I learned about the site CSS Zen Garden at the same time as he appeared. I looked at him and moved on. The idea seemed interesting to me, but I did not have enough time to see all the designs, and I found there, what to expect. But then came the book The Zen of CSS Design, authors Dave Shea and Molly E. Holzschlag.
The book is entirely dedicated to the different design of the site CSS Zen Garden - but not just a simple demonstration of how different designers deal with their homework. By the example of the reader is told about everything they need to know about CSS, to create any website. Since HTML-file remains the same all the time, the authors of the book easier to concentrate solely on CSS and how to use it.
What's in the book?
The book is pleasant to look nice. Each section contains a full image of the design of the page CSS Zen Garden. After an overview of the design, the authors go on to a detailed description of certain design issues (see the list of titles below). It is difficult to find a more detailed and complete account of how to present information in a Web page.
Topics covered in the book relate to even things such as design for people with impaired color vision, and the use of transparency in the design of graphics.
Chapter
Each chapter (except the first) is considering a number of different design options. In the first chapter the HTML file, which is the basis for all of the designs, as well as a description of how and why the file was created.
View Source Operating source
Design Design
Layout Page Layout
Imagery Graphic elements
Typography Typography
Special Effects Special Effects
Reconstruction Fixing
The book is written more in terms of design, rather than in terms of writing code.
Convenience for submissions
The format of presentation of information is quite convenient: the book is broken into small pieces that are easy to "digest" - after reading each chapter, I caught myself thinking about how much I just could not understand.
Tips in the margins are great. Do not forget you can read them.
Small wishes
I would like the room design, by which it appears on the website csszengarden.com inserted on every page (in the "basement"), and not only at the beginning of the chapter.
Sometimes I get the feeling that a topic is only slightly opened authors. But this is more due to the great depth of topics, not the shortcomings of presentation. In addition the authors accompany each section plenty of links.
Total
This book is not so much about "how?" But about that - "Why". Why should I use a different font? Why should I use in my graphic design? Why should I use special effects? Why should I use CSS for layout? (The answer to the last question would be given as the book itself, but you know what I'm talking about).
There are many resources that tell how to do something with CSS, well, like how to make a box around the item - but far fewer sources give an answer to the question "why should we do it?". This book - gives.
The best addition to books like "Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide" (probably a book to answer the question "How?") And "Eric Meyer on CSS" along with "More Eric Meyer on CSS" (halfway between the two, "How ? "and" why "). That is not to say that writing this book was very easy. It is filled with helpful tips and examples, dressed in an explanation of why you have to go this way.
The authors had an abundance of material, but their genius is that they were able to file and organize information. The book not only enriched my knowledge of CSS, it has added value to the project itself and the "CSS Zen Garden". I plan to look more to the site, the critical eye of evaluating new designs.
Summary
What book?
Using CSS to create websites.
For any readers?
If you know what the "Box Model bug" (bug block model) in IE for Windows, if you know how to typeset using CSS, this book - for you. Read it, read it again before I'll start a new project, read it using the site "CSS Zen Garden".
If you have never in my life did not position div-s, then you start to fit something like "More Eric Meyer on CSS", but what this book worth reading if only to see what we should strive for.
Ointment
Each section focuses on some particular aspect of site layout using CSS. Made everything so pretty easy to find something useful.
Despite the broad topic, the book is full of detailed information. I found some delicious CSS tricks that came in handy (well, for example, I learned how to use relative positioning with absolute).
Fly in the Ointment
Phew, by the end of the book I began to overcome vision of text and code CSS Zen Garden, and all because they were mentioned in the book too often.
Seriously, I do not advise you to read the book from cover to cover in one sitting. Better read it while sitting at the computer, open the site in a browser "csszengarden.com". In my browser opened three tabs. One was located a particular design, the other - CSS-code for this design, and the third - all the graphic elements used in the CSS code.
