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Designing CSS Web Pages
- By Christopher Schmitt
- Published Sep 20, 2002 by New Riders. Part of the Voices That Matter series.
- Copyright 2003
- Dimensions: 7-3/8" x 9-1/8"
- Pages: 384
- Edition: 1st
- Book
- ISBN-10: 0-7357-1263-8
- ISBN-13: 978-0-7357-1263-8
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Product Author Bios
Christopher Schmitt, project manager and idea generator for the new media publishing company, Heatvision.com, Inc., has been a web designer and developer since 1993. He interned for both David Siegel and Lynda Weinman in the mid-90s. He has written several site reviews, interviews, and articles for print and online publications and managed a web magazine dedicated to excellence in site design (www.highfive.com). He addressed the problem of web safe colors for designers by creating and producing the Web Design Pad, that was widely sold throughout the US and abroad. He contributed four chapters to the recently published XML, HTML, XHTML Magic (0735711399) by Molly E. Holzschlag.
Go beyond the mechanics of CSS to how to think in the language of web design, and avoid the common pitfalls. Full of examples and deconstruction's to aid in understanding CSS and its application. The ability to use of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is fast becoming a vital tool in the web professional's toolkit. But understanding how to use CSS is not intuitive--it requires a new way of thinking when it comes to building web pages. This book encourages web designers to look at the perceived limitations of the web as a new challenge to their design skills--without relying on HTML for presentation of pages. The overall theme is to instruct readers to build pages by using relative design techniques: understanding the relationship within the dynamic space of the web rather than the fixed-design "old-school" notions that have been in use for so long. The web site will include all of the files needed for the exercises and additional information of interest to web professionals including, but not limited to, recommended readings (suggested books, web sites and online articles), full-length interviews and a listing of CSS tools. www.christopher.org
Downloads
Code listings from the book - Updated 12/04/02 - 76 kb -- code_listings.zip
Author Bio - 372 kb -- 0735712638a.pdf
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53 of 56 people found the following review helpful
This is a good book, but not for everyone., By
This review is from: Designing CSS Web Pages (Paperback)
In terms of quality, I'd rate this book as high as anything from Glasshaus, most prominently "Cascading Style Sheets: Separating Content from Presentation". 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... Read more
32 of 34 people found the following review helpful
Excellent Design Reference (not CSS language reference), By Dan Arcari (Bristol, CT United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Designing CSS Web Pages (Paperback)
First, let me point out that this book is NOT a language/syntax reference for CSS. There are many other (mostly larger) books and web resources that cover the technical details of CSS.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... Read more
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Poorly written and confusing, By
This review is from: Designing CSS Web Pages (Paperback)
I bought this book because of Christopher Schmitt's high reputation, and because I'd heard so many positive reports about it. Christopher Schmitt does have a good sense of design, and he uses CSS in an imaginative way, but he's no writer or teacher. The book would be more aptly renamed "Random Thoughts about Web Design". The first two chapters burble on about design principles - important issues, but others have written about the subject far more cogently. Then a chapter about style rules that is likely to confuse the hell out of anyone not already well-versed in CSS. After a few designs, you're then plunged into the mysteries of handling PNG and SVG with CSS. (Yes, those graphics formats that are not supported by the vast majority of browsers in current use.) And where are the basic rules about creating borders, styling text, and other useful things? In an appendix, that's where. Unless Christopher Schmitt can get a better editor to knock some sense of coherence into his...
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Table of Contents
Table Of Contents - 2.1 mb -- 0735712638t.pdf
Downloadable Sample Chapter
Sample Chapter 1: "Planning and Structuring Content - 3.1 mb -- 0735712638c.pdf
Errata
Errata
Errata for the book - Posted 03/29/03 - 48 kb - Errata2638.pdf
Additional Errata
listing 4.16 should read:
.sidecol {
position: absolute;
z-index: 5;
width: 191px;
top: 200px;
left: 0;
margin: 0 22px 0 22px;
padding: 0 22px 0 22px3%;
}
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