CSS Zen Garden

The CSS Zen Garden is an influential World Wide Web development resource. The goal of the site is to showcase what is possible with CSS-based design. Style sheets contributed by graphic designers from around the world are used to change the visual presentation of a single HTML file, producing hundreds of different designs. Aside from reference to an external CSS file, the HTML markup itself never changes. All visual differences are the result of the CSS (and supporting imagery). The site has been translated into multiple languages.

In February 2005, The Zen of CSS Design (Peachpit Press) was published by CSS Zen Garden creator Dave Shea and web designer Molly Holzschlag. The book is based on 36 designs featured at the Zen Garden site.

CSS Zen Garden has inspired similar sites in other languages, like Proyecto Camaleon in Spanish and CSS Zen Sentiero in Italian.

"The Garden" itself was inspired, according to Shea, by an experiment by Chris Casciano called Daily CSS Fun, and a CSS-related contest from HotBot.

In order to demonstrate that using CSS is not sufficient to make a design look good, Bruce Lawson designed the Geocities 1996 Zen Garden, mocking the poor designs used by first-time page creators hosting free websites on Geocities.

External links

• CSS Zen Garden
• CSS Zen Garden 'All Designs' List (Access to hundreds of archived designs submitted to the site)
• mezzoblue (Creator Dave Shea's weblog on web design issues)
• Camaleon Project (in Spanish)
• CSS Zen Sentiero (in Italian)
• PI CSS (in Spanish)