20 Websites To Help You Learn and Master CSS

CSS can be both a tricky and easy to learn. The syntax itself is easy, but some concepts can be difficult to understand. It’s super important to understand because your website’s reputation partially relies on it, as it is the backbone of your web design.

This article features 20 excellent websites to help you “grok” CSS. There’s a wide range of websites included – from blogs to directory-style lists and websites that focus on one particular topic related to CSS.

1. A List Apart CSS Topics

A List Apart, the premier site to read articles about web design and best practices, has a collection of articles on the topic of CSS dating back to 1999. Most articles are geared towards intermediate to advanced developers who put a strong emphasize on standards-compliant designs.

2. CSS Help Pile

CSS Help Pile is an aggregate of CSS resources, tips, and how-to’s. The site is well-organized and a wonderful resource for any level of expertise. There’s a category for beginners, browser bugs, and short reviews of CSS books.

3. CSS Basics

CSS Basics is formatted like a book with 18 chapters dedicated to educating readers about fundamental CSS concepts. The writing is clear and succinct – making it a great resource for those just starting out. All 18 chapters can be printed or downloaded in PDF format.

4. Holy CSS Zeldman!

Holy CSS Zeldman (not a site by Jeffrey Zeldman) is a useful collection of resources that link to standards-based CSS tutorials, tools, and layouts.

5. Eric Meyer: CSS

Here’s a collection of works by Eric Meyer (acclaimed web professional and author). Some resources you’ll find on this page are css/edge (Eric Meyers experiments on CSS) and CSS reference.

6. 456 Berea Street – CSS category

Roger Johansson’s 456 Berea Street has over 300 posts under the CSS category. Some posts talk choosing an image replacement method while others teach you CSS techniques.

7. /* Position Is Everything */

Those just getting their hands around authoring CSS code will quickly realize that a significant chunk of time (and frustration) stems from getting rid of browser bugs. Position Is Everything discusses known browser bugs and shares CSS methods that work across browsers.  Here, you can read about the one true layout or learn what happens when you nest absolutely-positioned div’s.

8. HTML Dog CSS Tutorials

HTML Dog is a tutorial website dedicated to teaching XHTML and CSS best practices. There’s three CSS tutorial sections: Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced.

9. Learn CSS Positioning in Ten Steps

Positioning elements using CSS can be a tricky concept at first. If you’re having a hard time understanding the fundamentals of CSS positioning, check out this 10-step tutorial to get you positioning stuff in no time!

10. Andy Budd CSS/Web Standards Links

Andy Budd (directory of Clearleft, CSS guru, and author of one of my favorite books – CSS Mastery) has a set of CSS/web standards links to help you find reliable, useful information about CSS.

11. W3CSchools CSS Tutorial

W3CSchools has a CSS section that covers the very basics of CSS up to more advanced topics.

12. css Zen Garden

css Zen Garden is a showcase of the things you can do CSS. Most importantly, it highlights the concept of separating content from presentation. Using the same HTML file, designers submit external stylesheets to style the HTML file.

I suggest using the Web Developer Tool to inspect how the layouts work and what styles affect certain elements of the page.

13. CSS at MaxDesign

At MaxDesign, you can find Russ Weakley’s brilliant set of CSS-related tutorials. Some things to expect here are: Listmatic – which shows you a variety of ways you can use CSS to style lists, and Floatutorial – which goes through the fundamentals of floating elements.

14. CSSeasy.com

CSSEasy.com’s slogan is “learn CSS the modern way”. The site promotes learning by experience, with the idea that if you inspect the source code and see how things fit together as a whole, you’ll gain a better understanding of CSS. The Web Developer Tool will also come in handy on this website.

15. CSS-Discuss

CSS-Discuss is a community of CSS enthusiasts. The CSS-Discuss Wiki is a comprehensive collection of real-world usage of CSS.

16. Web Design from Scratch: CSS

Ben Hunt’s Web Design from Scratch has an excellent section on CSS that covers basic concepts about CSS. I highly recommend beginners start off with Introduction to CSS, a quick but very informative starting point to getting your hands dirty with CSS.

17.CSS-Tricks

CSS-Tricks is a blog dedicated to the topic of CSS. You’ll find helpful posts such as what CSS Sprites are (in a nut shell), techniques for image replacements, and even screencasts on topics like conditional stylesheets.

18.CSS on Delicious

The CSS tag on Delicious is a great way to find popular links that relate to CSS.

It allows you to see what people are currently reading.

19. SitePoint CSS Reference

SitePoint has a CSS reference section that discusses introductory level CSS topics. You can get a crash course on general CSS syntax and nomenclature onto slightly more advanced topics such as CSS hacks and filters.

20. CSSDog

CSSDog has a section for both beginners and more advanced developers. Aside from CSS lessons, their CSS Reference section – which lists quick guides and color references – are very helpful.

Missed your favorite?

Do you have a favorite CSS website not on the list? Talk about it in the comments.