grrids v0.1.1

Grrids

"Grrids" is a simple, flexible, and extensible grid system based on CSS grids. It's under 3k minified--which might be small enough to use inline.

CSS' native grid capabilities do all the heavy lifting. This project only offers a set of useful classes and css presets for common situations. But since it's based on CSS' own amazing grid tools, it can be simply extended to create more complex grid-based layouts.

See the demo at https://bedlamhotel.gitlab.io/grrids.

Features

The basic library styles create a 48 column grid for maximum divisibility into twelfths, eights, sixths, quarters, thirds and halves. A few utility classes on top of the grid prove the following capabilities:

1. Minimal markup one-row grids of n equal parts

Creating a simple one-row grid divided into equal parts can be done like this:

<!-- Grid in four equal parts -->
<div class="grct">
  <div class="grr--quarters">
    <div>1/4</div>
    <div>1/4</div>
    <div>1/4</div>
    <div>1/4</div>
  </div>
</div>

The same grid could also be achieved this way:

<!-- Grid in four equal parts -->
<div class="grct">
  <div class="grr">
    <div class="gcc--1-4">1/4</div>
    <div class="gcc--1-4">1/4</div>
    <div class="gcc--1-4">1/4</div>
    <div class="gcc--1-4">1/4</div>
  </div>
</div>

2. Minimal markup one-row grids of two unequal parts

<!-- Grid divided into two parts, 2/3 and 1/3 -->
<div class="grct">
  <div class="grr">
    <div class="gcc--2-3">2/3</div>
    <div class="gcc--1-3">1/3</div>
  </div>
</div>

3. Minimal markup one-row grids with one centered cell

<!-- Grid with one 7/12 width cell centered -->
<div class="grct">
  <div class="grr--centered">
    <div class="gcc--7-12">1/3</div>
  </div>
</div>

4. Easy custom grids

The utility classes work well for setting the widths of cells in complex grids as well--note that this is the first example requiring any custom CSS to build:

.grct { --gr-gap: 5px; }

.grr { grid-auto-rows: 4vh; }

.grc--1-3 { grid-row-start: 1; grid-row-end: 2; }

.grc--full { grid-row-start: 2; grid-row-end: 6; }

.grc--1-2:nth-child(5) { grid-row-start: 6; grid-row-end: 9; }

.grc--1-2:nth-child(6) { grid-row-start: 6; grid-row-end: 8; }

<!-- A complex grid with 9 cells spanning various columns and rows -->
<div class="grct grg__debug--twelfths">
  <div class="grr grr__debug grc__debug">
    <div class="grc--1-3"><sup>1</sup>⁄<sub>3</sub></div>
    <div class="grc--1-3"><sup>1</sup>⁄<sub>3</sub></div>
    <div class="grc--1-3"><sup>1</sup>⁄<sub>3</sub></div>
    <div class="grc--full"><sup>12</sup>⁄<sub>12</sub> (Full)</div>
    <div class="grc--1-2"><sup>1</sup>⁄<sub>2</sub></div>
    <div class="grc--1-2"><sup>1</sup>⁄<sub>2</sub></div>
    <div class="grc--1-8"><sup>1</sup>⁄<sub>8</sub></div>
    <div class="grc--1-4"><sup>1</sup>⁄<sub>4</sub></div>
    <div class="grc--1-8"><sup>1</sup>⁄<sub>8</sub></div>
  </div>
</div>

Classes

As mentioned above, the set of classes for setting grid-cell sizes is based on a 48 column grid which allows the use of twelfths, eighths, sixths, quarters, thirds, and halves (it could also be extended to offer sixteenths or twenty- fourths).

But to provide classes for every possible fraction would require thirty-five classes (12 + 8 + 6 + 4 + 3 + 2). Even if we used a single class to cover all cases like 12⁄12, 8⁄8, we'd still need thirty.

So to keep the library small, class names rely on the lowest common denominator. This allows us to base all the classes on just fifteen fractions plus one for full-width:

1. 1/12
2. 1/8
3. 1/6 (2/12)
4. 1/4 (3/12, 2/8)
5. 1/3 (4/12)
6. 3/8
7. 5/12
8. 1/2 (6/12, 4/8, 2/4)
9. 7/12
10. 5/8
11. 2/3 (8/12, 4/6)
12. 3/4 (9/12, 6/8)
13. 5/6 (10/12)
14. 7/8
15. 11/12
16. 12/12

In practice, we have more than sixteen classes because we provide classes for centering, and space-saving classes that can be applied at the row-level instead of on individual grid cells. The declarations can be seen in context in the grid.css file, but the set of class names is:

Why "Grrids"?

Because naming things is hard. And because the row class name is grr (gr for 'grid', and r for 'row').