CSS Books

[Tom]

Hey guys.

For a while now I've known some of the basics of CSS and now I'm at the point where I want to know much more because right now my understanding of it is quite minimal. I know the code to do certain things but don't understand why they do that - so therefore it's hard to write my own code. Basically what I'm aiming for is to know the basics of CSS off the top of my head so I could look at a .psd template and have a good understanding of how to code it and then reference the harder things in books/online etc if needed.

So my question is, do you guys know of any CSS books that helped you when you were learning CSS? I googled some and got a LOT so I'm specifically asking here to get some help on which is the best one for a "beginner".

Any help would be appreciated. :)

[+Heartripper Subscriber¹]

  On 27/02/2011 at 17:15, Tom said:

Hey guys.

For a while now I've known some of the basics of CSS and now I'm at the point where I want to know much more because right now my understanding of it is quite minimal. I know the code to do certain things but don't understand why they do that - so therefore it's hard to write my own code. Basically what I'm aiming for is to know the basics of CSS off the top of my head so I could look at a .psd template and have a good understanding of how to code it and then reference the harder things in books/online etc if needed.

So my question is, do you guys know of any CSS books that helped you when you were learning CSS? I googled some and got a LOT so I'm specifically asking here to get some help on which is the best one for a "beginner".

Any help would be appreciated. :)

It's not a book, but the CSS section of mozilla developer network is very complete

https://developer.mozilla.org/en/CSS

[Guest]

http://www.w3schools.com/default.asp

[threetonesun]

  On 01/03/2011 at 20:16, ynnoj said:

http://www.w3schools.com/default.asp

http://w3fools.com/

What are you having problems with, exactly? Div layouts?

[wctaiwan]

http://www.sitepoint.com/books/cssant3/

I started off with that book a few years ago. It was very helpful.

[JoeC]

Not really relevant to the OP, but damn, that W3Fools site is preachy as hell and way too nitpicky. W3S is a good learning resource and just because they don't think over the exact connotations of every technical word they use doesn't make them inaccurate or misleading, you just have to read it with a bit of common sense :/

Back on topic, I find O'Reilly books to be great, but very technical, while APress books tend to be almost as great and a bit more pick-up-and-readable :)

[threetonesun]

  On 02/03/2011 at 13:41, JoeC said:

Not really relevant to the OP, but damn, that W3Fools site is preachy as hell and way too nitpicky. W3S is a good learning resource and just because they don't think over the exact connotations of every technical word they use doesn't make them inaccurate or misleading, you just have to read it with a bit of common sense :/

Back on topic, I find O'Reilly books to be great, but very technical, while APress books tend to be almost as great and a bit more pick-up-and-readable :)

It may be a bit preachy, but they make a valid point. w3schools is at the top of all Google searches, and they try to pass themselves off as some semi-official source for HMTL/CSS documentation.

It would be one thing if they were technically correct and out to make money, it's another when they're basically an about.com for HTML/CSS, trying to make money while ignoring best practices and technically accuracy.

Try something like this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0596802447/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=1565926226&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0C85AETAD39EXQ0NJGNM

The specifications for CSS can be found anywhere, but information on using it correctly is harder to find.