These are great times for front-end developers. After months of exaggerated excitement2 about HTML5 and CSS3, the web design community now starts coming up with CSS techniques that actually put newly available technologies to practical use instead of abusing them for pure aesthetic purposes3. We see fewer “pure CSS images” and more advanced, clever CSS techniques that can actually improve the Web browsing experience of users. And that’s a good thing! In this post we [...]

We have taken notice of how many designers are reluctant to embrace the new technologies such as CSS3 or HTML5 because of the lack of full cross-browser support for these technologies. Many designers are complaining about the numerous ways how the lack of cross-browser compatibility is effectively holding us back and tying our hands — keeping us from completely being able to shine and show off the full scope of our abilities in our work. [...]

When the CSS1 specification was drafted in the mid to late 90s, it introduced !important declarations that would help developers and users easily override normal specificity when making changes to their stylesheets. For the most part, !important declarations have remained the same, with only one change in CSS2.1 and nothing new added or altered in the CSS3 spec in connection with this unique declaration. Let’s take a look at what exactly these kinds of declarations [...]

Navigation is a critical aspect of any website. Many larger sites use drop down menus in effort to make it easier for visitors to find what they are looking for. In this post we will feature 25 scripts that you can use on your own sites for jQuery drop down menus. Sexy Drop Down Menu with jQuery and CSS How to Create a Drop Down Nav Menu with HTML5, CSS3, and jQuery Mega Drop Down [...]

By Jeffrey Way Far too many novice CSS designers don’t realize the importance of creating a “reset.css” file. When you have an environment where each browser has its own “default” styling, you’ll often find yourself thumping your skull as you ask yourself, “Why is there a spacing here?” To save yourself some of the headaches that you’ll undoubtedly experience, you’ll need to create your own simple reset file. The problem with using one of the [...]

DO NOT use too many different font faces on the page You may have 1,000+ fonts downloaded on your computer, but when they’re being displayed all on the screen at the same time, you’re not going to have many people impressed. Not only will this cause your website visitors to have a hard time reading, it’s also going to just make you look tacky. DO NOT switch from serif and sans serif fonts multiple times [...]