Search
Teaching CSS
19.11.2019
I've been using CSS as a web developer since CSS became something we could actually use. My first websites were built using <font> tags and <table>s for layout. I remember arguments about whether this whole CSS thing was a good idea at all. I was quickly convinced, mostly due to...
The Communal Cycle of Sharing
18.11.2019
What I'm interested in this year is how we're continuing to expand on tools, services, and shared side projects to collectively guide where we take the web next, and the way we're sharing that.
So many other mediums—mostly analog ones—have been around for ages and have a deeper history. In...
The Best Cocktail in Town
18.11.2019
I admit I've held in a lot of pent-up frustration about the direction web development has taken the past few years. There is the complexity. It requires a steep learning curve. It focuses more on more configuration than it does development.
That's not exactly great news for folks like me...
The Kind of Development I Like
18.11.2019
I'm turning 40 next year (yikes!) and even though I've been making websites for over 25 years, I feel like I'm finally beginning to understand the kind of development I like. Expectedly, these are not new revelations and my views can be summed up by two older Computer Science adages that pre-date...
We asked web developers we admire: “What about building websites has you interested this year?”
18.11.2019
For the first time ever here on CSS-Tricks, we're going to do an end-of-year series of posts. Like an Advent calendar riff, only look at us, we're beating the Advent calendar rush! We'll be publishing several articles a day from a variety of web developers we look up to, where gave them all...
Ways to Organize and Prepare Images for a Blur-Up Effect Using Gatsby
18.11.2019
Gatsby does a great job processing and handling images. For example, it helps you save time with image optimization because you don’t have to manually optimize each image on your own.
With plugins and some configuration, you can even setup image preloading and a technique called blur-up for your...
The Department of Useless Images
18.11.2019
Gerry McGovern:
The Web is smothering in useless images. These clichéd, stock images communicate absolutely nothing of value, interest or use. They are one of the worst forms of digital pollution because they take up space on the page, forcing more useful content out of sight. They also slow down...
JAMstack CMSs Have Finally Grown Up!
15.11.2019
This article is based on Brian's presentation at Connect.Tech 2019. Slides with speaker notes from that presentation are available to download.
In my experience, developers generally find the benefits of the JAMstack easy to comprehend. Sites are faster because the resources are static and served...
The Amazingly Useful Tools from Yoksel
15.11.2019
I find myself web searching for some tool by Yoksel at least every month. I figured I'd list out some of my favorites here in case you aren't aware of them.
Need to duo-tone an image? SVG filters can do that. Lentie Ward wrote about it for us, and Yoksel has a tool to create the filters...
How We Perform Frontend Testing on StackPath’s Customer Portal
15.11.2019
Nice post from Thomas Ladd about how their front-end team does testing. The list feels like a nice place to be:
TypeScript - A language, but you're essentially getting various testing for free (passing the right arguments and types of variables)
Jest - Unit tests. JavaScript functions are doing...
Weekly Platform News: Internet Explorer Mode, Speed Report in Search Console, Restricting Notification Prompts
14.11.2019
In this week's roundup: Internet Explorer finds its way into Edge, Google Search Console touts a new speed report, and Firefox gives Facebook's notification the silent treatment.
Let's get into the news!
Edge browser with new Internet Explorer mode launches in January
Microsoft expects to release...
Learn UI Design
14.11.2019
Erik Kennedy's course Learn UI Design is open for enrollment for less than a week. Disclosure, that link is our affiliate link. I'm linking to it here because I think this is worthy of your time and money if you're looking to become a good UI designer.
I think of Erik sorta like the Wes Bos...
Some CSS Grid Strategies for Matching Design Mockups
14.11.2019
The world of web development has always had a gap between the design-to-development handoff. Ambitious designers want the final result of their effort to look unique and beautiful (and true to their initial vision), whereas many developers find more value in an outcome that is consistent...
Finally, it Will Be Easy to Change the Color of List Bullets
14.11.2019
In my germinating years, the general advice was this:
<ul>
<li><span>List item</span></li>
<!-- ... -->
</ul>
li { color: red; } /* bullet */
li span (color: black; } /* text */
Not terrible, but not great. You're "resetting" everything...
Oh Hey, Padding Percentage is Based on the Parent Element’s Width
13.11.2019
I learned something about percentage-based (%) padding today that I had totally wrong in my head! I always thought that percentage padding was based on the element itself. So if an element is 1,000 pixels wide with padding-top: 50%, that padding is 500 pixels. It's weird having top padding based...
Thoughts After Looking at the Web Almanac’s Chapter on CSS
13.11.2019
Woah, I didn't see this coming! The HTTP Archive dropped this big "state of the web" report called Web Almanac with guest writers exploring data from 5.8 million websites.
Una Kravetz and Adam Argyle wrote the CSS chapter. The point is to squeeze a digestible amount of insight out of a mountain's...
An Early Look at the Vue 3 Composition API in the Wild
13.11.2019
I recently had an opportunity to try the new Vue Composition API in a real project to check where it might be useful and how we could use it in the future.
Until now, when we were creating a new component we were using Options API. That API forced us to separate the component’s code by options...
CSS-Tricks Chronicle XXXVII
12.11.2019
Chronicle posts are opportunities for me to round-up things that I haven't gotten a chance to post about yet, rounded up together. It's stuff like podcasts I've had the good fortune of being on, conferences I've been at or are going to be at, happenings at ShopTalk and CodePen, and more.
My talk...
Making an Audio Waveform Visualizer with Vanilla JavaScript
12.11.2019
As a UI designer, I’m constantly reminded of the value of knowing how to code. I pride myself on thinking of the developers on my team while designing user interfaces. But sometimes, I step on a technical landmine.
A few years ago, as the design director of wsj.com, I was helping to re-design...
When to Use SVG vs. When to Use Canvas
12.11.2019
SVG and canvas are both technologies that can draw stuff in web browsers, so they are worth comparing and understanding when one is more suitable than the other. Even a light understanding of them makes the choice of choosing one over the other pretty clear.
A little flat-color icon? That's...