Simon Willison’s Weblog

Joe Gillespie does CSS

2nd November 2002

Joe Gillespie has been introducing CSS to the readers of Web Page Design for Designers.

• CSS Positioning—How the browsers cope (from September) discusses browser support and explains Joe’s experience creating Fun With Fonts, an experimental CSS site which demonstrates some intriguing new techniques.
• Thinking inside the box (from November) introduces the CSS box model (by comparing it to the more widely understood table cell) and shows how divs can be used for a simple column layout implemented with float: left.
• Box of Tricks (this month) gets serious with absolute positioning, a variety of link effects and a technique for implementing image rollovers without JavaScript.

Joe is a graphic designer with more than 20 years of experience and the fresh perspective he brings to CSS is inspiring to say the least. Unfortunately, as you might expect from a designer who has always worked in terms of “gnat’s whiskers” (netdiver interview), he is also a Font Bitch. I’ve recently found myself resizing text on web sites several times a day (not because they are unreadable but because it makes them more comfortable to read) so Mozilla’s ability to resize even absolutely sized fonts is something of a God-send.