Books by Frontend Dogma

Frontend Dogma publishes and sponsors books about frontend development. To work with Frontend Dogma, send an email with details about your manuscript.

(For more books, see the “books” tag.)

Rote Learning HTML & CSS

This is a supplementary—and not beginner-friendly—book about HTML and CSS, and one of the most boring books you’ll ever read.

It contains long lists of HTML elements and attributes and CSS selectors and properties.

Why bother? Why read this book?

Because it provides you with a unique opportunity to learn HTML and CSS, one that isn’t available in this form elsewhere.

Its goal is to show you the rough and raw skeleton of HTML and CSS, so that you can focus on that. Elements, attributes, selectors, properties. No explanations, no examples, no context. The raw material.

The idea is that even when you only review this book once, you will already notice things about HTML and CSS that you weren’t aware of and couldn’t have noticed otherwise.

And still, this is one of the most boring books you’ll ever read. Enjoy.

Upgrade Your HTML V

Upgrade Your HTML is the book series for HTML craftspeople and minimalists.

In Upgrade Your HTML V, HTML and CSS optimizer Jens Oliver Meiert takes more examples of HTML to analyze, explain, and improve the respective markup.

In this edition, find tables from the past; new HTML elements; (not) being managed by code; law and order in scripts; hidden and seek; preload requests; intermissions; mysterious chapter names; keyboard shortcuts; microdata; and plenty of appreciation for the craft of HTML.

“There are ways to improve performance by showing extra care about what you add to your HTML document, and anticipating the content. Going beyond the basics and into the nuances of HTML syntax and semantics is the value you’ll find in these pages, knowledge shared with you by Jens.”—Stephanie Eckles

→ This is the book if you enjoy the intricacies of working with HTML.

The Web Development Glossary 3K

The Web Development Glossary is the largest of its kind. With more than 3,000 terms and explanations (“3K”), it is the book to try and extend your web development and web platform knowledge.

The glossary covers key terms and concepts of the Web, beginning with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, accessibility, security, performance, code quality and testing, internationalization, localization, frameworks and editors and tooling.

The glossary then includes other disciplines of interest and relevance to the modern developer, like computer science, design, typography, usability and user experience, information and project management and more.

It goes beyond web development to feed all your curiosity, about the Web and the technologies and processes used to build it. And still it is a glossary, of several thousand terms for developers, based on careful research as well as established sources, like Wikipedia, but also MDN Web Docs.

This new edition of The Web Development Glossary includes almost a thousand additional terms as well as major usability updates, like improved source and cross-reference navigation.

(Also try WebGlossary.info, the companion website of The Web Development Glossary!)

Upgrade Your HTML IV

Upgrade Your HTML is the book series for HTML craftspeople and minimalists.

In Upgrade Your HTML IV, HTML and CSS optimizer Jens Oliver Meiert takes 10 more examples of HTML from actual websites in order to analyze, explain, and improve the respective markup.

Apart from discussing the appropriate use and the subtleties of HTML elements, this edition covers general topics like conformance, maintainability, and the balancing of optimization vectors. It also covers topics like attribute minimization, void elements, metadata, table buttons and button links, and even CSS art.

“Optimizing and minimizing HTML and checking if there are more appropriate elements or attributes to use is a helpful exercise, because it can improve accessibility while you learn about new features.”—Simon Pieters

→ This is the book if you enjoy the intricacies of working with HTML.

Upgrade Your HTML III

Upgrade Your HTML is the book series for HTML craftspeople and minimalists. It stands for everything that leads to more effective and efficient use of HTML.

In Upgrade Your HTML III, HTML and CSS optimizer Jens Oliver Meiert takes 10 additional HTML examples from real websites to analyze, explain, and improve the respective markup.

Apart from discussing the appropriate use and subtleties of HTML elements, this edition touches on code consistency, class use, bundler output, but also poem markup, link types,—and even declaration repetition.

“[The purpose of the book is to] use judgment in adding ‘features’ into your code and even to reconsider what you might have used for no good reason, or for reasons that are no more valid.”—Jukka K. Korpela

Upgrade Your HTML II

Upgrade Your HTML is the book series for HTML craftspeople and minimalists.

In Upgrade Your HTML II, HTML and CSS optimizer Jens Oliver Meiert takes 10 additional HTML examples from real websites to review and condense the respective markup.

Keep document structures simpler, use semantically more appropriate markup, write less HTML, question certain techniques, deal more intelligently with third-party code—there are many ways to improve HTML code.

“While his approach is radical in some cases, the message counts: analyze, scrutinize, optimize.”—Manuel Matuzović (HTMHell)

The Web Development Glossary

The Web Development Glossary is probably the largest of its kind. With more than 2,000 terms and explanations it acquaints and reunites you with the major standards and concepts of the Web, with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, accessibility, security, performance, code quality, internationalization, localization, editors and tooling and more.

The glossary then goes beyond web development, touching on computer science, design, typography, usability and user experience, information as well as project management, other disciplines of interest and relevance to the modern developer. It goes beyond, inspiring the curiosity to learn more about the Web and the people creating and using it. And still it is a glossary, of a couple of thousand terms for developers, leaning on (and giving back to) Wikipedia and the MDN Web Docs.

Upgrade Your HTML

HTML is super-popular. Everyone can write HTML. Or can they? In the spirit that everything can be tweaked and optimized, Upgrade Your HTML is a first light book in a playful series to review and improve real-life examples of HTML.

Not shyly but always constructively does Jens Oliver Meiert, someone who has written a lot of HTML and who makes his own life difficult so that he can write even more HTML, go through ten samples to ponder and upgrade the respective markup.

If you’re a web developer, you know HTML. Check out and follow Upgrade Your HTML to nod (or shake your head) exploring old and new problems surrounding uses of the beloved HyperText Markup Language.

Das kleine Buch der HTML-/CSS-Frameworks (German)

HTML-/CSS-Frameworks wie Bootstrap prägen den Alltag in der Webentwicklung. Warum und wann aber sollte man ein Framework verwenden? Wann ergibt es Sinn, selbst ein Framework zu entwickeln? Das kleine Buch der HTML-/CSS-Frameworks teilt grundlegende Gedanken sowie Tipps und Tricks zu sowohl Gebrauch als auch Entwicklung von Frameworks.

CSS Optimization Basics

Are you unsure about your style sheets’ quality, or whether you’ve maxed out your options? CSS Optimization Basics covers the necessary mindsets, discusses the main optimization methods, and presents useful resources to write higher-quality CSS.

(For ebooks, page numbers relate to the PDF version.)