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The Zen of CSS Design by Dave Shae and Molly Holzschlag

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The Zen of CSS Design by Dave Shae and Molly Holzschlag

The Zen of CSS Design by Dave Shae and Molly Holzschlag

Peachpit Press

The Bottom Line

This book might be a bit much for the beginning style sheet user, it is definitely a must-have for anyone with some CSS experience. Based on the CSS Zen Garden Web site, this book teaches through example, and every designer should own it.

Pros

  • Very visual - beautiful graphics and imagery
  • Clear CSS explanations through designs
  • Multiple examples to show how to do things

Cons

  • None

Description

  • Each section is illustrated with several designs from the Zen Garden.
  • These show you how to best make changes to your site.
  • There is a chapter devoted to design, layout, imagery, and typography.
  • Plus chapters on special effects and reconstruction.
  • The entire book is in color
  • It is simple to understand the examples and get into the mood of the entire book.

Guide Review - The Zen of CSS Design by Dave Shae and Molly Holzschlag

This book can be very intimidating. If you've spent the last five years writing Web pages using tables to layout your pages, these amazing designs may be overwhelming. This book is not meant to teach you how to write CSS style sheets, but rather, it shows you what you can aspire to.

If you're trying to learn how to design with standards based Web design, then this book is a great source to show what is possible. It also will help you come up with new ideas and suggestions for your sites.

If you're a graphic designer, you'll love this book. It takes the boring boxiness of old-style CSS designs and turns them around into beautiful layouts with gorgeous designs. And it covers much more than just the simple "use this tag here" instruction. Instead it goes into detail about how to actually preserve good design.

If you're a Web designer and you haven't bought this book, you're making a mistake.

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