Speaking in Styles: Fundamentals of CSS for Web Designers

Introduction

	To design is to communicate clearly by whatever means you can control or master.
	--Milton Glaser

Design is a way to communicate ideas visually. Unlike speaking or writing, however, visual communication happens almost instantaneously on a visceral level. Within seconds of seeing something, we should be able to understand its visual message. Obviously some designs such as illustrations may take additional deciphering, but when we look at something we can’t help trying to interpret its meaning.

Although Web design is a visual medium, it is created using written code—a style language known as CSS. While you can use programs like Adobe Photoshop or Dreamweaver to take a design and output the code, this rarely produces desirable results. ...