Web Design And Development - Top Pick CSS And HTML Books
Monday, 17 June 2019
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Web Design And Development - Top Pick CSS And HTML Books
CSS Titles
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CSS Titles

While HTML gets the headlines, CSS is where the action happens and it is probably far more important that a programmer gets on top of CSS than anything else.

The titles in this section take CSS as their main topic, even when they include a bit of HTML to set the scene.

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CSS 3 in Easy Steps  

Author: Mike McGrath
Publisher: In Easy Steps
Pages: 216
ISBN: 978-1840785418 

While CSS 3 can be used to do some quite amazing things that previously would have needed JavaScript, this particular book is much more of an introduction to CSS with a few CSS 3 features tacked on at the end, reported Ian Elliot, though he still gave the title 4.5 stars.  

 

Despite his reservations, Ian considers it is a very good book as long as you want to find out about CSS as it is mostly practiced at the moment plus a brief look as some of the new CSS 3 features. In other words, it is a good and reasonably up-to-date introduction to de-facto CSS. The explanations are mostly very good and the examples are small and to the point. 

If what you are looking for is a beginners, concise, introduction to practical CSS then this book should be high on your list. 

The Book of CSS3, 2nd Ed   

Author: Peter Gasston
Publisher: No Starch Press, 2014
Pages: 304
ISBN:  9781593275808

Reviewing this second edition, Ian Elliot said that it had benefitted from the fact that over time CSS 3 has become more widely implemented and in a more uniform way. This made the task of the book considerably simpler and provided space for chapters dealing with some current cutting edge topics.

Awarding the book 4.5 stars, Ian described it as overall a good book if you want to be a CSS expert, saying:

"The book doesn't really provide much of an idea of what CSS in the real world looks like, there are no big examples, but this is not a problem - as long as you are not a beginner."

There are parts of this book that could be written in a more accessible style but overall if you are the right reader and prepared to press on even when you don't quite understand then it all works out happily in the end. His final conclusion is that if you want to know about CSS3, and you are more than a beginner, this has a lot to offer.

CSS Detective Guide  

Author: Denise R. Jacobs
Publisher: New Riders, 2010
Pages: 288
ISBN: 978-0321683946

Rating: 4.5

Do you tackle CSS bugs as if you were a detective? This book explains that this is the right way to do it, says David Conrad, who gave this book 4.5 stars.  Most web page layout is controlled by CSS, meaning that when the layout of a web page goes wrong it is likely to be the CSS  - hence this book.

David concludes that while people hand craft CSS there will be CSS crimes to solve and even with the best tools in the world the sort of logical approach described in this book is going to be invaluable in finding the problem and in fixing it correctly.

 

David concludes that this isn't a book that will appeal to every reader - you need to first know a reasonable amount about CSS and you need to be prepared to learn a lot more - but if you want to master the subject this is a very good and fun way to learn. Highly recommended.

Learning CSS3 Animations & Transitions  

Author: Alexis Goldstein
Publisher: Addison-Wesley, 2012
Pages: 288
ISBN: 978-0321839602
Rating: 5 

This book covers the way that CSS3 allows you to do things in static markup that would once have required code and probably Flash. Awarding the book the maximum five stars, Ian Elliot said that overall the approach the book takes to explaining CSS3 is good - a nice simple example illustrates the basic ideas and then some more realistic examples show you what the techniques could be used for. 

 The writing style is clear, easy to read and with no distractions - it just gets on with telling you how to. There is some JavaScript used but the book is suitable for a non-programmer. 

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<ASIN: 1593275803>

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Last Updated ( Sunday, 29 September 2019 )