Five years ago, Mandy, Jeffrey, and Jason launched a little publishing imprint called A Book Apart. It focused on very specific topics for folks that build websites for fun and profit. The books were short and to the point. They paid their authors unheard of royalties compared to other publishers. There was much rejoicing.

It was a damn honor to write the second book they released, CSS3 For Web Designers. At the time, I’d been doing a fair amount of speaking on CSS3, really embracing it for enhancing the experience layer of the interfaces we’d been building. Browsers didn’t have to support it all. It was (and is) progressive enhancement at its very best.

People bought the book and some of them even enjoyed it or at least said and wrote that they did. But after 5 years, it was time to give it a bit of a polish. So we did just that, and with the help of Rachel Andrew (tech editing) and Katel LeDû (managing editor) and the rest of the wonderful team at A Book Apart, a Second Edition has been written, edited, printed, and shipped. It’s in stock and available today.

Like other editions I’ve written for previous books, this wasn’t a complete rewrite, but rather a refresh to bring things up to date, as well as adding a brand new chapter. Here’s what’s new, from the intro inside the book itself …

About the Second Edition

A lot has progressed since the initial pressing of this little green book. All good things! Many of the CSS3 properties discussed now have wider browser support, which means you can feel even more confident putting them to use. Several new properties have emerged! The economy is looking—wait.

In this second edition, I’ve tightened up the existing text and brought things up to present day. I’ve also removed some old hacks that are no longer necessary. There’s never been a better time to dive in and start using CSS3.

Additionally, a new chapter was added at the end of the book that covers micro layouts. While we wait patiently for a truly cross-browser layout system, work carries on. Fortunately, new specifications such as flexbox and multi-column layout are usable today, when applied to smaller components of the overall design. We’ll introduce utilizing those options that will then become extra tools in your CSS3 toolbox.

I hope you enjoy this updated version of what was a very fun book to write, and I look forward to the myriad of ways you’ll use CSS3 creatively. Onward!