Section 24.8. CSS Techniques Resources

24.8. CSS Techniques Resources

With CSS (and a little know-how), you can make your page as hip, pretty, gothic, mod, or corporate as you like. It's limited only by your imagination. To see just how sophisticated CSS-based web design can be, I enthusiastically refer you to the CSS Zen Garden site at www.csszengarden.com. It is a showcase of stunningly varied designs, all based on the same marked-up XHTML document. The spin-off book, The Zen of CSS Design: Visual Enlightenment for the Web by Dave Shea and Molly E. Holzschlag (Peachpit Press) dissects design elements in 36 designs and demonstrates the CSS techniques behind them.

For more detailed demonstrations of what you can do with CSS, I recommend Eric Meyer on CSS and More Eric Meyer on CSS, written by (surprise) Eric Meyer (New Riders).

Another book that has served as a reference and inspiration for this chapter is Web Standards Solutions: The Markup and Style Handbook by Dan Cederholm (Friends of Ed).

There are also a number of online resources that offer CSS tips, techniques, and tutorials.

A List Apart (www.alistapart.com)

A List Apart is the go-to source for articles on CSS and other web design matters. Their all-star contributing writers are authorities in all matters of web design.

Stopdesign (www.stopdesign.com)

Doug Bowman is one of the top dogs in standards-based web design. His site offers useful tutorials and commentary on designing with CSS.

Mezzoblue (www.mezzoblue.com)

This is the personal site of Dave Shea, the creator and cultivator of the CSS Zen Garden.

Meyerweb (www.meyerweb.com)

The reigning king of CSS, Eric Meyer, publishes his tests, tricks, and tutorials here.

SimpleBits (www.simplebits.com)

This is the personal and professional site of Dan Cederholm, a prominent web designer and the author of Web Standards Solutions.

css-discuss wiki (css-discuss.incutio.com)

A "wiki" is a type of collaborative web site . This wiki is the companion to the popular css-discuss mailing list (www.css-discuss.org) and serves as a repository of CSS techniques and ideas generated by the css-discuss community.