If anyone is interesting in Ruby on Rails I highly recommend Simply Rails 2 by Patrick Lenz.

 

The book is aimed at complete beginners so at times it can feel a bit simple. Learning Ruby itself will not be difficult for someone who has experience with any other OOP language, but learning Rails --especially if you have no experience with frameworks-- can take a bit of wrapping your head round. Therefore this book is a great place to start.

I found these 2 very good for PHP:

 

Build Your Own Database Driven Website Using PHP & MySQL - First PHP book I had read and taught me so much more than what I had read online.

I bought this book a few months ago but I haven't started it yet. I was going to take it on holiday with me but figured it might not really be holiday reading!

Might start that this week actually.

 

Books that really helped me are:

 

'Web Designers Reference: An Integrated Approach to Web Design with XHTML and CSS' by Craig Grannell

'Transcending CSS' by Andy Clarke

'Adwords for Dummies' - Howie Jacobson (a great book and a lot more than just Adwords, lots of info on Email Marketing)

'Get to the Top on Google' - David Viney

'Web Standards Creativity'

 

I think it's nice to get away from the computer, settle down on the sofa with the fire on and a coffee, and get stuck into a good book. Makes me happy anyway!

Thransending CSS really helped me as well.

I came across this recently, quite a good read for anybody wondering about accessibility. It's an Ebook I hope that's okay for this thread.

 

http://www.nngroup.com/reports/accessibili...nd_ALT_text.pdf

nice

I came across this recently, quite a good read for anybody wondering about accessibility. It's an Ebook I hope that's okay for this thread.

 

http://www.nngroup.com/reports/accessibili...nd_ALT_text.pdf

 

Nice find. Cheers dude

This http://www.w3schools.com/ will be the good web design resource to follow-up for every1.

Whether you're a beginner or intermediate CSS user, then CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions is the place to go, it's a great book that'll teach you a lot. Admittedly there are a few sections I skipped past because I knew about them, but it's taught me a lot about standards, and helped me improve my code and create more meaningful markup.

Can anyone recommend a good book for explaining the process in designing a web application?

@katherinej

I think that site will help those who want to learn more in web designing but I would prefer having books to learn, anyways thanks for suggesting the site being reading the site.

Whether you're a beginner or intermediate CSS user, then CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions is the place to go, it's a great book that'll teach you a lot. Admittedly there are a few sections I skipped past because I knew about them, but it's taught me a lot about standards, and helped me improve my code and create more meaningful markup.

 

I concur, that's a fantastic book for learning CSS. Bulletproof CSS is also pretty handy, although a lot of it is perhaps less relevant with some of the new browsers.

 

I'd also add the following (if they haven't been already)

 

Larry Ullman: PHP 6 and MySQL 5 for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide

http://www.amazon.co.uk/PHP-MySQL-Dynamic-...pd_bxgy_b_img_b

cannot recommend this book highly enough - excellent for learning PHP

 

Jeremy Keith: DOM scripting

http://www.amazon.co.uk/DOM-Scripting-Desi...9431&sr=1-1

really good intro to the DOM and the stable parts of Javascript

 

Kevin Yank Cameron Adams: Simply Javascript

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Simply-JavaScript-...9551&sr=1-1

great intermediate book on JS (thanks to Elanman for that tip)

 

J & Gustafson, A Sambells: AdvancED DOM Scripting

http://www.amazon.co.uk/AdvancED-DOM-Scrip...9472&sr=1-1

pretty hardcore, but an excellent book

Book reading is very difficult and time consuming for computer related people. There are on every topic learning CD are available on net and in market. Which save a lot of time and is much better then reading books.

Book reading is very difficult and time consuming for computer related people.

Really?

I alway recommend internet for computer related people,On internet they are many excellent websites for learning web design & development.

www.studioxcess.com

OMG! Thanx a lot for reccommended literature for beginners, maybe someday I will become a professional!

Interactive Web Agency..........http://www.websarga.com/flash-design.html

Flash delivers interactivity and creates a fresh approach to multimedia for internet marketing.

Note: I posted this in another thread, but I thought it might be useful to everyone as a single post. It will be much easier to find that way.

 

 

I'm a big fan of learning through books, so I will share with you some of my recommended titles on web development.

 

I will update this list periodically.

 

 

Web design theory

The Priciples of Beautiful Web Design - This book will teach you all the basic theory of design, in relation to web design. You'll learn how to lay solid foundations to a website, that will allow you to create 'sound' designs, way before you even think about how it is going to look.

