet that would educate user what can be done with CSS, there's something special to have a book to articulate concepts from beginning to end providing a consistent narrative of the thought and methodology behind some technique's implementation. That is exactly what this book is providing.
Covering everything from the basics of marking up documents properly by using clean, semantic and valid (X)HTML to the advanced CSS tips and tricks. The foundations of CSS are explained as well along with ways to resolve browser bugs on which web designer can run into. Authors will teach you how to style forms and data tables, how to use lists to able creating visually appealing content.
PDF file with errata is available for download from the book's accompanying website where also sample chapter, the table of contents and all the code included in the book can be found.
For the couple of times at least during the read I was happy to realize "...how something works" or "...that's the way they done it" so whether you're new or experienced to CSS for sure you will also find this book useful.
Chapter 1 called "Setting the Foundations" addresses usage of meaningful markup, using classes Vs. ids, different versions of HTML and CSS, DOCTYPE among other things.
Chapter 2 called "Getting Your Styles to Hit the Target" discusses selectors, specificity, inheritance, style sheet planning and organizing, and style guides.
Chapter 3 called "Visual Formatting Model Overview" discusses the box model, differences with IE, positioning (relative/absolute/etc.) and floating.
Chapter 4 called "Using Backgrounds for Effect" discusses using images for list bullets, various rounded corner techniques (including border-radius), multiple background images, opacity (including RGBa), drop shadows and image replacement techniques.
Chapter 5 called "Styling Links" discusses all sorts of interesting ways to play up links, including creating CSS-only tooltips.
Chapter 6 called "Styling Lists and Creating Nav Bars" discusses all the various proven methods of creating CSS-styled navigation, but also includes excellent section about Flickr-style image maps creation.
Chapter 7 called "Styling Forms and Data Tables" discusses calendar styles and what markup can be used to make various layout methods for a simple form.
Chapter 8 called "Layout" discusses how to create fixed, elastic and liquid layouts, explaining the bonuses of each one.
Chapter 9 called "Bugs and Bug Fixing" discusses how to find and isolate bugs, reminding user to "...fix the problem, not the symptoms".
The final two chapters, tenth and eleven are the case studies for sample sites "Roma Italia" (by Cameron Moll) and "Climb the Mountains" (by Simon Collison). Both authors walk through their approach for site building and the implementation of various techniques. Both case studies serve as professional models for reader to be able to learn from and experiment with.
The book's only minor drawbacks should be addressed to some outdated data because of book release date, more color highlighting for code differentiation would be more than welcome and some content overlapping can be seen because three authors were part of this writing project. But all of these drawbacks are so minor comparing to all good things provided, although I wanted to mention them.
As verdict, I will quote Andy Budd who with sentence "...There are an increasing number of CSS resources around, yet you only have to look at a CSS mailing list to see the same questions popping up time and again." greatly summarized this book. The material contained here user can find somewhere else for sure, but if you're in a search for a handy collection of advanced techniques, you'll get that and much more from this book.
Probably this is the best book on the market for this subject, huge recommendation.
As easy as it is to find lot of content on Internet that would educate user what can be done with CSS, there's something special to have a book to articulate concepts from beginning to end providing a consistent narrative of the thought and methodology behind some technique's implementation. That is exactly what this book is providing.
Covering everything from the basics of marking up documents properly by using clean, semantic and valid (X)HTML to the advanced CSS tips and tricks. The foundations of CSS are explained as well along with ways to resolve browser bugs on which web designer can run into. Authors will teach you how to style forms and data tables, how to use lists to able creating visually appealing content.
PDF file with errata is available for download from the book's accompanying website where also sample chapter, the table of contents and all the code included in the book can be found.
For the couple of times at least during the read I was happy to realize "...how something works" or "...that's the way they done it" so whether you're new or experienced to CSS for sure you will also find this book useful.
Chapter 1 called "Setting the Foundations" addresses usage of meaningful markup, using classes Vs. ids, different versions of HTML and CSS, DOCTYPE among other things.
Chapter 2 called "Getting Your Styles to Hit the Target" discusses selectors, specificity, inheritance, style sheet planning and organizing, and style guides.
Chapter 3 called "Visual Formatting Model Overview" discusses the box model, differences with IE, positioning (relative/absolute/etc.) and floating.
