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A Book Apart #2
CSS3 For Web Designers
From advanced selectors to generated content to the triumphant return of web fonts, and from gradients, shadows, and rounded corners to full-blown animations, CSS3 is a universe of creative possibilities. No one can better guide you through these galaxies than world-renowned designer, author, and CSS superstar Dan Cederholm. Learn what works, how it works, and how to work around browsers where it doesn’t work.
125 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
58 people are currently reading
1057 people want to read
About the author
Dan Cederholm
23 books36 followersA designer, author, speaker, husband and father living in Salem, Massachusetts. Dan is the Founder and Principal of SimpleBits, LLC, a tiny web design studio.
A recognized expert in the field of standards-based web design, Dan has worked with YouTube, Microsoft, Google, MTV, ESPN, Electronic Arts, Blogger, Fast Company, Inc. Magazine, and others. With each new project, comes an opportunity to minimize markup and embrace the flexibility of CSS.
Dan is co-founder and designer of Dribbble, a vibrant community for sharing screenshots of your work. Previously, he co-founded and designed Cork’d, the first social network for wine aficionados which was later acquired by Gary Vaynerchuk.
A recognized expert in the field of standards-based web design, Dan has worked with YouTube, Microsoft, Google, MTV, ESPN, Electronic Arts, Blogger, Fast Company, Inc. Magazine, and others. With each new project, comes an opportunity to minimize markup and embrace the flexibility of CSS.
Dan is co-founder and designer of Dribbble, a vibrant community for sharing screenshots of your work. Previously, he co-founded and designed Cork’d, the first social network for wine aficionados which was later acquired by Gary Vaynerchuk.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 99 reviews
January 13, 2013
In this book, Dan Cederholm explains how to use CSS3 to create non-critical effects--such as the animation, feedback, and movement that help to make browsers interactive--even though CSS3 is not yet fully developed enough to rely upon for critical parts of the site like branding, usability, and layout.
He explains how to use such effects as transitions, transforms, and animations, but more importantly, he provides suggestions on when to use them. The book is not a comprehensive manual to CSS3, but rather an in-depth exploration of how to use some of its features.
Most of the explanations tend toward the simplistic, and in many cases Cederholm will show a code sample filling the whole first half of the page with only a line or two changed from a sample on the previous page. I suppose this repetition makes the pages pass quickly, but still...when the commentary on the code is also repeated, the book starts to feel a little bit too much like a certain movie with a soundtrack that goes .
I was disappointed in A Book Apart; their books are supposed to be efficient and to-the-point. By only half way through, I was already sick of the repeated mentions of how what was being shown with CSS3 could previously only be accomplished with Flash or JavaScript, and the repeated mentions of how it's necessary to include browser-specific prefixes, and the repeated mentions of how the final element in a stack should be the non-prefixed one. To worsen this repetition, Cederholm often uses a paragraph introduction to a code sample, followed by the sample, followed by a paragraph that says again in prose what the code sample just did, and all three of these sections say the things I just listed above, meaning that he doesn't just repeat on different pages, but even on the same page. The paragraphs before and after code samples could be condensed into a brief sentence before the sample or omitted altogether.
Some things I got out of this book are:
He explains how to use such effects as transitions, transforms, and animations, but more importantly, he provides suggestions on when to use them. The book is not a comprehensive manual to CSS3, but rather an in-depth exploration of how to use some of its features.
Most of the explanations tend toward the simplistic, and in many cases Cederholm will show a code sample filling the whole first half of the page with only a line or two changed from a sample on the previous page. I suppose this repetition makes the pages pass quickly, but still...when the commentary on the code is also repeated, the book starts to feel a little bit too much like a certain movie with a soundtrack that goes .