 

HTML

HTML 4 For The World Wide Web - This book was one of the first I bought on the subject, over 8 years ago now! It covered the basics of HTML, and after about a week I was confident at writing up, and understanding, my very own website from scratch. I'm not sure this book is being published any more, so you might need to find something similar.

 

CSS

I taught myself CSS from practice, tutorials and articles online, but I have, and highly recommend the following CSS reference book: The Ultimate CSS Reference

 

Javascript

Javascript - The Definitive Guide - The book on Javascript. It covers absolutely everything you could possibly want to know, and it is heavy to boot!

 

Javascript Phrasebook - Tiny book, packed full of snippets of code for various problems.

 

PHP/MySQL

PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites - This was my first book on PHP, and it lays the groundwork for you to create some simple scripts, using databases.

 

PHP & MySQL Bible - Extremely thick book, covers most of PHP. Is a great reference book.

 

PHP Cookbook - Packed to the brim with excellent and useful snippets of code, for common coding problems. I constantly find myself going back to this book for advice.

 

PHP Phrasebook - Tiny little book, full of snippets of code. It's a great thing to keep at arms reach.

 

MySQL Phrasebook - Same as above, but covering MySQL.

 

PHP 5 Objects, Patterns, and Practice - This is quite a complex and laborious read, but it will help you step into more advanced coding practices, such as Object Oriented Programming (OOP), and Patterns.

 

Web development practices

Pragmatic Version Control Using Subversion - This is a must if you want to get serious with web development. Version control is basically a history of everything you've done, which allows you to revert back to things you've done in the past, which in turn acts as a great backup tool. Think Apple Time Machine, but for text/programming files.

 

 

I could recommend a tonne more; my bookshelf actually fell off once because of the amount of web development books! What I've suggested here will be more than adequate for beginning, though.

 

Rob

 

 

 

Hey, you have very nice information and very useful link with all related software and web design. I use this all information for my knowledge.

Do you think books are the way to go? Back in the day, I learned through trial and error, and with some online tutorials.

 

Maybe a list of web resources would be a good idea.

Another one I would suggest if you're interested in learning how to use ImageMagic to process your images on-line would be:

 

- ImageMagic Tricks by Sohail Salehi

 

Also - for those who want to learn Ajax:

 

- Ajax and PHP by Cristian Darie, Bogdan Brinzarea, Filip Chereches-Tosa and Mihai Bucica

 

and very popular topic - jQuery:

 

- jQuery in Action by Bear Bibeault, Yehuda Katz and John Resig

Beginners Book I would recommend is by Head First "Html/Css"

 

I am now looking for a css book to take me to the next level.

 

And Thinking about getting "The Priciples of Beautiful Web Design".

I found headfirst covered nearly all the css i ever needed. Best option next would nbe to jump in at deep end, and start coding, checking if you ever find any problems.

 

Reaper

Note: I posted this in another thread, but I thought it might be useful to everyone as a single post. It will be much easier to find that way.

 

 

I'm a big fan of learning through books, so I will share with you some of my recommended titles on web development.

 

I will update this list periodically.

 

 

Web design theory

The Priciples of Beautiful Web Design - This book will teach you all the basic theory of design, in relation to web design. You'll learn how to lay solid foundations to a website, that will allow you to create 'sound' designs, way before you even think about how it is going to look.

 

HTML

HTML 4 For The World Wide Web - This book was one of the first I bought on the subject, over 8 years ago now! It covered the basics of HTML, and after about a week I was confident at writing up, and understanding, my very own website from scratch. I'm not sure this book is being published any more, so you might need to find something similar.

 

CSS

I taught myself CSS from practice, tutorials and articles online, but I have, and highly recommend the following CSS reference book: The Ultimate CSS Reference

 

Javascript

Javascript - The Definitive Guide - The book on Javascript. It covers absolutely everything you could possibly want to know, and it is heavy to boot!

 

Javascript Phrasebook - Tiny book, packed full of snippets of code for various problems.

 

PHP/MySQL

PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites - This was my first book on PHP, and it lays the groundwork for you to create some simple scripts, using databases.

 

PHP & MySQL Bible - Extremely thick book, covers most of PHP. Is a great reference book.

 

PHP Cookbook - Packed to the brim with excellent and useful snippets of code, for common coding problems. I constantly find myself going back to this book for advice.

 

PHP Phrasebook - Tiny little book, full of snippets of code. It's a great thing to keep at arms reach.

 

MySQL Phrasebook - Same as above, but covering MySQL.

