Never heard of CSS frameworks before? Here I try to give a short overview of the whole concept and a couple of implementations.

1. CSS Framework?
What’s out there?
Conclusion
CSS Frameworks: An introduction
Horst Gutmann
2/2/2008
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2. CSS Framework?
What’s out there?
Conclusion
1 CSS Framework?
2 What’s out there?
Blueprint
YUI Grids
YAML
3 Conclusion
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3. CSS Framework?
What’s out there?
Conclusion
CSS Framework?
... or library, or in some cases a collection of common hacks
for common problems.
The moment you extract some general definitions from one
project and make them accessible to other projects, have
created yourself a framework
They help you not to have to look up the same CSS hacks for
positioning in IE again and again ;-)
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4. CSS Framework?
What’s out there?
Conclusion
Purpose
The goal here is to allow the designer or developer to
focus on tasks that are unique to a given project, rather
than reinventing the wheel each time around.
– Jeff Croft1
1
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/frameworksfordesigners
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5. CSS Framework?
What’s out there?
Conclusion
Separation
In most cases it makes sense reset
to modularize a basic baseline
stylesheet to make it possible add-ons
to only use some parts of it. typography
This makes reusing the forms
stylesheets even easier. grid
...
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6. CSS Framework?
What’s out there?
Conclusion
Advantages
DRY (Don’t repeat yourself)
Basic concept that makes it easy for other people to
understand the style
Implicitly use coding/naming guidelines
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7. CSS Framework?
What’s out there?
Conclusion
Disadvantages
... that are not yours
You have to learn the framework
Possible semantical implications
Might offer too much
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8. CSS Framework? Blueprint
What’s out there? YUI Grids
Conclusion YAML
Something has to be there...
Symfony
Ruby on Turbo-
Rails gears
Backend
Django ...
jQuery JavaScript CSS
YUI ?
...
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9. CSS Framework? Blueprint
What’s out there? YUI Grids
Conclusion YAML
Basic example
... with 4 columns
Most frameworks and
base-designs are targeted
at a maximum of 3
columns
1st 2nd 3rd 4th
... so how to get 4
columns to work, should
give some indication of
the flexibility of a
framework
... and when you have to
start with nesting
... and how much
extra-markup is required
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10. CSS Framework? Blueprint
What’s out there? YUI Grids
Conclusion YAML
http://blueprintcss.googlecode.com
License: MIT
Based on the idea of splitting the width of a
page into 24 columns (with 40px = 30px +
10px margin each)
By default max-width 950px (24 ∗ 40 − 10)
Semi-official tool to create a grid for every
fixed resolution
No fluid layout possible (yet)
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11. CSS Framework? Blueprint
What’s out there? YUI Grids
Conclusion YAML
Required structure
.container
.column .column .column .column
.span-6 .span-6 .span-6 .span-6
.last
.span-6 basically defines a column that occupies 6 grid-columns.
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12. CSS Framework? Blueprint
What’s out there? YUI Grids
Conclusion YAML
Tools
Figure: Layout buildera
Figure: Grid generatora
a
http:
a
http://kematzy.com/ //www.blueprintlayouttool.com/
blueprint-generator/
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13. CSS Framework? Blueprint
What’s out there? YUI Grids
Conclusion YAML
http://developer.yahoo.com/yui
License: BSD
Part of the Yahoo User Interface library
Let’s you separate a page into multiple
columns (with a max. of 4) and subcolumns
No pre-defined columns like in Blueprint.
Requires a basic page structure with id’
elements.
Font-size using % (mapping table provided)
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14. CSS Framework? Blueprint
What’s out there? YUI Grids
Conclusion YAML
Template base structure
#doc{2,3,4} | #custom-doc
#hd #doc defines the initial width of
the grid (#doc3 = 100%)
#bd
#bd is required for automatic
cleaning floats
#yui-main .yui-b
2-column designs with
templates .yui-t{1,2,3,4,5,6},
#yui-main and .yui-b
#ft
Nesting using pre-made floats
((1/3,1/3,1/3), (1/4,3/4), ...)
Figure: Structure for
templates
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15. CSS Framework? Blueprint
What’s out there? YUI Grids
Conclusion YAML
Grid example
<d i v i d=” bd ”>
<d i v c l a s s=” y u i −g ”>
<d i v c l a s s=” y u i −g f i r s t ”>
<d i v c l a s s=” y u i −u f i r s t ”>1 s t</ d i v>
<d i v c l a s s=” y u i −u”>2 nd</ d i v>
</ d i v>
<d i v c l a s s=” y u i −g ”>
<d i v c l a s s=” y u i −u f i r s t ”>3 r d</ d i v>
<d i v c l a s s=” y u i −u”>4 t h</ d i v>
</ d i v>
</ d i v>
</ d i v>
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16. CSS Framework? Blueprint
What’s out there? YUI Grids
Conclusion YAML
http://www.yaml.de
License: CC-A and commercial license
Very well documented
Floats everywhere
Also supports IE5.
No separation between reset- and
base-stylesheet
No merged stylesheet provided
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17. CSS Framework? Blueprint
What’s out there? YUI Grids
Conclusion YAML
Recommended base structure
#page_margin
#page
#header #topnav
#nav Recommended because
#main
mostly the IE-hacks are
#col1
based on this structurea
#col3 has an auto-width
#col2
a
http://www.yaml.de/en/documentation
#col3
variations.html
#footer
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18. CSS Framework? Blueprint
What’s out there? YUI Grids
Conclusion YAML
One last time: The example
<d i v i d=” body ”>
<d i v i d=” c o l 1 ”>
<d i v i d=” c o l 1 c o n t e n t ”>1 s t</ d i v></ d i v>
<d i v i d=” c o l 2 ”>
<d i v i d=” c o l 2 c o n t e n t ”>2 nd</ d i v></ d i v>
<d i v i d=” c o l 3 ”>
<d i v c l a s s=” s u b c o l u m n s ”>
<d i v c l a s s=” c 5 0 l ”>
<d i v c l a s s=” s u b c l ”>3 r d</ d i v></ d i v>
<d i v c l a s s=” c 5 0 r ”>
<d i v c l a s s=” s u b c r ”>4 t h</ d i v></ d i v>
</ d i v>
</ d i v>
</ d i v>
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19. CSS Framework? Blueprint
What’s out there? YUI Grids
Conclusion YAML
Uhm...
#c o l 1 {
w i d t h : 25%;
float : left ;
}
The problem here is, that this #c o l 2 {
w i d t h : 25%;
is not all that is required. You
float : left ;
also need at least this: }
#c o l 3 {
margin : 0 ;
w i d t h : 50%;
}
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20. CSS Framework?
What’s out there?
Conclusion
Conclusion
You’ll have to see for yourself, which one is the best for you
Blueprint looks like a good approach for fixed-width designs
because it makes calculating image dimensions easy.
YUI looks more lightweight compared to YAML
YUI doesn’t let you grid header not footer.
Is it still worth supporting IE5?
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21. CSS Framework?
What’s out there?
Conclusion
Thanks for your attention
Questions?
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