CSS Archive

6 Useful CSS Button Recipes You Can Copy & Paste

April 8th, 2011 53 Comments

CSS3 is completely changing the game for creating buttons on the web. Techniques that were once only possible with images are now easily executable with just a few lines of code. For this post we custom built six attractively styled CSS buttons for you to copy and paste right into your projects, zero attribution required.

As with anything good in CSS3, the buttons below work great in Webkit and Mozilla browsers, but various versions of IE will fall short.

Holiday Wish List: 15 Web Design Books You’ll Want for Christmas

November 11th, 2010 22 Comments

As the holidays quickly approach so does the obligatory and awkward question always asked by friends and family: “What do you want for Christmas?” This year, rather than shrugging your shoulders, a gesture which always leads to you receiving ugly shirts that don’t fit, why not ask for something you’re actually interested in?

Below you’ll find 20 awesome web design and development books to add to your 2010 holiday wish list.

CSS3 Cookbook: 7 Super Easy CSS Recipes to Copy and Paste

October 20th, 2010 55 Comments

By now you’ve probably seen enough lengthy CSS3 tutorials to last a lifetime. You’re probably starting to become familiar with what CSS3 has to offer and are ready to move past basic theory and see some practical design examples that you can copy and paste right into your code without without wading through tons of commentary.

Well you’re in luck because that’s exactly what we have for you today! Below you’ll find seven fun and attractive CSS tricks that you can grab and insert right into your own projects and customize at will. Keep in mind that since this stuff is still cutting edge, older browsers won’t support most of it. I’ve tried to ensure graceful degradation where possible so that you can provide a working experience to all users and a better experience to those with using webkit.

Introducing the LESS CSS Grid

October 13th, 2010 42 Comments

In the past we’ve taken a look at several CSS grid systems. We’ve also gone over how LESS.js can add a lot of flexibility to the way you style web pages. Today we’re going to combine these two ideas and create a grid system that utilizes LESS.

Read on to see why on Earth we would do such a thing. If you understand the concept, you can also skip the tutorial and go straight to the download. Let’s get started.

35 Awesome Fluid and Elastic Layout Examples, Templates and Tutorials

October 1st, 2010 12 Comments

Fluid and elastic layouts are extremely useful for creating websites that function perfectly on a wide variety of screen resolutions. However, they can be a bit tricky to wrap your mind around when you’re just starting out.

To aid you in your quest to understand these tools, we’ve rounded up as many examples, templates, tutorials, and frameworks as we could find. Whether you’re a fluid layout pro looking for some fresh design ideas or a complete novice that doesn’t know where to begin, there’s something here for you!

Create Complex Layouts in Minutes With EZ-CSS

September 30th, 2010 15 Comments

If you’re like many developers, you’ve had your fill of grid-based CSS frameworks. Well you’re in luck because today we’re going to look at a fresh take on the concept of a CSS framework.

EZ-CSS seeks to address many of the things you hate about grid-based frameworks while retaining the functionality of aiding in the creating of cross-browser multi-column layouts.

Free 960.GS CSS Photography Template and Tutorial

September 22nd, 2010 40 Comments

Love it or hate it, the 960.gs makes for some incredibly fast prototyping. By utilizing preset classes you can accomplish fairly complex layouts with little to no effort.

Today we bring you a free single-page template, fully coded using the 960.gs. The template has a few nifty CSS3 effects and uses @font-face to implement some beautiful custom typography. Below you’ll find the download and a basic step-by-step tutorial for how to build your own.

You can download the template completely free of charge and use it however you like with zero attribution.

Create a Fun Animated Navigation Menu With Pure CSS

August 26th, 2010 78 Comments

In recent years jQuery has become the easiest and best supported way to implement simple animations online. JavaScript is exceptionally good at what it does and this article is in no way an argument against it.

However, CSS3 offers a glimpse into a possible future where basic animations are performed with straight CSS completely independent of scripting. Today we’ll take a look at how to use CSS3 to create a fun and unique navigation menu that uses @font-face, transforms and transitions.

715 Awesomely Simple and Free CSS Layouts

August 24th, 2010 50 Comments

Frustrated with the quality of free CSS templates online but aren’t quite to the level of building your own? Tired of spending hours trying to customize lame pre-fab designs?

Today we bring you over seven hundred freely downloadable CSS templates that focus on providing you with only a basic layout to build upon. Using these cross-browser layouts you can avoid endless CSS positioning woes and focus on what you’re good at: design.

Using eCSStender to Clean Up Your CSS

August 19th, 2010 8 Comments

Recently we looked at how to use LESS.js to enhance your CSS and save you tons of development time. Today we’ll look at eCSStender, another JavaScript tool that enables you to implement complicated CSS3 properties with very little code.

eCSStender can be a bit confusing to figure out on your own but once you figure it all out it will literally take you less than a minute to install and use. Below I’ll walk you through building a basic example that uses a number of eCSStender extensions.