Great value - probably too short
I really like this book. It is EXACTLY what I seek in a design/development book. I want examples, code and explanation. Nothing more.
I've been doing this stuff for 7 years, so much of this wasn't particularly new to me, but the value is in seeing what experts think (and why) and then taking what you want from it. No cruft; just good solutions.
My only gripe is that it could be considerably longer. The book covers 7 topics really well. I'd like at least 10 more, please. I'm sure this is the most common complaint. Additionally, I could do without the fancy book layout design, but I guess it doesn't hurt.
Definite value here. It's next to my desk all the time and I use almost all of their techniques in my projects. It's disappointing that more publishers don't create this kind of book.
Very short, disappointing
I think there are many books that cover this ground a lot better and cheaper as well. Friends of Ed actually has a couple that I would recommend before this. And most certainly Bulletproof Web Design by Cederholm.
This book is really light on details and light on content. It's not at all worth its price, and it's only covering the very basics in a small number of areas. This is definitely not one of the first books you should be looking at about CSS.
Good book
There are many excellent tips and workarounds offered in this book. I have been working with CSS for a few years now but as it is a moving technology, one can never be "ahead." The authors do a good job of bringing newer tips and tricks forward along with offering some useful workarounds for cross-browser issues.
Great for inspiration but not a good starting point for beginners
The Art & Science of CSS is a good book if you looking for creative ideas or inspiration for CSS but while the book says all you need to is some familiarity with HTML, you do need to know some basic knowledge of CSS. This book would be a good addition to you web design library but only after you learn the basics of CSS from another book.
A book to the more experienced ones.
I've bought and already finished to read this book.
I'm a interface developer with a good background into CSS and XHTML; i think that this book was not written to somebody interested into the fundamentals and step-by-step of the CSS.
It's a collection of code-based insights (for each chapter, 2 or 3 progressive explanations) from the authors; it's amazing if you (like me, when i bought it) are searching for some inspirational examples, relying on standards to achieve impressive visual results.
This book also encloses some aspects of CSS 3, and how it will unequivocally improve the standards-based design, with things like multiple backgrounds, table pseudo-classes, and others, even before the integral adoption of this standard into the mainstream browsers. It put the reader one step ahead, acknowledger of the future possibilities of CSS.
I highly recommend this book. But if you are searching for something less visionary and more instructive, you'll need to search other options.
