What is the best book on CSS?

Question

Having just finished reading David Flanagan's "Javascript: The Definitive Guide" (5th edition), I've found that it's got the best explanation I've ever seen of the core functionality of a language. He explains everything, from identifiers and expressions on up, so clearly that it's easy to visualize how every part of the language works.

I want to move on to a good CSS book now; I've learned a fair amount of CSS over the years, picked up in bits and pieces, but I'm looking for a good from-the-ground-up CSS book, akin to the aforementioned Javascript book.

Answer 1

Eric Meyer's Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide, it is pretty much what it says, the definitive guide.

Few other resources from Meyer too:

• Handy Iframed W3c CSS reference
• A bunch of CSS demos
• His Cascading Style Sheets 2.0 Programmer's Reference book
• More Eric Meyer on CSS tutorial book

That guy knows his CSS!

Answer 2

How about CSS: The Definitive Guide ?

Answer 3

Id like to suggest CSS: The Missing Manual. Its written in a tutorial style and useful for incremental learning.

Answer 4

If you're going to be working with CSS you'll probably need 2 books - one to teach you how it works and one to use as a reference. I thought Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML was a good book to learn how CSS works, but it's the kind of book you'd read once and then never look at again. If I was working with CSS regularly I'd also want to pick up something that I could use as a reference like the Definitive Guide.

Answer 5

SitePoint CSS Reference - Good reference and it's online

Answer 6

I have many CSS books but no single one covers the topic completely for someone just starting out. I would suggest a good reference book and one or more tutorial books.

For the reference book, you can't beat CSS: The Definitive Guide 3rd Edition from O'Reilly. It covers the topic from start to finish and is very complete. I refer to it on every project because it is just a great reference book.

For the tutorial book I would suggest More Eric Meyer on CSS from New Riders, and the earlier Eric Meyer on CSS (although the first one is a bit dated at this point). These are written as tutorials with each chapter covering a particular project that introduces you to different aspects of CSS. I found that I got a lot out of these two when I was learning CSS because the projects connected the dots for me in a way that a reference doesn't attempt to do.

Answer 7

My two recommendations:

• The Zen of CSS Design; a fantastic demonstration of what's possible.

• Pro CSS and HTML Design Patterns; a book that shows you what works reliably in most browsers, rather than everything defined in the various CSS standards.

Answer 8

Not the best in purely technical terms, but by far the best inspirationally, is the book version of CSS Zen Garden - available in the usual places

The website is here

http://www.csszengarden.com/

Answer 9

I found Eric Meyer's books useful, especially the ...Eric Meyer on CSS books.

Another one that I like even more is Dan Cederholm's book Bulletproof Web Design, Second Edition

Answer 10

The above mentioned "CSS: The Definitive Guide" is very good and I refer to it often.

Another from-the-ground-up book that is excellent is "Beginning CSS Web Development: From Novice to Professional", by Simon Collison.

Answer 11

While I know the best answer has been selected, I'm surprised no one mentioned CSS Mastery which I personally find to be the best book on CSS techniques. I have never been a fan of the Eric Meyer CSS books, just didn't speak to me well (the content was great though).

Answer 12

You might want to check out the 10 Best Books on HTML & CSS at bestbooktop10.com.

Answer 13

I see a list of pretty good books for learning CSS here. However, if you already know CSS up to intermediate level but you want to enhance it to advanced level, I suggest:

"CSS Mastery Advanced Web Solutions".

In this book I found things I had been looking for for quite sometime.

I was completely satisfied with this book.

Answer 14

The best book I read on css is:

The CSS Anthology: 101 Essential Tips, Tricks & Hacks

http://www.amazon.com/CSS-Anthology-Essential-Tricks-Hacks/dp/097584198X

It is written in problem-solution manner, on the way explaining how things work below the surface. I read it only once, and I haven't had css problems ever since. Further more, when something doesn't work how it supposed to be, for example overlapping of divs or some other common problem with css, I know exactly where the problem might be. That means, that book didn't teach me only how to solve problems listed in a book, but also taught me the core of how html and css work together.

And because of that, I highly recommend this book.

cheers

Answer 15

The CSS Book that is in your bathroom that lists every selector, rule, and other specification. Seriously, because just reading a CSS book straight though will get you the concepts, but with CSS you need to know the details. By having a 'slow burn' approach to learning CSS, you will eventually know every selector and rule so that when you are coding you have perfect knowledge to work with.