The Smashing Book review continued

Part 2 Typography and CSS layouts

As I am back to commuting, I have read two more chapters of the Smashing book ( I thought I would read it over the break, but there were just too many trashy novels to get through!). Both chapters are excellent overviews of their chosen topics and I learned a lot from them.

So on to the review………

Web Typography: Rules, Guidelines And Common Mistakes

The chapter on typography, as used on web pages, is concise yet thorough – everything I wanted the  colour chapter to be and makes up for my disappointment there. There is just enough history to whet the appetite but no drown the reader (yeah I know, bad pun). Terms are clearly explained and the the writers’ passion for the subject came through strongly. Clear explanations and illuminating examples plus some excellent links for the reader to really get stuck into the topic.

The Art And Science Of CSS Layouts

This is another piece of writing showing understanding of not only to the topic, but how to convey it to other people. The pros and cons of how different  layout decisions and how behave when viewed on different screen sizes is discussed in great detail and once again, the examples add greatly to the text and the links provided are excellent for seeing how this important know-how has been built up bit by bit over the last 5 years.

If you don’t already have the book, you can still buy it at http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/12/03/smashing-book-its-out-now for around US$30 or 34euro which ever is cheaper in your currency

If you want to see the quality of the material in the links, the team at Smashing has kindly made the entire set of links, arranged chapter by chapter at http://smashing-links.com/ . There is a list of errata at the bottom of the page.