Design books

Everything you need to know to create professional web sites is right here. Learning Web Design starts from the beginning -- defining how the Web and web pages work -- and builds from there. By the end of the book, you'll have the skills to create multi-column CSS layouts with optimized graphic files, and you'll know how to get your pages up on the Web.
This thoroughly revised edition teaches you how to build web sites according to modern design practices and professional standards. Learning Web Design explains:

• How to create a simple (X)HTML page, how to add links and images
• Everything you need to know about web standards -- (X)HTML, DTDs, and more
• Cascading Style Sheets -- formatting text, colors and backgrounds, using the box model, page layout, and more
• All about web graphics, and how to make them lean and mean through optimization
• The site development process, from start to finish
• Getting your pages on the Web -- hosting, domain names, and FTP

The book includes exercises to help you to learn various techniques, and short quizzes to make sure you're up to speed with key concepts. If you're interested in web design, Learning Web Design is the place to start.

Basics of Web Design: HTML, XHTML, and CSS is intended for use in a beginning web design or web development course. The text covers the basics that web designers need to develop their skills:

• Internet and Web concepts overview
• Create web pages with XHTML and HTML5
• Configure color and text with CSS
• Configure page layout with CSS
• Configure images and multimedia
• Explore new CSS3 properties
• Apply Web Design Best Practices
• Design accessible and usable web pages
• Design for search engine optimization
• Choose a domain name
• Publish to the Web

This second edition of The Principles of Beautiful Web Design is the ideal book for people who can build websites, but are seeking the skills and knowledge to visually enhance their sites.

This book will teach you how to:

• Understand the process of what makes "good design," from discovery through to implementation
• Use color effectively, develop color schemes, and create a palette
• Create pleasing layouts using grids, the rule of thirds, and symmetry
• Employ textures: lines, points, shapes, volumes, and depth
• Apply typography to make ordinary designs look great
• Choose, edit, and position effective imagery

And lots more...

This revised, easy-to-follow guide is illustrated with beautiful, full-color examples, and leads readers through the process of creating great designs from start to finish.

It also features:

• Updated information about grid-based design
• How to design for mobile resolutions
• Information about the future of web fonts including @font-face
• Common user-interface patterns and resources

No matter how visually appealing or content packed a web site may be, if it doesn’t reach the widest possible audience, it isn’t truly successful. In Bulletproof Web Design, Third Edition, bestselling author and web designer Dan Cederholm outlines standards-based strategies for building designs that can accommodate the myriad ways users choose to view the content. Each chapter starts out with an example of an unbulletproof approach--one that employs traditional HTML-based techniques--which Dan deconstructs, pointing out its limitations. He then gives the example a makeover using HTML and CSS, so you can learn to replace bloated code with lean markup and CSS for fast-loading sites that are accessible to all users. Finally, he assembles all of the page components discussed in prior chapters into a single-page template. This fully revised and updated third edition introduces CSS3 and HTML5 methods and features redesigned case studies including new responsive design examples.

• Size text using keywords, percentages, and ems to allow more user control.

• Plan for vertical expansion of horizontal page components.

• Use floats to achieve grid-like results.

• Ensure that content is still readable in the absence of images or CSS.

• Strip the presentation from data tables, and rebuild with CSS.

• Progressively enhance your designs using HTML5 and CSS3.

• Visit the companion website at simplebits.com/bulletproof to download finished files, additional resources, and book updates.

Learn how WordPress can help you create a unique, customized Web site

Once only a platform for bloggers, WordPress is gaining popularity as a tool for creating individualized Web sites. WordPress expert Lisa Sabin-Wilson makes it easy for anyone with a basic knowledge of the WordPress software to create a custom site using complimentary technologies including CSS, HTML, and PHP. This easy-to-follow, full-color guide helps you identify the tools and technologies you need to create the site you envision, build a user-friendly navigation system, select colors and layouts, work with existing WordPress themes, and even develop your own theme to personalize your site.

• WordPress offers a versatile tool for building customized Web sites; this full-color book walks you through the process, explains the complimentary technologies involved, and shows you how to select colors, fonts, and themes
• Case studies illustrate the process and the effects that can be achieved
• Shows how to incorporate WordPress templates, graphic design principles, HTML, CSS, and PHP to build a truly one-of-a-kind Web site

If you know how to use WordPress software to create a blog, WordPress Web Design For Dummies will enable you to quickly and easily construct a unique Web site for your business, organization, or personal use.

Are you still designing web sites like it's 1999? If so, you're in for a surprise. Since the last edition of this book appeared five years ago, there has been a major climate change with regard to web standards. Designers are no longer using (X)HTML as a design tool, but as a means of defining the meaning and structure of content. Cascading Style Sheets are no longer just something interesting to tinker with, but rather a reliable method for handling all matters of presentation, from fonts and colors to the layout of the entire page. In fact, following the standards is now a mandate of professional web design.

Our popular reference, Web Design in a Nutshell, is one of the first books to capture this new web landscape with an edition that's been completely rewritten and expanded to reflect the state of the art. In addition to being an authoritative reference for (X)HTML and Cascading Style Sheets, this book also provides an overview of the unique requirements of designing for the Web and gets to the nitty-gritty of JavaScript and DOM Scripting, web graphics optimization, and multimedia production. It is an indispensable tool for web designers and developers of all levels.

