CSS3 for Web Designers review
When I first heard that Dan Cederholm was writing a book about CSS3 for A Book Apart I couldn’t help but think it might be little more than a condensed version of his previous book, Handcrafted CSS, which was a great read by the way. After reading CSS3 for Web Designers I was pleased to discover that I was wrong to think this.
CSS3 for Web Designers continued A Book Apart’s tradition of “Brief books for people who make websites”. I read the entire book in just over an hour, and it only took that long because I was trying out some of the code examples as I read along, however don’t be fooled by the short length of this book as it is packed with valuable information of how to apply progressive CSS to your designs now.
Chapter 1: Using CSS3 Today
In this first chapter Dan explains in what circumstances we should be using CSS3 and briefly touches upon specific CSS properties that are currently supported in the majority of modern browsers.
Chapter 2: Understanding CSS Transitions
Here the title speaks for itself, explaining the basics of what is probably the most commonly used CSS3 property: transitions. He discusses the backgrounds of this property and takes us through a simple example of putting it into practise.
Chapter 3: Hover-Crafting with CSS3
In this chapter Dan introduces us to the case study site: Things we left on the moon. The CSS discussed in this chapter centres around box-shadow, border-radius, text-shadow and opacity.
We’re given practical examples of how and when to apply these properties to a design and Dan also goes as far to explain how to deal with less capable browsers and providing appropriate fall-backs etc.
Chapter 4: Transforming the Message
This is where things start to get a little bit more exciting. This chapter is all about CSS transforms, a property that allows us to scale, skew, rotate and translate elements in our designs.
Chapter 5: Multiple Backgrounds
For a long time designers have been dreaming of multiple background images and here Dan explains how we can use these to add visual interest to our designs by creatively layering various background images. Of course there is once again the issue of less capable browsers and Dan provides a practical solution to that little problem.
Chapter 6: Enriching Forms
Now on to my favourite chapter in this book. Forms have been something that have always caused us problems as web designers as we have had limited control over them in the past. Of course with CSS3 this has all changed.
From adding depth to standard text inputs to creating 3D submit buttons Dan shows us where CSS3 can really shine. There’s also examples of how CSS animations can enhance the interactivity of our forms.
Chapter 7: Conclusion
This chapter is merely a summary of what the book has covered, a little on what lies ahead and how to deal with the naysayers (e.g. clients and/or bosses that don’t understand the value of CSS3). Dan also provides a list of useful links for more information on CSS3 as well as various tools and resources we can use to make our lives easier.
Summary
In short this book covers everything you need to know about using CSS3 in your day to day work today. It picks up where Handcrafted CSS left off. Buy it now.