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Responsive Web Design with HTML5 and CSS
Responsive Web Design with HTML5 and CSS

Responsive Web Design with HTML5 and CSS: Build future-proof responsive websites using the latest HTML5 and CSS techniques , Fifth Edition

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Profile Icon Ben Frain
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Paperback Oct 2025 576 pages 5th Edition
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₱1376.99 ₱1836.99
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₱1721.99 ₱2296.99
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Arrow left icon
Profile Icon Ben Frain
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Paperback Oct 2025 576 pages 5th Edition
eBook
₱1376.99 ₱1836.99
Paperback
₱1721.99 ₱2296.99
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Free Trial
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₱1376.99 ₱1836.99
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₱1721.99 ₱2296.99
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Table of content icon View table of contents Preview book icon Preview Book

Responsive Web Design with HTML5 and CSS

1 The Essentials of Responsive Web Design

When the first edition of this book came out in 2012, responsive web design was a new and exciting possibility to address the needs of the ever-growing list of devices that could access the internet. Over a decade later, as I write this in 2025, it's simply the de facto standard. If you're building a website or web application and it isn't responsive, you're probably doing it wrong!This first chapter serves as a quick and basic refresher on building out an extremely simple web design, responsively. By the end, we will have covered everything needed to author a fully responsive web page.You might be wondering, why do we need the other chapters then? By the end of this chapter, that should be apparent too.Here's what we will cover in this first chapter:

  • The ever-evolving browser and device landscape
  • Defining responsive web design
  • Setting browser support levels
  • A brief discussion on development tools and text editors
  • Our...

The browser and device landscape

Over a decade ago, it was reasonable to build websites with fixed widths. The device landscape was a whole lot more limited, so the expectation was that all end users would get a fairly consistent experience. This fixed width (typically 960 px wide or thereabouts) wasn't too wide for laptop screens, and users with large-resolution monitors merely had an abundance of space on either side.But in 2007, Apple's iPhone ushered in the first truly usable browsing experience on a phone, and the way people accessed and interacted with the web changed forever.In the first edition of this book, published in early 2012, the following was noted about the percentage of total browser usage, globally, by device type:

…in the 12 months from July 2010 to July 2011, global mobile browser use had risen from 2.86 to 7.02 percent…

By September 2019, writing the third edition, using StatCounter, mobile was a whopping 51.11%, desktop was 45.18%, and...

Defining responsive web design

The term responsive web design was coined by Ethan Marcotte in 2010. In his seminal A List Apart article, http://www.alistapart.com/articles/responsive-web-design, he consolidated three existing techniques (flexible grid layout, flexible images/media, and media queries) into one unified approach and named it responsive web design.

Responsive web design in a nutshell

To attempt to put the philosophy of responsive web design in a "nutshell," I would say it's the presentation of web content in the most relevant format for the viewport and device accessing it.In its infancy, it was typical for responsive design to be implemented by starting with a fixed-width desktop design before trying to scale the design down as needed for smaller screens. However, processes evolved and it became apparent there was a better way. Namely, everything from design to content management and development worked better when starting with the smallest screens first...

Should you be coding with AI?

I am often asked if it still makes sense to be learning to code "by hand" when there are so many AI-powered tools to write code for us. By extension, is it even worth learning about concepts and approaches such as responsive web design? Surely, we can just feed a service such as ChatGPT, Claude, DeepSeek, or any other of the burgeoning AI-powered tools our requirements with text, speech, or images and copy and paste in the result?Well, the answer is both yes and no.While I occasionally find these tools useful to reinforce my understanding, knowing what I want, and how things conceptually work, is fundamental to getting good results from such tools. It enables me to validate the responses and gives me a solid "sniff test" for whether something seems useful or not.Imagine you have been a house builder for some years, and you now know how to build a house and build it well. After so many years mastering your trade, you are established enough...

Our first responsive example

In the introduction, I promised that by the end of this chapter, you would know all you needed to build a fully responsive web page. So far, I've just been talking around the issue at hand. It's time to walk the walk.

Code samples

You can download all the code samples from this book by visiting rwd.education. It's worth knowing that where individual examples are built up throughout a chapter, there will typically be a "start" and "end" version for each. The start contains just the essentials to start following along. The end contains the completed exercise/example.