The third edition covers these contemporary web design topics:

• Structural layer: HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.0 (9 chapters), including an alphabetical reference of all elements, attributes and character entities
• Presentation layer: Ten all-new chapters on Cascading Style Sheets, Level 2.1, including an alphabetical reference of all properties and values.
• Behavior layer: JavaScript and scripting with the Document Object Model (DOM)
• Web environment: New web standards, browsers, display devices, accessibility, and internationalization
• Web graphics optimization: Producing lean and mean GIF, JPEG, PNG, and animated GIFs
• Multimedia: Web audio, video, Flash, and PDF

Organized so that readers can find answers quickly, Web Design in a Nutshell, Third Edition helps experienced designers come up to speed quickly on standards-based web design, and serves as a quick reference for those already familiar with the new standards and technology.

There are many books for web designers, but none that address such a wide variety of topics. Find out why nearly half a million buyers have made this the most popular web design book available.

Want to know how to make your pages look beautiful, communicate your message effectively, guide visitors through your website with ease, and get everything approved by the accessibility and usability police at the same time? Head First Web Design is your ticket to mastering all of these complex topics, and understanding what's really going on in the world of web design.

Whether you're building a personal blog or a corporate website, there's a lot more to web design than div's and CSS selectors, but what do you really need to know? With this book, you'll learn the secrets of designing effective, user-friendly sites, from customer requirements to hand-drawn storyboards all the way to finished HTML and CSS creations that offer an unforgettable online presence.

The revised two-color edition of this book includes a free online version of the chapter on web color. You can easily access this chapter at Oreilly.com once you register your book.

Your time is way too valuable to waste struggling with new concepts. Using the latest research in cognitive science and learning theory to craft a multi-sensory learning experience, Head First Web Design uses a visually rich format specifically designed to take advantage of the way your brain really works.

This is the second edition of David Power's highly-respected PHP Solutions: Dynamic Web Design Made Easy. This new edition has been updated by David to incorporate changes to PHP since the first edition and to offer the latest techniques--a classic guide modernized for 21st century PHP techniques, innovations, and best practices.
You want to make your websites more dynamic by adding a feedback form, creating a private area where members can upload images that are automatically resized, or perhaps storing all your content in a database. The problem is, you're not a programmer and the thought of writing code sends a chill up your spine. Or maybe you've dabbled a bit in PHP and MySQL, but you can't get past baby steps. If this describes you, then you've just found the right book. PHP and the MySQL database are deservedly the most popular combination for creating dynamic websites. They're free, easy to use, and provided by many web hosting companies in their standard packages.
Unfortunately, most PHP books either expect you to be an expert already or force you to go through endless exercises of little practical value. In contrast, this book gives you real value right away through a series of practical examples that you can incorporate directly into your sites, optimizing performance and adding functionality such as file uploading, email feedback forms, image galleries, content management systems, and much more. Each solution is created with not only functionality in mind, but also visual design.
But this book doesn't just provide a collection of ready-made scripts: each PHP Solution builds on what's gone before, teaching you the basics of PHP and database design quickly and painlessly. By the end of the book, you'll have the confidence to start writing your own scripts or--if you prefer to leave that task to others--to adapt existing scripts to your own requirements. Right from the start, you're shown how easy it is to protect your sites by adopting secure coding practices.

Joel Sklar has written the definitive text for Web site design, PRINCIPLES OF WEB DESIGN, Fifth Edition guiding readers through the entire Web site creation process, while developing and enhancing your HTML, CSS, and visual design skills along the way. Now updated to include the latest Web design technologies and trends, this Fifth Edition features all-new sections on HTML5, CSS3, CSS page layouts, and enhanced navigation as well as technical updates and new screen shots throughout. Beginning with the Web design environment and the principles of sound Web design, readers will continue to planning site layout and navigation, and progress to Web typography, colors and images, working with CSS, and more. Armed with a priceless understanding and plenty of hands-on activities, readers will gain a solid foundation of designing successful, standards-based Web sites that are portable across different operating systems, browsers, and Web devices. Companion site available at no additional cost www.joelsklar.com/pwd5.

Web designers must wear many hats. Among books on Web design, Web Design All-in-One For Dummies is the one that helps you successfully wear all those hats without losing your head.

Full-color illustrations and five self-contained minibooks show you how to be a graphic designer, creative organizer, visual communicator, markup language technologist, and cutting-edge trendsetter, all in one. This book helps you lay the groundwork, follow design rules, test your site, register a domain name, and much more.

• Getting Started covers planning, defining your target audience, choosing the right software, and more
• Designing For the Web acquaints you with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, plus how to choose a layout and optimize graphics
• Building Web Sites gets down to nuts and bolts: putting text, images, hyperlinks, and multimedia files together, organizing content, and building navigation systems
• Web Standards & Testing teaches you how to test and validate so everyone can enjoy your site
• Publishing & Site Maintenance helps you get your site online and keep it current

Web Design All-in-One For Dummies also helps you learn how to choose a Web editor and graphics program, how to make your site accessible to the widest possible audience, and when it’s time to call in a pro like author Sue Jenkins. It’s just what you need to start and manage a great site.