Chapter 4 called "Using Backgrounds for Effect" discusses using images for list bullets, various rounded corner techniques (including border-radius), multiple background images, opacity (including RGBa), drop shadows and image replacement techniques.
Chapter 5 called "Styling Links" discusses all sorts of interesting ways to play up links, including creating CSS-only tooltips.
Chapter 6 called "Styling Lists and Creating Nav Bars" discusses all the various proven methods of creating CSS-styled navigation, but also includes excellent section about Flickr-style image maps creation.
Chapter 7 called "Styling Forms and Data Tables" discusses calendar styles and what markup can be used to make various layout methods for a simple form.
Chapter 8 called "Layout" discusses how to create fixed, elastic and liquid layouts, explaining the bonuses of each one.
Chapter 9 called "Bugs and Bug Fixing" discusses how to find and isolate bugs, reminding user to "...fix the problem, not the symptoms".
The final two chapters, tenth and eleven are the case studies for sample sites "Roma Italia" (by Cameron Moll) and "Climb the Mountains" (by Simon Collison). Both authors walk through their approach for site building and the implementation of various techniques. Both case studies serve as professional models for reader to be able to learn from and experiment with.
The book's only minor drawbacks should be addressed to some outdated data because of book release date, more color highlighting for code differentiation would be more than welcome and some content overlapping can be seen because three authors were part of this writing project. But all of these drawbacks are so minor comparing to all good things provided, although I wanted to mention them.
As verdict, I will quote Andy Budd who with sentence "...There are an increasing number of CSS resources around, yet you only have to look at a CSS mailing list to see the same questions popping up time and again." greatly summarized this book. The material contained here user can find somewhere else for sure, but if you're in a search for a handy collection of advanced techniques, you'll get that and much more from this book.
Probably this is the best book on the market for this subject, huge recommendation.
July 7, 2008
This book has really fine tuned my arsenal and widely broadened my understanding of CSS. The book has several nicely organized sections and comes with files that allow you quick references and opportunities to play with the code for a better understanding. Case studies at the end of the book are a great companion for putting all the things they throw at you too. My favorite part of this book was the CSS organization files that are ingenious. To sum up the book in a few words, CSS galore!
Not a fast read and the coding can become somewhat difficult to understand if you're not willing to stop and think through it. But come out of this book with half your sanity still intact and you'll be creating websites like the pros. Well, I can't guarantee you that much, but at least it gives a better understanding of bugs and hacks so you wont have a headache when testing across multiple browsers. That alone is worth much more then thirty bucks.
Requirements: Before you pick this up, make sure you have a basic understanding of XHTML and CSS 2.0 or higher (the book concentrates on 2.1). A little Javascript (not a must) wouldn't hurt for a few files they throw out to you at the end.
Didn't give this five stars because it's in black and white. Come on, this is supposed to be a coding book for a visual art, no excuses for it not being in color.
Not a fast read and the coding can become somewhat difficult to understand if you're not willing to stop and think through it. But come out of this book with half your sanity still intact and you'll be creating websites like the pros. Well, I can't guarantee you that much, but at least it gives a better understanding of bugs and hacks so you wont have a headache when testing across multiple browsers. That alone is worth much more then thirty bucks.
Requirements: Before you pick this up, make sure you have a basic understanding of XHTML and CSS 2.0 or higher (the book concentrates on 2.1). A little Javascript (not a must) wouldn't hurt for a few files they throw out to you at the end.
Didn't give this five stars because it's in black and white. Come on, this is supposed to be a coding book for a visual art, no excuses for it not being in color.
October 14, 2008
A perfect follow-up to Friends of Ed's "yellow CSS book" which is more basic (but whose title escapes me).
This is not a beginner's CSS book. You should at least read the yellow book or "Bullet Proof Web Design" before tackling this one, which builds heavily off the core concepts you should have already learned.
It covers everything from layouts, to browser hacks, even showing you how to add little icons at the end of external links. Nifty, huh!
This book is absolutely necessary if you are in web design or development. But make sure you've got a good core foundation in CSS and structured markup before diving in.
This is not a beginner's CSS book. You should at least read the yellow book or "Bullet Proof Web Design" before tackling this one, which builds heavily off the core concepts you should have already learned.
It covers everything from layouts, to browser hacks, even showing you how to add little icons at the end of external links. Nifty, huh!
