Should I use Blueprint for CSS for cross platform Wordpress template?

HTML & CSS
1

I am new at this and I need advice from you professionals with a lot of experience. Unfortunately, we do not have a budget for this so we cannot outsource it. However, I am interested in learning new technology, but I want to make sure I am following proper standards and making good code.

The project I was given is to design and implement a Wordpress theme that would look as it was designed on a Mac on several platforms/browsers (Windows/IE, iPhone/Safari, etc).

After designing the theme on Gimp, I am ready to start transitioning it to HTML and CSS. I started reading some blogs/forums that mentioned that using frameworks like Blueprint would make it easy to create CSS files for several platforms/browsers. Can you please recommend if I should use Blueprint? If not, can you please recommend a good CSS tutorial? Lastly, how do I check if my CSS is good?

2

deathshadow60,

Thank you for responding. I was researching the web, found this article (http://www.webdesignerwall.com/tutorials/building-custom-wordpress-theme), and was following it. There were numerous blogs that use the same format so I thought it might be a good source.

If it is turdpress, would you recommend programming my own blog following your recommended steps?

STEPS:

  1. clean semantic code
  2. css
  3. graphics

Do you have websites you have made that you fulfill this process that you can show me?

3

I would not advise using ANY CSS framework bull, be it grid, blueprint, YUI, etc — for doing ANYTHING… EVER

Those fat bloated BS libraries run contrary to all good markup practices like separation of presentation from content, and in general defeat the entire point of using CSS in the first place since by definition they use presentational classes, and presentation has no damned business in your markup!

Though IMHO you’ve already screwed up by designing your theme in the goofy paint program instead of having clean semantic code of what you want on the page FIRST, then make the layout in CSS, then and only then go into the goofy paint program to make the graphics to hang on the layout. I don’t know who started this whole ‘draw a pretty picture first’ crap, but I meet them in a dark alley and it won’t be pretty.

12:1 you’ve got a fixed width layout, graphics that rely on fixed height containers, and a dozen other elements in your “pretty picture” that are miserable accessibility /FAIL/ – basically shooting yourself in the foot before you even start coding.

Of course, that you’re working in turdpress is only going to compound the problems given how it shoves a bunch of garbage markup down your throat like the ‘five million classes for EVERYTHING’ nonsense.