Tag Archives: reviews

Bulletproof Web Design: One Paragraph Review

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Bulletproof Web Design by Dan CedarholmHaving already written a book introducing readers to the web standards movement, Dan Cedarholm returns to cover more advanced material. While his first focused on markup and basic scenarios like grocery lists, this book focuses on CSS and accessibility. In particular, he explores how to let a web page flex around things like large font sizes or lengthy headlines without breaking – hence, bulletproof. While this material is all certainly all available online, this is a handy reference to some of the best practices and techniques that the gurus in the field have been using, and I would recommend it to anyone who feels like they understand the basics, but need a little boost to get to the next level. (If this book were a college course, it would be 300 level.)

CSS Mastery: One Paragraph Review

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CSS Mastery by Andy BuddIn the introduction to this book, Andy Budd writes “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.” In that sentence, he’s neatly summarized this book. The material contained here is certainly available elsewhere, and will be nothing new to power users, but if you’re looking for a handy compendium of fairly advanced techniques, you’ll get a lot from this book. Particularly nice are the chapters explaining image replacement and multiple-column fluid layouts, as these methods are hotly debated online, and it can be difficult to find good information on which technique works best. Andy compiles the best methods here and allows you to see the benefits of each. (If this book were a college course, it would be 200 level.)

Web Standards Solutions: One Paragraph Review

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Web Standards Solutions by Dan CedarholmDan Cedarholm has written a very nice book introducing the reader to the concept of web standards. Unlike Zeldman’s book, which is nearly all theory, this book is heavily focused on markup techniques, with some basic introduction to CSS. Each chapter presents a variety of scenarios, such as how to mark up a grocery list. Several techniques are discussed, and the advantages or disadvantages of each are explained. If you’ve been in the web standards game for awhile, there’s nothing new in here, but if you’re just getting started, this can be a helpful guide to understanding the semantics of markup. (If this book were a college course, it would be 100 level.)

Designing with Web Standards: One Paragraph Review

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Designing with Web Standards by Jeffrey ZeldmanIf you want to be a successful musician, you don’t just pick up an instrument and learn to play, you also study music theory. Similarly, if you want to be a successful web designer, you need to learn theory as well as code. Where most books cover code and technique, this book is the definitive guide to the theory of the web standards movement. Having co-founded the Web Standards Project during the height of the browser wars, Jeffrey Zeldman has been at this longer than most of us, and in this book, he shares his theories and best practices, along with a bit of history – like a grizzled war veteran sharing his experience. This book should be required reading for anyone looking to get involved in the web industry. (If this book were a college course, it would be 100 level, and required to graduate.)

Eric Meyer on CSS: One Paragraph Review

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Eric Meyer on CSSEric Meyer, known in the web community as the Godfather of CSS, has written several more technical books about CSS for O’Reilly, but this book, as well as its sequel, are intended as a more practical, hands-on set of tutorials. In both books, he presents a series of common scenarios such as adding a calendar to a web page, or styling a press release, and walks you through how to use CSS to apply a design to them. While this is informative, it’s not really very useful. Once you read this book once, you’ll likely never refer to it again, and if you’ve been at this awhile (or have visited Eric’s site before), you’ve probably already seen most of the techniques used. If you’re interested in seeing how a master practices his craft, I would recommend checking the book out from the library – but at nearly $50, I would recommend spending that money on a book that you’ll get more use out of in the future, such as Bulletproof Web Design. (If this book were a college course, it would be 200 level.)