If you’re out on search of a great and actually useful CSS-based design book, then search no more, you just found it!

“Bulletproof Web Design“, well written by Dan Cederhold, has the following caption, which I believe sums it all up : Improving flexibility and protecting against worst-case scenarios with XHTML and CSS. So what does it mean?

This particular book puts in test some of the most widely used techniques of web design. You want navigation bars? Content boxes? Fluid layouts? It covers them all. The innovation that this book adopts is that it first covers the main, table-centred design techniques that were widely used till today, states its problems and caveats, and then it recreates the exact same effects using pure CSS.

Apart from the fact that it explains step-by-step the CSS process, “Bulletproof Web Design” teaches safe, adapting web design even in extreme conditions (which may not be so extreme after all). The outcome is really bulletproof, safe and accessible code that covers most of the features a web designer may use in a website.

Things I Loved

• Simple and understandable at-a-glance chapter layout.
• Simplified language and reduced use of technical terms, friendly content even to beginners.
• Extensive use of images to further explain the content and guide the reader.
• Complete CSS conversion of some of the most commonly used web snippets.
• A hands-on book that actually teaches CSS techniques.

Things I’m Skeptical about

• Maybe the fact that it’s not teaching you CSS hands-on, or exhaustively. It provides already acquainted with stylesheets designers with a range of great tips and code snippets to make those pesky layers work. Not for the beginner, in my opinion.

Stating my personal opinion now ; I really loved this book. It’s short and so useful, almost a guide that any web designer keen on CSS techniques must have by his side while coding. “Bulletproof Web Design” is definitely an educational book, and a damn good one too.