I was disappointed in A Book Apart; their books are supposed to be efficient and to-the-point. By only half way through, I was already sick of the repeated mentions of how what was being shown with CSS3 could previously only be accomplished with Flash or JavaScript, and the repeated mentions of how it's necessary to include browser-specific prefixes, and the repeated mentions of how the final element in a stack should be the non-prefixed one. To worsen this repetition, Cederholm often uses a paragraph introduction to a code sample, followed by the sample, followed by a paragraph that says again in prose what the code sample just did, and all three of these sections say the things I just listed above, meaning that he doesn't just repeat on different pages, but even on the same page. The paragraphs before and after code samples could be condensed into a brief sentence before the sample or omitted altogether.
Some things I got out of this book are:
March 31, 2016
Really enjoyed this book. Wish it was longer tho. Love that I can learn and play around with the sample site provided by the author as I was going through the book.
Super helpful to see the big picture of CSS3.
Looking forward to read the other A Book Apart Books.
Super helpful to see the big picture of CSS3.
Looking forward to read the other A Book Apart Books.
January 18, 2012
Je suis Web Designer, et je m'intéresse aux CSS3 ! Deux raisons largement suffisantes pour que j'ai envie de lire cet ouvrage. Et j'ai en effet trouvé aux moins 2 bonnes raisons d'apprécier ce bouquin :
1. Dan Cederholm soutient la philosophie de l'amélioration progressive. Il s'agit d'utiliser les CSS3 par petites touches, pour améliorer l'expérience utilisateur (et économiser en temps et en ressources pour le webdesigner), sans que cela nuise à la structure et aux fonctionnalités du site pour les internautes navigants sur des "vieux" navigateurs. Du coup, ce cadre restreint d'utilisation des CSS3 permet de les utiliser sans prendre de risques dans nos sites actuels. Bon d'accord, l'économie en ressources est très relatif étant donné qu'il faut ajouter beaucoup de déclarations propriétaires, ce qui alourdi en conséquence nos feuilles de styles... Mais je crois que ne pas utiliser les CSS3 en 2012, c'est passer à côté d'une vrai révolution qui a lieu en ce moment même sur le web. Le bouquin ne parle pas des Media Queries, mais ça semble volontaire (je vous confirmerai quand j'aurai lu "Responsive Web Design" de Ethan Marcotte). J'ajouterai que le bouquin est court, facile à lire, truffé d'exemple très explicites.
2. j'adore le Vert !!!
Bref, que du bonheur !!! C'est le deuxième livre de la collection A BOOK APART que je finis, et j'avoue que j'aime beaucoup leurs choix éditoriaux. Du coup, je viens de commander l'intégral de leurs publications !
1. Dan Cederholm soutient la philosophie de l'amélioration progressive. Il s'agit d'utiliser les CSS3 par petites touches, pour améliorer l'expérience utilisateur (et économiser en temps et en ressources pour le webdesigner), sans que cela nuise à la structure et aux fonctionnalités du site pour les internautes navigants sur des "vieux" navigateurs. Du coup, ce cadre restreint d'utilisation des CSS3 permet de les utiliser sans prendre de risques dans nos sites actuels. Bon d'accord, l'économie en ressources est très relatif étant donné qu'il faut ajouter beaucoup de déclarations propriétaires, ce qui alourdi en conséquence nos feuilles de styles... Mais je crois que ne pas utiliser les CSS3 en 2012, c'est passer à côté d'une vrai révolution qui a lieu en ce moment même sur le web. Le bouquin ne parle pas des Media Queries, mais ça semble volontaire (je vous confirmerai quand j'aurai lu "Responsive Web Design" de Ethan Marcotte). J'ajouterai que le bouquin est court, facile à lire, truffé d'exemple très explicites.
2. j'adore le Vert !!!
Bref, que du bonheur !!! C'est le deuxième livre de la collection A BOOK APART que je finis, et j'avoue que j'aime beaucoup leurs choix éditoriaux. Du coup, je viens de commander l'intégral de leurs publications !
February 3, 2011
Alors ? Il vaut le coup ?
Tout dépend de ce qu'on en attend,
Ce livre s'adresse avant tout aux designers, pas aux intégrateurs et développeurs qui connaissent déjà une grande majorité de ce qui y est expliqué.