Our basic HTML file

We will start with a simple HTML5 structure. Don't worry at this point about what each of the lines does, especially the content of <head>, as we will cover that in detail in Chapter 2, Writing HTML Markup.For now, concentrate on the elements inside the <body> tag. There, we have a few divs, a graphic for a logo, some text...

Summary

Well done – you now know about and understand the essential elements needed to create a fully responsive web page. However, as we have just discovered, there are plenty of places where things could be improved.But that's fine. We don't just want the ability to make competent responsive web designs, we want to be able to create "best-of-breed" experiences. And as you're here, investing your time for the betterment of websites everywhere, I know you're up to the challenge.In the next chapter, Chapter 2, Writing HTML Markup, we are going to take a deep dive into HTML5 markup. HTML is the very skeleton of any web page or application, the bedrock on which to build anything meaningful, the oxygen a website breathes, the… OK, I'm out of analogies – suffice it to say, HTML is pretty important, so let's press on.

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Key benefits

  • Understand what responsive web design is, and learn to design effective, accessible, and future-proof front-end applications
  • Explore the newest CSS features like view transitions, scroll-driven animations, P3 colors, and CSS functions
  • Learn brand-new time-saving additions to the HTML language, including dialogs and modals

Description

Responsive Web Design with HTML5 and CSS, Fifth Edition, is the very latest, up-to-date version of one of the bestselling books on HTML5 and CSS. It emphasizes pragmatic application, teaching the approaches needed to build websites and applications, with downloadable examples. Written in Ben's friendly and easy-to-follow style, this title can be read as a complete guide, or used as a reference for each topic. If you're a backend dev looking to understand the front of the web stack and its possibilities, or perhaps a frontend dev looking for a comprehensive resource on everything new in HTML and CSS to build the most efficient UIs, this is the book for you. Even if you are deferring your code writing to AI, this book gives you the requisite knowledge to understand the validity and efficiency of AI's output. Among the many topics, we cover approaches for better accessibility, utilizing variable fonts, explainers on the latest color manipulation techniques and functions, in-depth coverage of bleeding-edge features such as scroll-driven animations, view transitions, CSS anchor positioning, CSS layers, container queries, nesting, and much more. By the end, you'll not only have a thorough understanding of responsive web design and what's possible with the latest HTML5 and CSS, but also know how to best implement each technique.

Who is this book for?

Are you a full-stack or backend developer who needs to improve their front-end skills? Perhaps you work on the frontend and need a definitive overview of all that modern HTML and CSS has to offer? Maybe you have done a little website building, but you need a deep understanding of responsive web designs and how to achieve them? Perhaps you are using AI tools to produce code and want to check the output? If any of those scenarios sound familiar, this is the book for you! All you need to take advantage of this book is a working understanding of HTML and CSS. No JavaScript knowledge is needed.

What you will learn

  • Leverage color functions to mix colors and convert between color spaces
  • Use media and container queries to detect touch/mouse and color preference
  • Leverage HTML semantics to author accessible markup
  • Use SVGs to provide resolution-independent images and learn to efficiently display them
  • Create animations as items enter and leave the viewport using just CSS
  • Discover CSS custom properties and make use of new CSS functions
  • Add validation and interface elements to HTML forms
  • Check whether the frontend code produced by AI tools is effective for your goals

Product Details

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Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Last updated date : Oct 20, 2025
Publication date : Oct 20, 2025
Length: 576 pages
Edition : 5th
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781837028238
Languages :
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Product Details

Last updated date : Oct 20, 2025
Publication date : Oct 20, 2025
Length: 576 pages
Edition : 5th
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781837028238
Languages :
Concepts :
Tools :

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Table of Contents

21 Chapters
The Fundamentals of Responsive Web Design Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
The Essentials of Responsive Web Design Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Writing HTML Markup Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Media and Container Queries Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Fluid Layout and Flexbox Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Layout with CSS Grid Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Core Skills for Effective Frontend Web Development Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
CSS Nesting, Layers, Selectors, and More Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Web Typography Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
CSS Colors Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Stunning Aesthetics with CSS Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Responsive Images Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
SVG Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Transitions, Transformations, and Animations Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Custom Properties and CSS Functions Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Forms Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Latest Platform Features and Parting Advice Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Cutting-Edge CSS Features Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Bonus Techniques and Parting Advice Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Other Books You May Enjoy Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
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