Book Review: Eric Meyer on CSS

Eric Meyer on CSS
by Eric A. Meyer (New Riders, 2002)

Almost everything I know about CSS came from one of Eric Meyer's books. He was one of the earliest CSS gurus, still one of the best, and most experienced designers have probably seen one of his books.

While Eric's previous books have generally been references, this is his first tutorial book. It takes a "learn by doing" approach with 13 complete projects.

Audience

This book is not for HTML beginners, and the introduction makes this clear. You should be pretty good with HTML and have a basic understanding of CSS before you attempt these projects.

The introduction also makes it clear that the projects in this book are not for Netscape 4.x or Internet Explorer 4.x. Since a great deal of messy workarounds are required to accommodate them, and their userbase continues to shrink, I agree that it's time for books to focus on the elegant possibilities of the version 5-6 browsers.

Content

Unlike some tutorial books that rush through projects, seeming more like a recipe book than a learning tool, Meyer takes his time with each project. Each begins with a clear explanation of the theory, and when the actual code is presented it is interspersed with detailed explanations.

The following projects are included:

• Project 1: Converting an Existing Page starts with an old-school HTML page and demonstrates how to convert it to standards-compliant CSS.
• Project 2: Styling a Press Release starts with text and adds HTML and CSS to create an elegantly styled document.
• Project 3: Styling an Events Calendar tackles a more difficult project.
• Project 4: Bringing Hyperlinks to Life starts with another simple HTML document, which is converted to use CSS formatting and some professional link styles.
• Project 5: How to Skin a Menu demonstrates one of the most common uses for CSS - a styled vertical menu like the one this site uses.
• Project 6: Styling for Print discusses an often-overlooked aspect of CSS: setting up printer styles so that hardcopies of pages will look as good as their online counterparts.
• Project 7: Making an Input Form Look Good applies some basic CSS to improve the appearance of an HTML form.
• Project 8: Creating an Online Greeting Card discusses how to combine text and graphics to good effect.
• Project 9: Multicolumn Layout implements a traditional 3-column page layout without the use of tables.
• Project 10: Sneaking Out of the Box further explores the frontiers of table-free design, even demonstrating how to make text follow the curve of a graphic.
• Project 11: Positioning a Better Design presents some advanced table-free layout techniques, and the browser bugs that you run into when you use them.
• Project 12: Fixing Your Backgrounds discusses some techniques for working with background images. This project may not work in all browsers since it pushes the limits of their CSS support.
• Project 13: Eric Meyer on CSS in CSS is a very entertaining exercise in introspection: Here Meyer reproduces, as closely as possible, the elegant design of this book on a Web page.  It deals with everything from code listings to screen shots and captions, and the end result is impressive. (The inclusion of the actual chapter's text in the examples is a nice touch.)

The Web site

As with many books these days, this one provides a companion Web site in lieu of an included CD-ROM. You'll need the site to get the graphics, HTML, and other components for projects, some of which are not included in the book in their entirety.

Fortunately, this Web site lives up to the book's promises. The project files are there, available individually or in .ZIP and .SIT archives. There is a list of errata for the book, updates from the author, and even some bonus material that didn't fit into the printed book.

Conclusion

If you know a bit of CSS but need practice, this book will be very helpful. You may also find some useful ideas for your site from skimming it - I know I have. In addition to the technical details, there's some good insight into the art of design in each project.

Here's hoping Eric Meyer continues to produce great CSS books.

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