This book is absolutely necessary if you are in web design or development. But make sure you've got a good core foundation in CSS and structured markup before diving in.
March 27, 2008
Overall, I thought it a very handy reference tool for a barely CSS literate person like myself. My only complaints are that is seems to be getting a little out dated. He mentions things such as CSS 3 and how it was supposed to come out later that year (2006). He also spends a lot of time talking about bugs associated with IE, especially 5.X which from my understanding is rarely used these days with the release of IE 7.0 (which he can't mention). Other than that, it was a good eye opener into my future possibilities with CSS.
December 30, 2008
This is one of the better introductory CSS books out there. As with most, the information is available on the Net if you want to spend the time hunting it down. Andy Budd goes beyond many such online resources by providing insight into common problems and several tips on how to optimize solutions for some common CSS approaches. Overall, worth the money to have on your reference shelf.
June 23, 2009
Very good, although a bit out of date as IE7 wasn't out yet. Would benefit from a revision. Explores some concepts more widely than Bulletproof Web Design, although I must say that it doesn't demonstrate the markup and markup changes as well as the other. Both books overlap in large areas, but each has its own strong point.
May 4, 2016
The book suffers from sloppy editing, which is particularly unacceptable since it's a revised edition. Also it's much too noticeable when the authors change between chapters both in coding style and in language. An overall editor is sorely missed.
That said the coding techniques covered is nice and useable, however not that much CSS Mastery as I expected.
That said the coding techniques covered is nice and useable, however not that much CSS Mastery as I expected.
October 3, 2014
An aging but still relevant old standard. There's a lot of focus on cross-browser hacks that will be of little interest to the designers of today, as most of these hacks have been encapsulated in frameworks or are simply no longer relevant for most use cases. Additionally, the two case studies are showing their age. But, overall, still excellent.
May 9, 2016
This book was really good some years ago, but things have changed so fast in web development that this book is almost completely outdated nowadays. There are a lot of references to old browsers (IE 6, for example) and old hacks that are no longer necessary.
The 3rd chapter - "Visual Formatting Model Overview" - is still relevant and I recommend it.
The 3rd chapter - "Visual Formatting Model Overview" - is still relevant and I recommend it.
September 6, 2007
I am already really familiar with CSS but this book really takes it to the next step. Really easy to follow with great case studies. I highly recommend the friends of ed books, http://www.friendsofed.com/ for web designers.
February 16, 2008
an excellent guide to producing CSS styled HTML pages with concise examples and explanations of the Box Model and more with consideration on how to work around the major Internet Explorer bugs and how to design new pages from the bottom up quickly and flexibly.
October 19, 2012
Excellent book. It has taught me nearly everything I know about basic CSS; combined with some help from some online friends and good old fashioned practice (it makes perfect, you know?) I'm a competent CSS coder.
January 18, 2014
A great guide for beginners and advanced users of CSS. Andy Budd demonstrates his mastery of the art of CSS styling throughout the book, in bite size simple to understand and combine chunks. A must read for all web enthusiasts.
June 9, 2016
This book is your indispensable guide to cutting-edge CSS developmentall you need to work your way up to CSS professional. You'll learn how to:
- Plan, organize, and maintain your stylesheets more effectively
- Apply the secrets of liquid, elastic, and hybrid layouts
- Plan, organize, and maintain your stylesheets more effectively
- Apply the secrets of liquid, elastic, and hybrid layouts
September 3, 2007
I loved this book so much I bought it after returning it to the library. All the cool CSS layout tricks and hacks in one volume, written in plain, friendly English.
Want to read
December 3, 2007still siting in my e-lib
January 21, 2008
In my case, this book was literally life-changing. It filled in a lot of gaps in my CSS knowledge, and gave me the right start towards my web design/development career.
December 26, 2010
Very helpful. Need to read it again since it has been a while.
March 12, 2008
I found many sections of this book useful, especially the explanation of float. Then it spends far too much time on hacks and workarounds.
December 22, 2012
This is an awesome book esp for daily tackles w/browser compatibility and standard compliant issues. At my job I keep this book by my side at all times!
Want to read
December 2, 2010Again, I haven't had the time I'd like to start this book. I'm looking forward to it though.
August 4, 2008
the best intro css book
November 13, 2008
Strengthened my knowledge of CSS. This book makes sense of layout, box, and other nebulous topics.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews