Designing CSS Web Pages (Voices That Matter) [Paperback]

This book covers a lot of the same ground as the Glasshaus title but I found it particularly useful due to its slightly more graphic design bent. The code samples in the book are not merely basic utility layouts (2 columns, 3 columns, vertical centering etc), but more aesthetically 'designed' examples of using CSS -- a feature clearly missing in a lot of books aimed at the 'web developer' community. I'd venture to say I am not one of those to get so enamoured with the technology itself that they fail to see it as a handy means to an end. I really value Schmitt's efforts in this sense.

Again we get the 'separating content from design' jazz, fair enough, but then the author takes a slightly different direction choosing to show how CSS can be linked to other technologies such as JavaScript and the not-so-common PNG and SVG graphics file formats. PNG (Portable Network Graphics) is partly supported by most modern browsers and offers many advantages over the GIF format. SVG (Scaleable Vector Graphics) is similar to Flash, but can be scripted directly from JavaScript on the page. This may or may not be useful to some of you.

There are many CSS techniques in the W3C specifications that are poorly, inconsistently, or not supported at all, in even the latest browsers. As a practising designer, and not just an academic, Christopher is only too happy to point out the limitations of browsers and explains some of the many pitfalls that await the unwary if you try to push the envelope too far.

The projects, again downloadable from the publisher's Web site, focus on publishing - in business, personal and 'underground' styles. The typography is a lot fancier than any other book I've seen and the attention to detail, even for 'web' typography, is highly commendable.

An earlier review on this website said this book is not well technically edited. I am not sure why that was said, but I work with Opera 6 (and 7 beta), Mozilla 0.9 and above, netscape 6 and above and IE 4 and above. All samples I have tried have impressed me.

In sum, if you want to separate your content from design and give your 'styles' some, er, style, AND if you are fairly familiar with the basic CSS lingo (i.e., you dont need to know box models or glish but should understand what a link rel is), then this is probably a very useful book for you. If you are looking for a very basic introduction to CSS, I'd strongly recommend the Glasshaus book. If you are serious about your work, get both.

With that said, I found this book to be an excellent design resource. As W3C standards become increasingly accepted, one of the key tasks for web designers is to master separation of content from presentation. XHTML, XML, XSL and CSS are all key components in the effort to streamline web code by separating the "what" from the "how-its-viewed." Designing CSS Web Pages is an excellent primer on how to retool your designs using a more sophisticated approach.

The CSS examples presented in the book are simple, but effective. As a programmer, I spend most of my time worrying about data, not how it looks. The examples helped me quickly transform a project from a boring HTML table-layout into a professional-level presentation. Schmitt's examples demonstrate how to achieve many common effects such as multi-column layouts, layering and a myriad of formatting examples for text. Further, the examples are practical and approachable for most people. Many programming tutorials start with simple examples then proceed to advanced cases without covering the middle. While the exercises in Schmitt's book aren't in laid out as a tutorial, they do demonstrate aspects of CSS that most people will actually use when creating CSS-styled web projects. I found them neither too simple, nor too extravagant (CSS can create some interesting effects). This book focuses on real, practical results.

Finally, the extra sections on non-web CSS usage were interesting, and in the case of the printed examples, quite useful, as found I was able to eliminate some code by simply having CSS create my printer-formatted pages (easier for the user, too). In addition, the interviews with various people involved in the web standards and design community helps highlight the effort to make development on the Internet as consistent and efficient as possible,

Overall, I found this book to be a great companion as I reworked my projects to use CSS. Again, you will want to refer to a complete language reference when writing your CSS code, but I would recommend Designing CSS Web Pages as a style reference for anyone creating new web pages in the proper, content-separated manner.