With the increasing regularity that books based on CSS web design are being released, it’s a major task in itself to find a book that is written in plain English and actually covers real world applications, details clean code and is enjoyable to read. So, to that end we are taking a look at Andy Budd’s CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions by Friends of Ed.
Friends of Ed have always created books aimed at real world uses written for the designer as opposed to the techno-geek. CSS Mastery doesn’t break with that tradition; which is a good thing.
CSS Mastery takes a guided look at the most common aspects of CSS based web design and ensures that the knowledge imparted is geared towards accessibility and semantic mark-up. Andy Budd certainly knows his stuff and guides you through the topics in a logical and clearly explained fashion. Examples are plentiful as are tips, browser issues and common workarounds. That is one area that this book becomes invaluable as a reference tool that deserves a place on any designers/developers desk.
If you are new to working with CSS, then CSS Mastery will get you off to a flying start and help clear up some of the multitude of browser issues and problems you’ll no doubt run into.
If you are further down the path to CSS mastery you can still benefit from the knowledge and workarounds that fill the book.
There is one area that I think this particular book may frustrate and that is where it demonstrates a particular topic/method, explains what and why you should do it and then shows you the code to achieve the desired result. All good so far. However, when you try to implement the topic being covered only to discover that the effect doesn’t work in your main browser, obvious frustration ensues.
Why doesn’t it work you ask? Well, you would have to read the entire topic from start to finish, and once you reach the end you are then and only then informed that it doesn’t work in certain browsers (in this case IE6).
Personally, I would have preferred that little gem to have been imparted BEFORE I started trying to implement the topic covered. However, that said; it really isn’t a major issue in the book, more a case of the topics being covered being useful enough for me to want to start implementing them immediately and not finishing the whole chapter.
Speaking of the topics covered, you’ll find many useful areas of design being given plenty of coverage. For example, the book covers the following areas:
- Setting the foundations: Useful information covering the best methods of managing and controlling your style sheets.
- Visual Formatting Model Recap: Covers the 3 basics of CSS design: Box model, floating and positioning.
- Image replacement and background images: Various methods of image control including rounded corners & navigation images.
- Styling Links: An excellent chapter on many different methods for link styling.
- Styling Lists & creating nav bars: Covers visually styling navigation elements and image maps.
- Styling Forms and Data Tables: A comprehensive look at making tables look and work well and visually control forms.
- Layout: One of the coolest chapters in the book covering many common layouts.
- Hacks & Filters: Love them or hate them, hacks and filters are a CSS developers life lines when browser problems occur.
- Bugs & Bug fixes: This chapter covers the many known bugs and how to solve them in the minefield of browsers and platforms.
Finally, the book moves on to cover 2 complete case studies and are an excellent way to see how and why a designer uses various methods covered throughout the book to achieve real world results.
Thankfully, the case studies are well designed and interesting layouts, that makes reading through them and seeing how and why various methods are used invaluable.
Conclusion
Andy Budd has written a well structured book that will be used as a source of reference for many years. The topics are concise, well thought out and have practical uses in every day development.
His use of examples elevates it above many other books on CSS that are being released almost daily and the 2 case studies should be enough to help inspire and prove that CSS design doesn’t need to look ‘boxy’
A well presented book that I would recommend to beginners and seasoned designers alike.
Well, after much debating, thinking, reading reviews and generally getting bitten by the upgrade bug; I invested in a spanky new Nikon D300 dSLR yesterday, and I have to say that after an initial wave of ‘Oh crap, what have I done!!!!?’ I’m really happy with it.