- ISBN13: 9780321643384
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
There’s a real connection between craftsmanship and Web design. That’s the theme running through Handcrafted CSS: More Bulletproof Web Design, by bestselling author Dan Cederholm, with a chapter contributed by renowned Web designer and developer Ethan Marcotte. This book explores CSS3 that works in today’s browsers, and you’ll be convinced that now’s the time to start experimenting with it.
Whether you’re a Web designer, project manager, or a gra… More >>
Handcrafted CSS: More Bulletproof Web Design
Take A Look At These Related Products:
Don’t get me wrong. The information in this book is great. The author gives you code that works and what doesn’t work when creating the look of the webpage you will be creating along in the book. What’s even better is that this book is all in color, compared to some other ones that I’ve seen out there. Do note that this book does come in a different edition where a DVD is also included.
Each chapter has enough images to give you an idea of how the graphics are supposed to look. It seems like books these days like to keep their data files online, which is where this book’s files are stored. I guess it’d probably save them money (and you) for not including the data on a cd with the book. No big deal, really.
My only gripe about this book is that you don’t begin creating the website “in order”. What I mean is that there really isn’t a way for you to input the code that’s given in the book and then load it in a browser to see how it’s supposed to look like, compared to what’s in the book.
For instance, in the first chapter, you’re creating a chart for come drinks. As I see the images in the book, and copy the code, it, of course, won’t look that way because you haven’t specified WHERE on the page it’s supposed to go. Thus, when you load the code in a browser, you’re chart fills the entire screen instead of looking like the image in the book.
I understand that you’re creating the assets that will eventually be added into the final web page, but I wish the author could have written the book where he specified where these assets would be added so that the readers could see how it’s supposed to look like.
Other than that, I didn’t find anything TOO new to CSS that I already know, so if you’re already familiar with it, then this book might not be for you. There were a few things that I found that I liked, such as rounded corners, does/don’t of using opacity, the “webkit”, just to name a few. The whole point of the book is to help you create a website that’s flexible to edit and that’s compliant.
Rating: 3 / 5
HANDCRAFTED CSS: MORE BULLETPROOF WEB DESIGN offers connections between artistry and web design and explores CSS3 for modern browsers. Web designers, project managers and artists alike receive an excellent progressive series of lessons on how to enrich designs using CSS3 properties and how to create fluid, flexible layouts. Color screen shots throughout provide excellent examples.
Rating: 5 / 5
A fan of Bulletproof Web Design, I was looking forward to Handcrafted CSS and it did not disappoint. In addition to the code examples, I appreciated Cederholm’s “progressive enrichment,” “re-evaluation of past methods and best practices,” “80 percenters,” “fluid grids,” and “craftsmanship.”
“Progressive enrichment,” for example, uses the border-radius property to achieve the visual reward of rounded corners on buttons in browsers that can handle them with CSS. The site displays attractively in all browsers with square corners on buttons in browsers not progressive enough to display the rounded corners. This example also illustrates “re-evaluation of past methods and best practices.” Rounded corners on buttons can be achieved with graphics, but they lock in color which can only be changed be manipulating the images. With progressive enrichment, the button colors can be changed easily in the CSS.
Ethan Marcotte, in “The Fluid Grid” chapter, demonstrates that the key to non-fixed width layouts is font size. By setting all font sizes in context relative to a base font size of 100% and also setting percentage-based values for the columns of the grid, the proportions of the grid stay intact as it resizes.
My favorite detail in Cederholm’s final chapter, “Craftsmanship Details,” is his recommendation to “use the best possible ampersand” by building a font stack in the CSS based on order of “interestingness” of the ampersand. An interesting ampersand is well worth the trouble as I found out last year before I had read Handcrafted CSS. I had developed a header for a second website without the “interesting” ampersand which I had used in the original website, and the first thing that the client said upon seeing the second header was that he wanted the same “and sign” that the original header had. What fun for Cederholm’s ampersand discussion to confirm my experience!
Rating: 5 / 5
I love Dan’s writing style. It’s fun loving and interesting. It got me through the book quicker than I normally would have.
That book goes into detail about how to give your web design extra flair that takes your work from good to great. He goes into depth about how to use the techniques and explains the reasoning behind each decision.
The DVD was also entertaining and didn’t repeat the book much at all. It is a great addition resource for the book.
Rating: 5 / 5
Mr. Cederholm’s “Handcrafted CSS” is an excellent work literally guaranteed to provide new insight. His writing style is one that is easily read…and easy to continue reading. Such a style is highly instructive while being enjoyable prose. There are new “tricks” galore in this book. However, as a caution, to get the most out of this book, one should be fairly competent in CSS. The author states as much early on. The book is rated “intermediate to advanced” and deserves that rating; not so much because the material is difficult but because it is written with the understanding that the reader is at a certain level of expertise and thus it avoids a lot of redundant elementary detail and goes right at some new CSS3 tricks and effects…and they are useful!
Rating: 5 / 5