Programmer Musings

Review of Eric Meyer on CSS

Eric Meyer on CSS
Eric A. Meyer
New Riders, 2003

Styling web pages with CSS allows for a very good separation of structure and presentation. In this book, Eric Meyer focuses on the design aspects of using CSS. Many other books describe individual features of CSS and even show how to generate particular effects with CSS. This book walks through a series of projects and shows, step by step, how a real design expert lays out a site.

In the process, Meyer shows how many CSS attributes should be used. He shows some of the tradeoffs involved in using different features and effects. As you follow along with the exercises, you get more than just the mechanics of changing styles with CSS. You get a sense for how someone who really knows CSS and web design goes about applying his craft.

I found this particularly helpful. I have more than a basic grasp of CSS, but I don't really grok the design aspects. Although I'm not ready to trade in my programmer hat for a web designer hat, this book has given me a better feel for generating a good-looking design.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone trying to really design nice looking web content. I also can't wait to get a chance to read the sequel to this book.