Back in January, I got to spend some quality time talking shop over coffee with my good friend Dan Cederholm. He mentioned to me he was writing a new book. No more than a handshake and a latte later I had the honor of being on board as technical editor for the book. It is called Handcrafted CSS: More Bulletproof Web Design and comes out next month. No comment on the rumors that Dan’s latte might have been spiked.
I’ve been reading Dan’s books for years. I bought both Web Standards Solutions & Bulletproof Web Design right when each came out, and each has been extremely influential in my work. Dan doesn’t just tell you how to implement a solution, but also why we might consider doing it that particular way, and what are the pitfalls of some of the other methods. That kind of stuff is hard to do, but Dan does it so extremely well.
This new book is a little different in that it jumps right into details of how we can make websites better through craftsmanship. It takes a forward-looking view of some of the fancy new methods and tools we can be using and how to use those tools in such a way that degrades nicely for browsers that, shall we say, aren’t quite as forward-looking.
It gets better. Ethan Marcotte, the Unstoppable Robot Ninja from Cambridge, wrote a delightfully magical chapter about fluid grids. It will melt your brain in all the right ways.
One exciting part that I had zero hand in is an accompanying DVD, called Handcrafted CSS: Bulletproof Essentials. They come bundled or separately, your call.
It was truly an honor to edit this book. While I was working on it, I kept thinking, “I cannot wait for people to get their hands on this.” It was a great experience for me and I believe the final result is worth a few of your hard-earned dollars.
More information can be found at the companion site and Twitter feed. Also, check out Dan’s announcement, on his blog, and Ethan’s, on his.
Last note: I don’t get any royalties from the publisher or anything, but the links to Amazon in here are referral links. So if you order via these links, I’ll get a few dimes or so. Many thanks if you do!
Be Good Not Bad is all about really good web design, based on the utmost respect for web standards, accessibility and respect for the user. Based in Denver, Colorado, Be Good Not Bad is run by Brian Warren, freelance designer, blogger, homebrewer and coffee nut.
Amazing opportunity. Working with some folks who possess serious talent and skill is always an honor.
And can’t wait to pour over it, Brian.
Congratulations. (pre-ordered).
§ By Luke Dorny at 7:08pm on July 02 2009
Good thing I didn’t order this earlier today so that I could use your referral link! I’m looking forward to reading this and watching the DVD. This will definitely be a good addition to the library. Thanks Brian, and congrats on lending your expertise to the production of this book!
§ By Eric Nance at 12:08am on July 03 2009
Denver knows how to serve a gooood latte
Thanks for the post, Brian—and your excellent work on the book!
§ By Dan Cederholm at 5:47pm on July 03 2009
Thanks for posting the link! I already own the other books, and I’m sure I’ll pre-order this on my next Amazon Ordering-spree.
I’m especially looking forward to reading “The Flexible Grid”-chapter
§ By koew at 11:34am on July 06 2009
A hard-earned and well-deserved honor, Brian. Can’t wait to see the book!
§ By Andrew Hedges at 9:16pm on July 16 2009
Thanks for posting the link! I already own the other books, and I’m sure I’ll pre-order this on my next Amazon Ordering-spree.
§ By Turkelf at 7:37pm on July 19 2009
Thanks for sharing this looks like a great book to get stuck into on CSS, thanks for the link.
§ By Swansea web designer at 8:43am on October 16 2009
Saw this in another article and thought it was relevant -
“web developers and open-web proponents alike will be happy to hear that quite a few new features in CSS 3 have made their way into Firefox 3.6. Firefox now supports the background-size property as well as some cool tricks for handling background images with CSS.”
This gives us hope that the future, css3 is closer than we thought!! happy days :D
§ By Rich Rutter at 11:43am on February 15 2010