Beginning CSS3 (pdf)

CSS3 is the latest version of Cascading Style Sheets, the language that in the hands of a skilled designer turns the ugly duckling of unadorned HTML into the gracious swan of a sophisticated web page. Some web designers will tell you dismissively that CSS3 won’t be ready for years. In one sense, they’re right. Instead of one massive speci cation, CSS3 has been broken up into more than 40 modules, some of which are unlikely to gain formal approval for a long time. But the rst modules are already complete, while others have reached a high level of stability and are widely implemented by browsers. What’s more, CSS3 embraces the whole of the previous version, CSS2.1, a formal standard that’s supported by all browsers in widespread use. is book covers not only the new parts of CSS3, but also those inherited from CSS2.1. Even ancient browsers, such as Internet Explorer (IE) 6 and 7, support most of CSS2.1. So, you’ll nd large parts of this book relevant even if you still need to support older browsers. Because CSS is constantly evolving, this book inevitably represents a snapshot in time (August 2012). But I’ve tried to structure the content in such a way that it will remain relevant even when new modules begin to mature. New modules will add extra features rather than supersede what’s covered in this book. In addition to all the visual properties of CSS2.1, it covers stable features from the following CSS3 modules: CSS3 Selectors CSS3 Color CSS3 Values and Units Media Queries (for responsive web design) CSS3 Backgrounds and Borders CSS3 Text CSS3 Fonts CSS3 Image Values and Replaced Content (gradients) CSS Multi-column Layout CSS Transforms CSS Transitions CSS Animations CSS Flexible Box Layout