Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML, by Eric Freeman and Elisabeth Freeman

April 30, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: book review, International bestseller, Non-fiction, web design 

This is currently the #1 book on the amazon bestseller list for computer and Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML internet books under the headings CSS and HTML. And deservedly so! The “Head First” series by O’Reilly has a lot of good books. And with this books, they have managed yet again to create a great book for people wanting to learn CSS, Web design and HTML the right way!

Head First HTML with CSS & XHTM breaks down elements of HTML, XHTML, and CSS so that it beomes possible figure out what is going on and what needs to be done in web page design using these technologies. Also, this is a great choice for a textbook if you need to upgrade your skills!

This book covers the basics of HTML, putting your webpage on the Internet and linking to other web resources. It also tackles XHTML. Next, it introduces CSS along with the properties that can be controlled via CSS. And it does it all in a plain, nice way with lots of illustrations.

The authors show you how to do pretty advanced layouts using the tools available to you without you even noticing that you’ve been “studying”.

The book’s final chapter is appropriately entitled “The Top Ten Topics We Didn’t Cover”, and thus acknowledges that this is not an advanced book on webpage design.

Links to this book at Amazon US and amazon UK.

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The Non-Designer’s Web Book, 3rd Edition, by Robin Williams

February 14, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: book review, Non-fiction, web design 

While the second edition of The Non-Designer’s Web Book won’t The Non-Designer's Web Book, by Robin Williamsanswer all of your technical questions about the inner workings of the Web, it explains most of what a beginning designer needs to know: what the Web is, how it gets to your computer, how to use it, and, most of all, how to design for it.
Any artist can tell you that you have to know how a medium works to get the most impact from working in it.

A basic understanding of how the Web works enables the good designer to create the most effective sites. This book thoroughly discusses the different kinds of graphics that are used on the Web, when to use one over another, how to make the most of text styles, and how to design navigation systems.

The comparisons are the best stuff here–good design vs. bad design, why designing Web pages is different from designing printed pages, and why a site looks terrific on one monitor but terrible on another. Two chapters on properly preparing graphics and setting typography for use on a Web site describe how to avoid obvious mistakes that would make your work look amateurish.

Not limited to design, the Non-Designer’s Web Book shows how to get a site up and running, register the domain name, and add it to search engines. After the design is finished and implemented, the site has to be uploaded and updated; this is explained, too.

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