Whether you’re a beginner or bringing your skills up to date, this book gives you a solid footing in
modern web production. I teach each topic visually at a pleasant pace, with frequent exercises
to let you try out new skills. Reading it feels like sitting in my classroom! —Jennifer Robbins
Learning
Web Design
A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO HTML, CSS,
JAVASCRIPT, AND WEB GRAPHICS
Jennifer Niederst Robbins
“Unlike all the other books that start at the beginning, this one
will get you to the good stu, fast. Jennifer will explain every
step you need, including some very advanced concepts.”
—JEN SIMMONS, MOZILLA AND W3C CSS WORKING GROUP
5TH EDITION
Fifth Edition
LEARNING WEB DESIGN
A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO HTML, CSS,
JAVASCRIPT, AND WEB GRAPHICS
Jennifer Niederst Robbins
Beijing • Boston • Farnham • Sebastopol • Tokyo
Learning Web Design, Fifth Edition
A Beginner’s Guide to HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Web Graphics
by Jennifer Niederst Robbins
Copyright © 2018 O’Reilly Media, Inc. All rights reserved.
Printed in Canada.
Published by O’Reilly Media, Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472.
O’Reilly Media books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. Online editions are also avail-
able for most titles (oreilly.com/safari). For more information, contact our corporate/institutional sales department: 800-998-
9938 or corporate@oreilly.com.
EDITORS: Meg Foley and Jeff Bleiel
PRODUCTION EDITOR: Kristen Brown
COVER DESIGNER: Edie Freedman
INTERIOR DESIGNER: Jennifer Robbins
PRINT HISTORY:
March 2001: First edition.
June 2003: Second edition.
June 2007: Third edition.
August 2012: Fourth edition.
May 2018: Fifth edition.
The O’Reilly logo is a registered trademark of O’Reilly Media, Inc. “O’Reilly Digital Studio” and related trade dress are
trademarks of O’ReillyMedia, Inc. Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Elements, HomeSite, and Fireworks are either regis-
tered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. Microsoft and
Expression Web are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other
countries. Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trade-
marks. Where those designations appear in this book, and O’ReillyMedia, Inc. was aware of a trademark claim, the designa-
tions have been printed in caps or initial caps.
While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for
errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.
ISBN: 978-1-491-96020-2
[TI] [2018-04-16]
CONTENTS
FOREWORD .................................................................................................... xi
PREFACE ....................................................................................................... xiii
Part I. GETTING STARTED
1. Getting Started in Web Design ..........................................3
Where Do I Start? ............................................................................. 4
It Takes a Village (Website Creation Roles) ........................................ 4
Gearing Up for Web Design ............................................................ 14
What You’ve Learned ...................................................................... 20
Test Yourself ................................................................................... 20
2. How the Web Works ........................................................ 21
The Internet Versus the Web ........................................................... 21
Serving Up Your Information .......................................................... 22
A Word About Browsers .................................................................. 23
Web Page Addresses (URLs) ............................................................ 24
The Anatomy of a Web Page ............................................................ 27
Putting It All Together ..................................................................... 32
Test Yourself ................................................................................... 34
3. Some Big Concepts You Need to Know ............................ 35
A Multitude of Devices ................................................................... 36
Sticking with the Standards ............................................................. 38
Progressive Enhancement ................................................................ 38
iii
