Introduction

This is a testbed for designing website layouts using CSS. All designs on this site were created by Tom Walsham, as a showcase of his CSS talents.

The switcher menu (thanks to alistapart) will restyle the same (x)html document with a different stylesheet displaying the versatility of CSS for page design

All layouts should validate and display correctly in virtually all browsers, except for a few which may be showcasing capabilities of modern browsers.

Validation

Why should we care about validation?

CSS is the recommended way to layout pages for the web. Validation ensures that (in theory), the page will be available to all in the same way. But why is CSS recommended over, say, tabular layouts?

When the content is marked up correctly using (x)html it should flow in a logical fashion. Style and layout become optional. This means persons with visual impairments and the blind can have access to the information as clearly as anyone else as it will read in an audio browser.

Tabular layouts do not allow for this.

Beauty

The Web is a design medium that allows us to create beautiful design while retaining content as king.

Web standards, and CSS design advocates are trying to push the concept that beauty can live hand in hand with legibility and accessibility. This is an attempt to demonstrate that.

These are example of how to retain interesting design, without resorting to JavaScript, Flash or other inaccessible media.

Disclaimer

The text in this page is a little boring, sorry about that.

Reasonable attempts have been made to ensure images used are in the public domain. If any of the images here are your copyrighted works, please contact me if you would like them removed.

Feel free to examine the code here, but attribute this site if you borrow too heavily. Please do not reproduce any of the layouts here without permission. The concept is an homage to the CSS Zen Garden

XHTML CSS Tom Walsham