Essential Guide to CSS and HTML Web Design

Designing for the Web is a wonderful thing. The ability to publish something and have it appear immediately and globally is an empowering feeling. I'll never forget the first rush I felt when, as a print designer, I could simply "e;upload"e; some files and have them be immediately visible, rather than waiting in trepidation for the boxes to return from the printer. Back then the Web was simpler, there were fewer materials and tools, and "e;styling"e; was something you hacked together using bizarre hacks and workarounds to achieve even the simplest of tasks. The browser landscape was equally testing. Now we're in a much better position. We have a wonderful thing called CSS that allows us to style pages with concise style rules and leave the HTML to describe the content, not the pr- entation. Content can be repurposed for different media. But anyone keen to learn web design (from scratch, or to improve their existing skills) has a bewildering job on their hands. The publishing market is saturated with good books on web design, HTML, and CSS. Yet if you were asked for a single book that encompasses all three, and that someone could understand without assuming any prior "e;Internet knowledge,"e; what would you recommend? Still trying to think of one? A regular contributor to . net/Practical Web Design magazine, Craig Grannell has written The Essential Guide to CSS and HTML Web Design for this purpose.