Joan León This compilation of CSS books aims to give my opinion on some of the CSS books we can find. So I hope these reviews are useful to you.
There are many options to learn or study something. In the case we’re looking at, we can do it through articles, online courses, in-person courses, digital books or physical books.
Personally, I much prefer the physical format. And as proof of that, here’s a photo of the CSS books I have.
I also have some in digital format, since many technical books are only published in that format.
I believe that to learn, internalize and form your own opinion, you have to read, read a lot. Having the point of view of several people will enrich our knowledge and strengthen our opinion.
Why Learn with Books?
We still have a culture of learning through reading, whether it’s books, documentation or articles (as you’re doing now). I don’t deny there are many other learning channels, but as a self-taught person, I’ve relied heavily on this type of learning.
From my point of view, a technical book is a format that’s reviewed extensively, both the content, the level (well, we’ll talk about that) and the communication language.
Reviews
01 | CSS The Definitive Guide
By Eric A. Meyer and Estelle Weyl
The first feeling you might get when seeing this title is that it follows the pattern of many articles like: “The definitive guide to {your-favorite-framework}”, but it really is a very complete CSS guide, and allowing for the distance of being updated to the most current CSS properties, it is considered the definitive guide. Let’s see what we’ll find inside.
Its 1038 pages (not counting the index) affirm that it can be confirmed as the definitive guide, and in my opinion it is. It’s a book where you’ll find a detailed explanation of most CSS properties, delving into a good explanation of each of those properties’ values.
One of the things I like most is that it uses the API information table for each property that we can find on the official specifications website. This helps us familiarize ourselves with it and be more agile in consulting the W3C’s online documentation.
It’s a reference book, where you can learn and delve into CSS properties. For example, the 3 appendices it contains will help us check which properties are animatable, default values, or the equivalence table of the 148 named colors we have in CSS.
You’ll find clear implementation examples for each property. However, don’t expect to find tricks, combinations of CSS properties to achieve many of the masterpieces we can find on sites like CodePen.
It’s a guide to know CSS properties, as they’re defined in the specification, to learn the depths of CSS, that is, to know the CSS that will make you a CSS craftsperson. Essential if you’re dedicated or want to dedicate yourself to the Frontend world.
📖 CSS: The Definitive Guide: Visual Presentation for the Web
02 | CSS Secrets
By Lea Verou
A reference among the frontend community. I think it’s a book that everyone dedicated to web development should read, at least once.
With a problem-solving approach, Lea reveals how to solve design “problems” with impressive and enviable ingenuity. Many of the examples will leave you thinking: Wow, can you do that with CSS?.
Graphically it has a style strongly influenced by good design, moving away from the austere look of most technical books, but don’t let that fool you, Lea’s technical level has led her to be part of the W3C.
It’s surprising to know the publication date, August 31, 2014, over 6 years (at the time of writing this review), and it doesn’t age.
Here we can see an example of the detail in Lea’s explanations to achieve design detail resolution.
Despite being a book that doesn’t age, I’d love to see an update, to be able to see and learn from such an ingenious person solving similar problems with the many new CSS properties that have appeared since its publication.