CSS3 provides several new ways to do layout. The easiest is multiple columns within an element. It’s easy to create multi-column layouts using the new CSS3 multiple columns property. The document flow can create more columns inside a box than is visually pleasing, so change it to one, two, three or four columns, depending on the size of the screen. Using media queries a small screens gets one column, tablets get two and computer monitors get three or more columns.

Multi-Columns Interactive

CSS Grid is revolutionary. Up to 2018, the exploration of web layout strategies has been along the lines of a word processor. You start at the top and create content vertically as elements stack like blocks, which is easy, and horizontally, by limiting the width of the elements so you can go from left to right. The activity of designing web pages as if one were designing in Microsoft Word has come to an end! CSS Grid is here! You create the grid and then populate it in any way and in any order you see fit, creating white space wherever you deem esthetically pleasing or communicatively correct.

Allow Massimo Vignelli to introduce grids.

Grids

For us Graphic Design is “organization of information.” There are other types of graphic design more concerned with illustration or of a narrative nature. Nothing could be more useful to reach our intention than the Grid. The grid represents the basic structure of our graphic design, it helps to organize the content, it provides consistency, it gives an orderly look and it projects a level of intellectual elegance that we like to express.

There are infinite kinds of grids but just one – the most appropriate – for any problem. Therefore, it becomes important to know which kind of grid is the most appropriate. The basic understanding is that the smaller the module of the grid the least helpful it could be. We could say that an empty page is a page with an infinitesimal small grid. Therefore, it is equivalent to not being there. Conversely, a page with a coarse grid is a very restricting grid offering too few alternatives. The secret is to find the proper kind of grid for the job at hand. Sometimes, in designing a grid we want to have the outside margins small enough to provide a certain tension between the edges of the page and the content. After that, we divide the page in a certain number of columns according to the content, three, two, four, five, six, etc. Columns provide only one kind of consistency but we also need to have a horizontal frame of reference to assure certain levels of continuity throughout the publication. Therefore, we will divide the page from top to bottom in a certain number of Modules, four, six, eight, or more, according to size and need. Once we have structured the page, we will begin to structure the information and place it in the grid in such a way that the clarity of the message will be enhanced by the placement of the text on the grid. There are infinite ways of doing this and that is why the grid is a useful tool, rather than a constricting device. However, one should learn to use it so as to retrieve the most advantageous results.

Vignelli has plenty to say about grids, margins, columns, and modules in his book The Vignelli Canon (pages 40 to 53) He provides a clear illustration of how to use a grid. Grid for the web is similar enough, except it is not just an organization principle but a layout tool. You will learn to use the CSS grid by using it.

Massimo Vignelli concludes his Canon with the power of white space.

WHITE SPACE

I often say that in typography the white space is more important than the black of the type. The white space on the printed page is the correspondent of space in architecture. In both situations space is what qualifies the context. Naturally, the organization of information needs a structure to hold together, but one should not underestimate the importance of white space to better define the hierarchy of every component. White space, non only separates the different parts of the message but helps to position the message in the context of the page. Tight margins establish a tension between text, images and the edges of the page. Wider margins deflate the tension and bring about a certain level of serenity to the page. Tight type setting transforms words into lines just as loose type settings transform words in to dots. Decreasing or increasing the letter spacing (kearning) confers very distinctive character and expression to the words. All this is space manipulation and it is this device that is used in layouts to achieve a desired expression. The relationship between the size of type and the space around it is one of the most delicate and precious elements of a composition. I must say that the masterful handling of white space on a printed page is perhaps the most peculiar attribute of American graphic design. Just like space is the protagonist in Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture. Somehow, it relates to the epic grandeur of the American landscapes.

For many artists white space is the essential element of the composition. It is the fundamental qualifier and protagonist of the image. Almost all the great American graphic designers have used white space as the significant silence to better hear their message loud and clear.

Such is indeed the power of the white space.

CSS Grid was finalized in the spring of 2017 and was available within a month on most browsers.

Where Flexbox is for only one dimension, either horizontal or vertical, grid is for two dimensional layouts, both horizontal and vertical.

CSS Grid and Flexbox are changing layout. It will take a while for the changes to settle in and for best practices to arise. Play around with ready made interactive examples. You will be required to create layouts using CSS grid and flex.

There are many resources to better understand how css grids work.

Mozilla Grids article is a great place to start.

Rachel Andrew’s Grid by Example / Patterns is good too. She is a CSS grid ambassador and has various layouts prepared on CodePen. You can use them to start your layout.

Smashing Magazine ran a CSS Grid contest and came up with some great examples. The demonstration has lots of cutting edge CSS features in addition to using grid. For other examples using CSS grid, check out this restaurant menu or a modern blog . Looking through the code will provide you with ideas on how to implement your own CSS grid.

In the FireFox browser use the Inspect Element on the grid item and click on the grid features for visual aids in understanding how the grid is implemented. The other browsers have not followed, open up inspector and click to activate.

Occupy only the cells of the grid you want to fill. Create white-space! Designers Rejoice!

Grid introduces the fr unit which stands for fraction of available space.

Jen Simmons, a designer advocate at Mozilla is a great resource, with examples and explanatory videos.

CSS Tricks has a complete guide to CSS grid. It is well organized and clearly explained. It also has an interesting article: Hexagons and Beyond: Flexible, Responsive Grid Patterns, Sans Media Queries. A fully responsive hexagon grid made without media queries, JavaScript, or a ton of hacky CSS.

See the Pen
Responsive hexagon grid by Temani Afif (@t_afif)
on CodePen.

Multiple nested grids menu example does not need media queries Download code.

CSS Grid Cheat Sheet reference is helpful to visually select the grid properties you want to use.

CSS Grid

basic concepts

• The grid lines that define the grid: they can be horizontal or vertical, and they are numbered starting at 1.
• The grid tracks, which are the rows (horizontal) or columns (vertical) defined in the grid.
• The grid cells, the intersection of a row and a column.
• A grid area, one or more adjacent grid cells that define a rectangle.

CSS grid defines the behavior of the children of a parent block display: grid; or inline-block display: inline-grid; element. The parent element is intersected by invisible horizontal and vertical grid lines that form potential Grid Cells. Grid Tracts are spans that cover horizontal rows or vertical columns. Grid Areas are conjoined Grid Cells. Grid Gaps create space around grid lines. grid-gap: 50px 100px; is shorthand for 50 pixel column gap and 100px row gap.

By default the grid lines are named from 1 to whatever both down and up. Negative numbers designate the order in reverse, starting from the far sides and counting back toward the near side (negative numbers are not shown in the figure above).

Grid definitions position the content in Grid Child items on the grid. The grid is a flexible layout system designed to automatically fill out the space. It works in conjunction with flexbox in adapting layouts to available space.

Defining The Grid: Intrinsic or Extrinsic

The grid is intrinsic if you let the machine define the grid. Extrinsic grids are defined through CSS. Intrinsic grids automatically determine the content. Extrinsic grids determine the grid first, and then allows one to specify where the content goes through column and row properties. The following from the spec is an example of an extrinsic grid with four named areas: H, A, B, and F. The first column is sized to fit its contents (auto), and the second column takes up the remaining space (1fr). Rows default to auto (content-based) sizing; the last row is given a fixed size of 30px.