Il présente avant tout une nouvelle manière de penser ces designs en prenant en compte les nouvelles possibilités de CSS3 sans laisser de côté les navigateurs à la traine.
Ce n'est donc pas un ouvrage expliquant la manière d'utiliser les dernières nouveautés des CSS (media-queries en tête), mais bien un guide pour utiliser facilement certaines possibilités dès aujourd'hui.
January 28, 2011
Another great book from A Book Apart. It's a short intro to what CSS3 we can safely use today--both the pros and cons. I've read all of Cederholm's other books and liked those just as much. He's great at showing simple demos that demonstrate the techniques he writes about.
Also of note, I read the ebook version on an iPad and loved the video snippets that demonstrated actual results of the code in the book. This is a great use of the ebook format and I hope we'll see a lot more of it in code/design books in the future.
Also of note, I read the ebook version on an iPad and loved the video snippets that demonstrated actual results of the code in the book. This is a great use of the ebook format and I hope we'll see a lot more of it in code/design books in the future.
February 5, 2011
Very good CSS3 book by Dan Cederholm. As with the other A List Apart book, it's very practical and to the point. I could read it in a short time and learn a lot with it.
I know that these books are supposed to be short, but I couldn't help but expect at least some information about @font-face and media queries.
Nevertheless, the book stays true to the series and it's a quick read packed with great information. Highly recommended for any web professional that works with CSS today.
I know that these books are supposed to be short, but I couldn't help but expect at least some information about @font-face and media queries.
Nevertheless, the book stays true to the series and it's a quick read packed with great information. Highly recommended for any web professional that works with CSS today.
August 10, 2011
Excellent read! Very informative. I'll often go back and use this as a reference for my own projects. Essential read for all designers and developers learning CSS3.
February 14, 2014
Excellent quick guide to CSS3. Shame it didn't include anything on responsive design.
July 14, 2017
A good book to understand the basics of CSS3.
July 13, 2018
Прикольная книга, правда не совсем актуальная. Попадись она мне этак в 2012 году...
August 25, 2018
Fun read but a bit outdated by current standards. Not as much background information about how CSS3 came to be opposed to the first HTML5 book which digs deeper into how the spec evolved over time.
Read
December 30, 2019Great intro to CSS3
August 30, 2020
Чудовий посібник на 2010 рік, без води з таким очікуваним CSS3, проте в 2020 актуальності 0, теж саме, що й з першою частиною серії.
April 23, 2024
also learnt absolutely nothing
September 17, 2014
CSS3 is the latest and greatest style sheet specification that, like HTML5, is under development. Its intent is to give web designers more flexibility in their designs. "CSS3 for Web Designers" introduces the basic features of CSS3 and shows us how we can start using it right now, even while gracefully falling back to CSS2 or Javascript solultions for browsers that do not yet support CSS3.
Dan Cederholm provides a number of examples of what's new in CSS3 (drop-shadows, rotation, animation(!), and more) and shows how to use these features today in most modern browsers. Since the CSS3 specification is not official yet, most browsers implement their own version of these features, but Dan also shows us how to implement them for each browser specifically in a way that will upgrade gracefully as more CSS3 features are adopted by their CSS3 attribute names. In many cases, he also provides Javascript fallbacks for much older browsers (such as Internet Explorer 6) that will accomplish nearly the same results.
"CSS3 for Web Designers" is not intended to be a full guide to CSS3. Rather, it serves as an introduction for anyone who hasn't religiously followed the w3c's mailing lists for the past few years. As an introduction to the power of CSS3, this book serves well, and I'd certainly recommend it.
Dan Cederholm provides a number of examples of what's new in CSS3 (drop-shadows, rotation, animation(!), and more) and shows how to use these features today in most modern browsers. Since the CSS3 specification is not official yet, most browsers implement their own version of these features, but Dan also shows us how to implement them for each browser specifically in a way that will upgrade gracefully as more CSS3 features are adopted by their CSS3 attribute names. In many cases, he also provides Javascript fallbacks for much older browsers (such as Internet Explorer 6) that will accomplish nearly the same results.
