
Ask HN: Can you recommend advanced books on CSS? - zygimantasdev
Hello HN!<p>was wondering if you could recommend up-to-date books, similar material on CSS which go over best practices, advanced topics. For some reason they are hard to find. Thanks!
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OtterCoder
CSS is an art in a very literal sense. Once you know the basic technique a
book won't help you as much as seeing examples in the wild and trying to
reverse engineer them. To learn the nitty-gritty nuts and bolts of CSS, try
reading the CSS-Tricks blog and digging into the documentation on MDN.

Finally, to truly master CSS, learn the art of brevity. Most stylesheets I see
are terribly bloated and over specified. Always ask, "Can I do this in fewer
declarations? Do I really need all of these constraints? Is there a single
style that will work smoothly across all sizes without media queries?"

Learn that, and you won't need a book.

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zygimantasdev
Thanks for the tips! Already had been trying to understand css tricks - but
always looking for more relevant information in one place - a book.

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ryanlm
I think you're better off reading the box model spec.

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zygimantasdev
Thanks for the answer. I will check it - never thought of doing that!

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percept
You might try: [https://abookapart.com/](https://abookapart.com/)

I read their _Responsive Web Design_ title a while back and found it helpful
and concise.

I see there's a CSS3 title written by the founder of Dribbble, for example,
and updated in 2015.

This stuff changes so quickly, it may also be better to follow online, as
others have suggested.

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brudgers
Eric Meyer wrote _CSS: The Definitive Guide_. The current edition {4th} was
released section by section. It can be found here:

[http://www.oreilly.com/pub/au/52](http://www.oreilly.com/pub/au/52)

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purans
CSS Mastery is a good one - [https://www.amazon.com/CSS-Mastery-Advanced-
Standards-Soluti...](https://www.amazon.com/CSS-Mastery-Advanced-Standards-
Solutions/dp/1430223979)

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zygimantasdev
Thanks - will check it out. Although from a quick glimpse at the reviews it
seems a little bit outdated.

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Hamatti
One of my favorite books is Lea Verou's CSS Secrets [0].

[0]
[http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920031123.do](http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920031123.do)

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zygimantasdev
Looks really good. Thanks!

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codegeek
Not a book necessarily but I really like this css reference:

[http://tympanus.net/codrops/css_reference/](http://tympanus.net/codrops/css_reference/)

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zygimantasdev
Looks really good. Thank you!

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adamnemecek
Check out smacss [https://smacss.com](https://smacss.com)

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zygimantasdev
Will check it out - thanks

