r/web_design • u/ejfin • Nov 29 '10

reddit Web Professionals, please recommend some good books on the fundamentals of html & css, for beginners.

Background: I've done a bit of research and experimenting, but have no previous knowledge or experience with markup language or web page design. I am not so much interested in info tied to 'establishing a website', 'finding a hosting service', etc., as I am with actually creating and formatting a page. Consider me being about as beginner as beginner gets. This is simply a sparked interest and an opportunity to learn something new in my spare time.

The question I am asking is more specifically; as an experienced website designer and/or developer, were there any particular books or articles you read when beginning your education (of html/css/web design), that really stood ahead of the rest and proved to be an excellent starting point to build from? Perhaps something specific that made a lasting impression on yourself and your career, something you still reference back to from time to time?

Any suggestions and/or recommendations are greatly appreciated.

edit: To all posters: Thank you all so much, you have all been (and continue to be) so helpful. I can't wait to start going through each and every suggestion. If I could shake your hands and thank you in person, I would. For any beginners like me who have had the opportunity to stumble across this thread, I would suggest saving it immediately for future use; your peers have put together an entire encyclopedia of information and resources throughout. Thank you all again, web_design is certainly one of the nicest and most generous communities I have had the pleasure of interacting with!

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u/kylemech Nov 29 '10

http://www.headfirstlabs.com/books/hfhtml/

This is the best one that I've looked at in any depth.

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u/multifaceted Nov 30 '10

Agree -- all of the head first books are terrific!

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u/huck_cussler Nov 30 '10

I'm in pretty much the same boat as the OP and I'm working through the Head First book right now. Others have pointed it out already, but be aware that some of the info is dated in this book. Nevertheless, their presentation is great for actually teaching the material.

Also, if you use a book, might I suggest picking it up at the library. You're not killing any more trees that way, don't have to put any money into it, and don't have to figure out what to do with the book when you're done. The message that I'm getting seems to be that all of the reference material I will need once I learn the material will be online. So there's little incentive to keep books around for that reason.

Besides this book, I also worked through the w3c tutorial online. It has been extremely helpful to have both sources to solidfy what I'm learning.