"CSS3 for Web Designers" is not intended to be a full guide to CSS3. Rather, it serves as an introduction for anyone who hasn't religiously followed the w3c's mailing lists for the past few years. As an introduction to the power of CSS3, this book serves well, and I'd certainly recommend it.
April 24, 2013
[CZ] Krátký přehled CSS3 vlastností a jejich podpory v prohlížečích. Zaměřeno hlavně na Transitions (postupné změny např. barvy, nebo pozadí), Transforming (posuny, změna velikosti, rotace) a Multiple Background (více pozadí na jednom elementu). Vše vysvětleno na vzorovém webu, který je online (). Vysvětlení vendor-specific prefixů, které dovolují používání CSS3, které jsou implementovány pouze v daném prohlížeči. Důraz na to, že CSS3 lze používat již nyní pro nekritické použití, tzn tam kde nám nevadí, že to nebude fungovat ve starších prohlížečích (stíny, plynulé posuny, transformace). Dále také na to, že používání animací by se nemělo nadužívat a že když některá vlastnost nefunguje ve starším prohlížeči, tak to vůbec nevadí, pokud je stránka použitelná. Pro většinu CSS3 vlastností je ideální použít nějaký online generátor kódu, který nám zajistí i veškeré IE hacky a vendor specifika.
November 27, 2010
First of all, this book had the best incorporation of multimedia that I've seen so far in an ebook. Many of the Figures are short videos that illustrate the css styles discussed in the book. The videos are short and to the point, and flow with the rest of the content. This ebook feels designed, which is something most other ebooks are completely lacking thus far, and they end up being just a shoddy direct port of the printed material with no consideration for the new form.
Oh yeah, and the actual content was great. All of the CSS discussed in the book is things you could find online in various places, but Dan Cederholm does a great job of not just showing how to do fancy css3 stuff, but also why, and that's why this book is a must have for web designers.
Oh yeah, and the actual content was great. All of the CSS discussed in the book is things you could find online in various places, but Dan Cederholm does a great job of not just showing how to do fancy css3 stuff, but also why, and that's why this book is a must have for web designers.
June 23, 2014
Since I'm not-so-deep in the book now, please believe me not quite wholly.
The book is definitely useful. It made clear for me The Meaning of these pesky 'lil -vendor-prefix-junk-piles in stylesheets of many great sites.
Also the book features redundantly redundant degree of redundancy. It makes hard for me to read it sober.
So the hope is that shortness of the book will not give me enough time to become an alcoholic.
God bless shortness.
On the other hand, I believe it would be much better to keep code samples readable and mention all that -moz-o-web-some-popular-browsermakerlovesyou-things at least ten time less frequently.
Review is written in authentically drunk state of mind.
The book is definitely useful. It made clear for me The Meaning of these pesky 'lil -vendor-prefix-junk-piles in stylesheets of many great sites.
Also the book features redundantly redundant degree of redundancy. It makes hard for me to read it sober.
So the hope is that shortness of the book will not give me enough time to become an alcoholic.
God bless shortness.
On the other hand, I believe it would be much better to keep code samples readable and mention all that -moz-o-web-some-popular-browsermakerlovesyou-things at least ten time less frequently.
Review is written in authentically drunk state of mind.
May 27, 2013
This is a fantastic overview of subtle CSS enhancements that can be made with currently (as of 2010) supported CSS3 elements, but it does not go into the deep CSS changes being introduced in CSS3. I checked the A Book Apart series, and it does not seem that an updated deeper look at CSS3 has been written yet, and that I find frustrating as layouts should be vastly improved. The book would have been better named "Minor CSS3 Enhancements"; the content is great but not very thorough as a general overview of CSS3 elements isn't even provided. For that, I will have to likely read the more recent A List Apart articles.
February 3, 2016
Well, well, well... before I came across this book... I've already read two books: HTML & CSS (by Jon Duckett) and HTML5 for webdesigners (by Jeffrey Zeldman). In other words, I already had some basic info and also had certain expectations. This book definitely met those expectations by giving me the information I was looking for. It was also easy to digest, no annoying confusing statements. The author of the book played a safe game by not going much into those parts of CSS3 that arent completely supported by all browsers or maybe not approved at that moment... but glad that at the end he gave some useful links that will help the readers to stay updated.
