css Zen Garden

The Road to Enlightenment

Littering a dark and dreary road lay the past
relics of browser-specific tags, incompatible
DOMs, and broken CSS support.

Today, we must clear the mind of past practices.
Web enlightenment has been achieved thanks to
the tireless efforts of folk like the W3C
, WaSP and the major browser creators.

The css Zen Garden invites you to relax and meditate
on the important lessons of the masters. Begin
to see with clarity. Learn to use the (yet to be)
time-honored techniques in new and invigorating
fashion. Become one
with the web.

So What is This About?

There is clearly a need for CSS to
be taken seriously by graphic artists. The Zen Garden
aims to excite, inspire, and encourage participation.
To begin, view some of the existing designs in the list.
Clicking on any one will load the style sheet into
this very page. The code remains the same, the
only thing that has changed is the external .css file.
Yes, really.

CSS allows complete and total control over
the style of a hypertext document. The only way this can be illustrated in a way
that gets people excited is by demonstrating what it can truly be, once the reins
are placed in the hands of those able to create beauty from structure.
To date, most examples of neat tricks
and hacks have been demonstrated by
structurists and coders.
Designers have
yet to make
their mark. This needs
to change.

Participation

Graphic artists only please. You are
modifying this page, so strong CSS skills
are necessary, but the example files
are commented well enough that even CSS
novices can use them as starting points. Please
see the CSS Resource Guide for advanced tutorials and
tips on working with CSS.

You may modify the style sheet in any way you wish,
but not the HTML. This may seem daunting
at first if you’ve never worked this way before, but follow the listed links
to learn more, and use the sample files as a guide.

Benefits

Why participate? For recognition, inspiration, and
a resource we can all refer to when making
the case for CSS-based design. This is
sorely needed, even today. More and more major
sites are taking the leap, but not enough have.
One day this gallery will be a historical curiosity;
that day is not today.

Requirements

We would like to see as much CSS1 as possible.
CSS2 should be limited to widely-supported
elements only. The css Zen Garden is about functional, practical
CSS and not the latest bleeding-edge tricks viewable
by 2% of the browsing public. The only real requirement
we have is that your CSS validates.

Unfortunately, designing this way highlights the flaws
in the various implementations of CSS. Different
browsers display differently, even completely valid CSS at
times, and this becomes maddening when a fix for one leads to
breakage in another. View the Resources page
for information on some of the fixes available. Full browser
compliance is still sometimes a pipe dream, and we do not expect
you to come up with pixel-perfect code across every platform.
But do test in as many as you can. If your design
doesn’t work in at least IE5+/Win and Mozilla
(run by over 90% of the population), chances are we won’t
accept it.

Requirements, continued

We ask that you submit original artwork. Please respect copyright laws.
Please keep objectionable material to a minimum; tasteful nudity is acceptable,
outright pornography will be rejected.

This is a learning exercise as well as a demonstration.
You retain full copyright on your graphics (with limited exceptions,
see submission guidelines), but we ask you release your
CSS under a Creative Commons license identical to the
one on this site so that others may learn from your work.

Bandwidth graciously donated by DreamFire Studios

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