Announcing Handcrafted CSS: More Bulletproof Web Design

Jul 02, 2009

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.