 

PHP 5 Objects, Patterns, and Practice - This is quite a complex and laborious read, but it will help you step into more advanced coding practices, such as Object Oriented Programming (OOP), and Patterns.

 

Web development practices

Pragmatic Version Control Using Subversion - This is a must if you want to get serious with web development. Version control is basically a history of everything you've done, which allows you to revert back to things you've done in the past, which in turn acts as a great backup tool. Think Apple Time Machine, but for text/programming files.

 

 

I could recommend a tonne more; my bookshelf actually fell off once because of the amount of web development books! What I've suggested here will be more than adequate for beginning, though.

 

Rob

 

 

 

Thanks for listing of valuable development books

Note: I posted this in another thread, but I thought it might be useful to everyone as a single post. It will be much easier to find that way.

 

 

I'm a big fan of learning through books, so I will share with you some of my recommended titles on web development.

 

I will update this list periodically.

 

 

Web design theory

The Priciples of Beautiful Web Design - This book will teach you all the basic theory of design, in relation to web design. You'll learn how to lay solid foundations to a website, that will allow you to create 'sound' designs, way before you even think about how it is going to look.

 

HTML

HTML 4 For The World Wide Web - This book was one of the first I bought on the subject, over 8 years ago now! It covered the basics of HTML, and after about a week I was confident at writing up, and understanding, my very own website from scratch. I'm not sure this book is being published any more, so you might need to find something similar.

 

CSS

I taught myself CSS from practice, tutorials and articles online, but I have, and highly recommend the following CSS reference book: The Ultimate CSS Reference

 

Javascript

Javascript - The Definitive Guide - The book on Javascript. It covers absolutely everything you could possibly want to know, and it is heavy to boot!

 

Javascript Phrasebook - Tiny book, packed full of snippets of code for various problems.

 

PHP/MySQL

PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites - This was my first book on PHP, and it lays the groundwork for you to create some simple scripts, using databases.

 

PHP & MySQL Bible - Extremely thick book, covers most of PHP. Is a great reference book.

 

PHP Cookbook - Packed to the brim with excellent and useful snippets of code, for common coding problems. I constantly find myself going back to this book for advice.

 

PHP Phrasebook - Tiny little book, full of snippets of code. It's a great thing to keep at arms reach.

 

MySQL Phrasebook - Same as above, but covering MySQL.

 

PHP 5 Objects, Patterns, and Practice - This is quite a complex and laborious read, but it will help you step into more advanced coding practices, such as Object Oriented Programming (OOP), and Patterns.

 

Web development practices

Pragmatic Version Control Using Subversion - This is a must if you want to get serious with web development. Version control is basically a history of everything you've done, which allows you to revert back to things you've done in the past, which in turn acts as a great backup tool. Think Apple Time Machine, but for text/programming files.

 

 

I could recommend a tonne more; my bookshelf actually fell off once because of the amount of web development books! What I've suggested here will be more than adequate for beginning, though.

 

Rob

 

 

Nice listing.................

I found headfirst covered nearly all the css i ever needed. Best option next would nbe to jump in at deep end, and start coding, checking if you ever find any problems.

 

Reaper

 

Think your right.

It's one thing following tutorials etc...

But to start a new site from blank... it's hard to know where to start.

Two books that look phenomenal are:

The Typographers Desk Reference

 

Designing with Web Standards

By one of the founders of Happy Cog. Amazing that their contracts start at $75,000 and their concept is exclusively around web standards.

Note: I posted this in another thread, but I thought it might be useful to everyone as a single post. It will be much easier to find that way.

 

 

I'm a big fan of learning through books, so I will share with you some of my recommended titles on web development.

 

I will update this list periodically.

 

 

Web design theory

The Priciples of Beautiful Web Design - This book will teach you all the basic theory of design, in relation to web design. You'll learn how to lay solid foundations to a website, that will allow you to create 'sound' designs, way before you even think about how it is going to look.

 

HTML

HTML 4 For The World Wide Web - This book was one of the first I bought on the subject, over 8 years ago now! It covered the basics of HTML, and after about a week I was confident at writing up, and understanding, my very own website from scratch. I'm not sure this book is being published any more, so you might need to find something similar.

 

CSS

I taught myself CSS from practice, tutorials and articles online, but I have, and highly recommend the following CSS reference book: The Ultimate CSS Reference

 

Javascript

Javascript - The Definitive Guide - The book on Javascript. It covers absolutely everything you could possibly want to know, and it is heavy to boot!

 

Javascript Phrasebook - Tiny book, packed full of snippets of code for various problems.

