One Fast Buffalo

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) have changed the way designers and developers work on the web.

In the past, the shortcomings of html tied designers' hands behind their backs when it came to positioning, page layout, sizing, and color. Even someone who is not a designer can understand how challenging it could be to not have control over these very basic design principles and elements.

Over the last 8 or so years, CSS has gradually been handing design power over to designers and developers. We can now control almost as many elements as our print counterparts for static pages without choking the bandwidth of our end users.

One source I have found that illustrates the powers of CSS is the CSS Zen Garden. The website was created to show the power and versatility of CSS.

Here is how the site describes the exercise:

"There is clearly a need for CSS to be taken seriously by graphic artists. The Zen Garden aims to excite, inspire, and encourage participation. To begin, view some of the existing designs in the list. Clicking on any one will load the style sheet into this very page. The code remains the same, the only thing that has changed is the external .css file. Yes, really.

CSS allows complete and total control over the style of a hypertext document. The only way this can be illustrated in a way that gets people excited is by demonstrating what it can truly be, once the reins are placed in the hands of those able to create beauty from structure."

These are the rules of the exercise:

"You are modifying this page, so strong CSS skills are necessary, but the example files are commented well enough that even CSS novices can use them as starting points. Please see the CSS Resource Guide for advanced tutorials and tips on working with CSS.

You may modify the style sheet in any way you wish, but not the HTML. This may seem daunting at first if you’ve never worked this way before, but follow the listed links to learn more, and use the sample files as a guide."