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New CodePen Feature: Prefill Embeds
21.1.2019
I've very excited to have this feature released for CodePen. It's very progressive enhancement friendly in the sense that you can take any <pre> block of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (or any combination of them) and enhance it into an embed, meaning you can see the rendered output. It also...
Firefox DevTools WebConsole 2018 retrospective
21.1.2019
Here’s a wonderful post by Nicolas Chevobbe on what the Firefox DevTools team was up to last year. What strikes me is how many improvements they shipped — from big visual design improvements to tiny usability fixes that help us make sure our code works as we expect it to in the console....
How I’ve Been Using Notion Personally and Professionally
16.1.2019
I use Notion quite a bit, both personally and professionally.
In a sense, it's just an app for keeping documents in one place: little notes, to-do lists, basic spreadsheets, etc. I like the native macOS Notes app just fine. It's quick and easy, it's desktop and mobile, it syncs... but there...
CSS doesn’t suck
15.1.2019
I'm not so protective of CSS that I'm above hearing it criticized, but I'm certainly in agreement here. CSS does not suck. I love how the post is framed to hype up current CSS features the way features of other languages and tools are hyped:
Imagine if a tech dude walked on stage at a conference...
Re: Pleasing Color Palettes
11.1.2019
There are so many tools out there to help you pick colors. I totally get it! It's hard! When colors are done well, it's like magic. It adds a level of polish to a design that can really set it apart.
Let's look at some, then talk about this idea some more.
Here's one I just saw called Color...
Styling a Web Component
8.1.2019
This confused me for a bit here so I'm writing it out while it's fresh in mind. Just because you're using a web component doesn't mean the styles of it are entirely isolated. You might have content within a web component that is styled normally along with the rest of your website. Like this:
See...
How To Learn CSS
8.1.2019
Outside of my extreme envy of the SEO they are going to get out of this, Rachel is spot on here. Learning CSS has some pillars, like language syntax, selectors, layout, and flow that, once learned, unlock your CSS merit badge.
What I would add is that if you really want to learn CSS, give yourself...
The 10,000 Year Clock Design Principals
8.1.2019
In the new year edition of the Clearleft newsletter, Jeremy Keith linked to the design principals Danny Hillis thought about while considering a clock that would work for 10,000 years.
Here's part of that page, satisfyingly displayed as a <dl>:
Longevity:
Go slow
Avoid sliding friction...
The practical value of semantic HTML
7.1.2019
I love how Bruce steps up to the plate here:
If the importance of good HTML isn’t well-understood by the newer breed of JavaScript developers, then it’s my job as a DOWF (Dull Old Web Fart) to explain it.
Then he points out some very practical situations in which good HTML brings meaningful...
2018 Staff Favorites
4.1.2019
Last year, the team here at CSS-Tricks compiled a list of our favorite posts, trends, topics, and resources from around the world of front-end development. We had a blast doing it and found it to be a nice recap of the industry as we saw it over the course of the year. Well, we're doing it again...
The Most Hearted of 2018
4.1.2019
We've released the Most Hearted Pens, Posts, and Collections on CodePen for 2018! Just absolutely incredible work on here — it's well worth exploring.
Remember CodePen has a three-tiered hearting system, so while the number next to the heart reflects the number of users who hearted the item...
Multi-Line Inline Gradient
3.1.2019
Came across this thread:
CSS superfriends! Have you seen examples of how to do multi-line padded text like this article on @css (https://t.co/2j8p4jmaT4), but with a gradient that doesn't reset for each line? pic.twitter.com/MVPdAjxt1W
— Dan Mall (@danmall) December 3, 2018
My first...
Jetpack
3.1.2019
My favorite way to think about Jetpack is that it's a WordPress plugin that brings a whole heap of features to your site. I've documented the features that we use here on CSS-Tricks, which isn't even all of them (yet).
Some of Jetpack features are essentially connecting it to the powers...
Quicklink
3.1.2019
We're in the future now so, of course, we're working on ways to speed up the web with fancy new tactics above and beyond the typical make-pages-slimmer-and-cached-like-crazy techniques.
One tactic, from years ago, was InstantClick:
Before visitors click on a link, they hover over that link. Between...
An Initial Implementation of clip-path: path();
24.12.2018
One thing that has long surprised (and saddened) me is that the clip-path property, as awesome as it is, only takes a few values. The circle() and ellipse() functions are nice, but hiding overflows and rounding with border-radius generally helps there already. Perhaps the most useful value...
People Talkin’ Shapes
22.12.2018
Codrops has a very nice article on CSS Shapes from Tania Rascia. You might know shape-outside is for redefining the area by which text is floated around that element, allowing for some interesting design opportunities. But there are a couple of genuine CSS tricks in here:
Float shape-outside...
Making SVG icon libraries for React apps
14.12.2018
Nicolas Gallagher:
At Twitter I used the approach described here to publish the company’s SVG icon library in several different formats: optimized SVGs, plain JavaScript modules, React DOM components, and React Native components.
There is no One True Way© to make an SVG icon system. The only...
Two Ways to Build a Site That Seem Super Different But Weirdly Aren’t That Different
14.12.2018
Here are two ways to build a site (abstractly) that feel diametrically opposed to me:
Build a site as an SPA (Single Page App). The page loads a skeleton HTML page that executes JavaScript as quickly as it can. The JavaScript calls an API to get data, and then the page renders content. Navigation...
JavaScript to Native (and Back!)
14.12.2018
I admit I'm quite intrigued by frameworks that allow you write apps in web frameworks because they do magic to make them into native apps for you. There are loads of players here. You've got NativeScript, Cordova, PhoneGap, Tabris, React Native, and Flutter. For deskop apps, we've got Electron....
How To Review Code You Don't Understand
12.12.2018
Max, a software developer here at Sentry, wrote this post on his