 

PHP/MySQL

PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites - This was my first book on PHP, and it lays the groundwork for you to create some simple scripts, using databases.

 

PHP & MySQL Bible - Extremely thick book, covers most of PHP. Is a great reference book.

 

PHP Cookbook - Packed to the brim with excellent and useful snippets of code, for common coding problems. I constantly find myself going back to this book for advice.

 

PHP Phrasebook - Tiny little book, full of snippets of code. It's a great thing to keep at arms reach.

 

MySQL Phrasebook - Same as above, but covering MySQL.

 

PHP 5 Objects, Patterns, and Practice - This is quite a complex and laborious read, but it will help you step into more advanced coding practices, such as Object Oriented Programming (OOP), and Patterns.

 

Web development practices

Pragmatic Version Control Using Subversion - This is a must if you want to get serious with web development. Version control is basically a history of everything you've done, which allows you to revert back to things you've done in the past, which in turn acts as a great backup tool. Think Apple Time Machine, but for text/programming files.

 

 

I could recommend a tonne more; my bookshelf actually fell off once because of the amount of web development books! What I've suggested here will be more than adequate for beginning, though.

 

Rob

 

Thanks very much Rob, The list of web design books that you have supplied is great resource for any web design company. I would forward your list to the website designer I know. I would like to give you feedback that some of the website design books you have listed here are fantastic.

Edited July 12, 200917 yr by Rob
Removed spammy links

Two books that look phenomenal are:

The Typographers Desk Reference

 

Designing with Web Standards

By one of the founders of Happy Cog. Amazing that their contracts start at $75,000 and their concept is exclusively around web standards.

 

That typography book looks awesome, definitely something I'll be adding to the wish list!

This book was helpful when I was first learning CSS. It's a little dated now but still good.

CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions (Paperback)

Great list of resources..Very helpful

Hi,

 

I am new to forum.

 

I think we need to add : CSS the missing manual to the list.

 

It's a great book with practical advice for CSS / X html based websites.

 

Regards

I recently bought a book called "How to Cheat in Adobe Flash CS3". Its laid out very well and looks great. Good for those who can't animate or draw very well in Flash but want to boost their skills in that area. If you can't beat em, cheat!

 

Read book here

Hi

I work with dreamweaver 8 and wanted to learn how to built e-commerce websites but all the books involve writting loads of code, so the best book I found was PHP for Dreamweaver 8 by David Powers.

It explains everything and tells you how to do it in dreamweaver so if dreamweaver can write the code for you he tell you how. His doesn't make an e-commerce site in this book but you can make an e-commerce website the same way, and it helped me under stand PHP better.

Two books that look phenomenal are:

The Typographers Desk Reference

 

 

That looks very interesting. Think I'll have to order that one. I've been reading through The Elements of Typographic Style (dubbed the typographer's bible) I was very pleased with that.

Well this book is not even out yet, but it's available for pre-order. It's called "The Smashing Book" and its from www.smashingmagazine.com. For those who don't know, Smashing Magazine is one of the largest web design blogs out there and those who do read it regularly have probably pre-ordered like me

 

You can buy it here: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/08/05/the-smashing-book-pre-order-now-and-save-20/

 

It will cover the following topics:

• The Art And Science Of CSS Layouts
  
• User Interface Design In Modern Applications
  
• Web Typography: Rules, Guidelines And Common Mistakes
  
• Usability Principles For Modern Websites
  
• The Guide to Fantastic Color Usage In Web Design and Usability
  
• Performance Optimization For Websites
  
• Design To Sell: Increasing Conversion Rates
  
• How To Turn A Site Into A Remarkable Brand
  
• Learning From Experts: Interviews And Insights
  
• The Smashing Story
  

I know this topic is about books but I found that I also learnt really quickly by watching videos. You can watch loads of stuff on youtube or get a web design dvd from lynda.com. ebay sells loads of traing dvds too.

Great list.

 

More than enough to get stuck in to. One thing I didn't see much of was SEO orientated titles? I dare say many of these books touch on the subject, but are there any specific recommendations?

Thanks for the list Rob..

Great list of books there, trip to the library is in order!

I really like the sitepoint books - www.sitepoint.com. Make CSS/XHTML and PHP very easy to understand.

 

Web Designer

What a great enjoyable read it is . I'm just as far as the "using tabs" section so far . A really clear, well written and often funny book.

Borrowed from my local public library.

 

-

 

This is one of the most useful books about web design and I think every web designer should read it! Usability and navigation are so often forgotten by designers who focus too much on learning coding and too little time on considering the end user.