Cascading Style Sheets, Third Edition (Håkon Wium Lie, Bert Bos)

Direct from the creators of CSS, this is the definitive reference to CSS 2.1, today's indispensable standard for controlling the appearance of any Web or XML document. This full-color book doesn't just show how to use every significant CSS 1 and 2.x feature; it carefully explains the "why" behind today's most valuable CSS design techniques. You'll find practical, downloadable examples throughout – along with essential browser support information and best practices for building high-impact pages and applications.

Cascading Style Sheets: Designing for the Web, Third Edition covers every CSS 2.1 improvement and fix, from new height/width definitions in absolutely positioned elements to new clip property calculations. Clear, readable, and thorough, it's the one must-have CSS resource for every Web developer, designer, and content provider.

Coverage includes:

• Mastering essential CSS concepts: rules, declarations, selectors, properties, and more
• Working with type: from absolute/relative units to font size and weight
• Understanding CSS objects: box model, display properties, list styles, and more
• Exercising total control over spacing and positioning
• Specifying colors for borders and backgrounds
• Managing printing: margins, page breaks, and more
• Implementing media-specific style sheets for audio rendering, handhelds, and other forms of presentation
• Moving from HTML extensions to CSS: five practical case studies
• Making the most of cascading and inheritance
• Using external style sheets and @import
• Integrating CSS with XML documents
• Optimizing the performance of CSS pages
• Includes a handy CSS Quick Reference Card

About the Authors

• Bert Bos was, in 1994, one of the original authors of CSS, together with Hakon. He joined W3C in 1995 to set up W3C's Internationalization activity, and, of course, to work on style sheets. He is now the coordinator for W3C's style sheet activities. He studied mathematics in Groningen, the Netherlands and holds a Ph.D. from that university. He once wrote a Web browser and is very interested in the Semantic Web.
• Hakon Wium Lie proposed the concept of CSS in 1994 and, as a W3C staff member, worked with Bert to write the CSS specifications. Hakon is now the CTO of Opera Software where his job is to make sure the Opera browser works better than the one you know. Hakon holds an M.S. degree from the MIT Media Laboratory.

Table of Contents

1. The Web and HTML
2. CSS
3. The Amazing Em Unit and Other Best Practices
4. CSS Selectors
5. Fonts
6. The Fundamental Objects
7. Space Inside Boxes
8. Space Around Boxes
9. Relative and Absolute Positioning
10. Colors
11. Printing and Other Media
12. From HTML Extensions to CSS
13. Cascading and Inheritance
14. External Style Sheets
15. Other Approaches
16. XML Documents
17. Tables
18. The CSS Saga
19. HTML 4.0 Quick Reference
Appendix A: System Colors