February 26, 2011
A Book Apart is doing something very interesting in this series. The books are there to give you (slightly more) than enough of the basics of the new specs to keep your work looking gorgeous, while cutting out the majority of the spec that you don't need to have memorized in daily practice. These books clock in at just under a hundred pages if memory serves, they're dirt cheap and available in all the popular electronic formats, and are what I consider to be absolutely vital for anyone building a modern design on the web.
March 14, 2014
Very straightforward, simple look at some of the more important features of CSS3. Don't expect any sort of breakthrough revelation to come through as you read this book, it's very much a WYSIWYG deal. I'm glad it referenced a place to download actual source code for the demo site built with a lot of the included CSS features. For the most part, it was a quick read (although it took me a while to dig it out and polish it off in the end) and even though it probably won't have a permanent space in my webdev toolbox, I would still recommend it to someone with interest and time to spare.
December 27, 2010
LOVED LOVED LOVED this book. I've recently started updating my mad CSS skillz by finally starting to implement some CSS3 into my projects. It's nice to see the neat little things you can use CSS3 for now and how to make your code degrade gracefully for those using browsers not up to the latest standards (IE, I'm looking at you). I've never been disappointed by Dan Cederholm's books and this one's no exception.
January 2, 2011
Not quite as well-written as the first book in the series, but it is nonetheless a valuable resource for learning about what's coming with CSS3. The decision to pick a small subset of features that can be pushed into designs now, rather than attempting a comprehensive overview, makes this very helpful for diving in to some hands-on projects; on the other hand, this limited approach also means it's not necessarily useful for the complete novice.
July 11, 2011
Another good, concise book from the A Book Apart crew. CSS3 For Web Designers gives you just enough to encourage experimentation with and real-world usage of CSS3 today. Topics covered include CSS3 transitions, transforms, animations (basics), and forms. The author uses an example site throughout the book to explain some of the core features available by using CSS3 which helps provide context. Overall I think the book is well written and a super-quick read.
January 18, 2012
I'm not a design person, but I learned a lot and I think I'll get a lot of use out of what I learned. It gives a good overview of CSS3 features that can be used now, even though CSS3 isn't finished yet (as far as I know). It focuses on non-critical aspects of the experience layer so that people using browsers that don't yet support these features won't know that they're missing anything. It's short, to the point, and even funny in a lot of places. Definitely worth checking out.
September 4, 2012
If you're new to CSS3, this is a nice guide to some simple but useful front-end enhancements. The sample code is useful and clearly explained. There are plenty of inspiring bits you can put to use immediately. This won't be the last CSS3 book you'll ever need, but it isn't intended to be. It's a good introduction centered on practical examples, not a comprehensive, dictionary-style tome. Cederholm is a good writer, and this is a pleasant and informative read.
August 30, 2013
It's just a teeny little book but it's one of the most powerful tools for designers. I keep a copy of this book on my tablet (I also have a hard copy). As a theme designer I often work with base themes and find myself running in to new concepts in CSS3 and CSS3 for Web Designers has been a great resource for bringing me up-to-date on new ways to style with CSS3. Absolutely a must have for the web designer.
You are never really finished with this book.
You are never really finished with this book.
November 30, 2010
Straight and to the point this book introduces features of CSS3 that are ready for use and gives examples of how to maintain maximum browser capability. Good book for examples of using some of the new features of CSS3. Would recommend to someone who is interested in knowing some common (or what will probably be common) uses of CSS3 with regards to enhancing the user experience.
April 13, 2011
Where as the 'HTML5 For Web Designers' book could have been written in one sentence ("What you know still works."), the CSS3 book gave me a much better idea of how HTML and CSS are being used today. If you're at all familiar with HTML from the past, but don't really know how web pages are constructed today, skip the HTML5 book and start here.
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