HTML CSS Grid: A Comprehensive Guide to Building Complex Layouts

HTML CSS Grid is a game-changer for building complex layouts. It allows for two-dimensional layout creation, making it perfect for modern web development.

With Grid, you can create layouts that are both flexible and responsive. This means your website will look great on any device, whether it's a desktop computer, tablet, or smartphone.

Grid is based on rows and columns, which are defined using the grid-template-rows and grid-template-columns properties. These properties are used to create a grid container that can hold grid items.

Grid items are the content that will be placed within the grid container. They can be images, text, or other HTML elements.

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To create a CSS Grid layout, you'll first need to define a grid container. This can be any individual parent element, such as a div. The grid container can be defined by passing the display property with either a value of grid or inline-grid to an element's style block.

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The value grid makes the parent grid element act like an un-styled div, spanning the full width of a page by default, while the value inline-grid behaves like an un-styled span, acting like an inline element to its siblings.

To change the layout of the grid items within a grid, you must explicitly define the rows and columns you want your grid to have. This can be done using the CSS properties grid-template-columns and grid-template-rows.

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The CSS grid is a game-changer for web designers. It allows us to achieve almost any type of layout we need, thanks to its flexibility.

Dividing up the major regions of a page into smaller sections is a breeze with CSS grid. It's great for setting the relationship between elements in terms of size and position.

Unlike tables, the grid isn't limited by a particular content structure, which makes it possible to create a wider variety of website layouts.

The grid layout can easily adapt to changes in device, space, and orientation without requiring a semantic change in the content. This is a huge advantage over traditional layouts.

You can rearrange grid elements, no matter their source order, which makes it possible to fit the layout to the context without changing the underlying markup.

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To use CSS Grid, you first need to define a grid container. This can be any individual parent element, like a div. To do this, pass the display property with a value of grid or inline-grid to an element's style block. This will implicitly convert all direct child elements of the grid container into grid items.

The value grid makes the parent grid element act like an un-styled div, spanning the full width of a page by default. In contrast, the value inline-grid behaves like an un-styled span, making it act like an inline element to its siblings.

To change the layout of the grid items within a grid, you must explicitly define the rows and columns you want your grid to have. You can do this using the CSS properties grid-template-columns and grid-template-rows.

Grid items are the direct children of the grid container and are arranged vertically into columns and horizontally into rows. The space between a row and a column is called a gap. You can adjust the gap using properties like grid-column-gap and grid-row-gap, or the shorthand property grid-gap.

To position a grid item inside a container, you reference the line numbers. For a web page with only two columns, this will suffice. However, if you want more control over the web page, you can use 12 columns on the grid.

Here are the properties you can use to align grid items horizontally along the columns of a grid container:

You can also use the gap property to set the values for both the column-gap and row-gap properties. The gap property is a shorthand for the row-gap and column-gap properties and accepts two values: the row-gap value and the optional column-gap value.

Grid properties are the building blocks of CSS Grid, and understanding them is key to creating responsive and flexible layouts. There are several properties that control the layout of grid items, including grid-column-start, grid-column-end, grid-row-start, grid-row-end, grid-column, grid-row, and grid-area.

You can also use the grid shorthand property to set multiple grid properties at once. This is especially useful when you want to set both explicit and implicit grid properties in a single declaration. For example, you can use the grid property to set grid-template-rows, grid-template-columns, and grid-auto-flow all at once.

If you want to add some spacing between columns or rows in a grid, you can use the column-gap or row-gap properties. But if you want to set both column and row gaps at once, you can use the gap property, which is a shorthand for both column-gap and row-gap. The gap property accepts two values, where the first value sets the row-gap and the second value (optional) sets the column-gap.

Here are some common grid properties:

The Grid Container is the element on which display: grid is applied. It's the direct parent of all the grid items, as seen in example 2 where the container is the grid container.

A grid container is created by applying display: grid to an element. This makes it the parent of all the grid items, which are the elements that make up the grid.

The Grid Container has several properties that can be used to customize its behavior. These properties include display, grid-template-columns, grid-template-rows, and grid-template-areas, as listed in example 1.

Here are some key properties for the Grid Container:

These properties can be used to control the layout and behavior of the grid container and its contents.

Grid areas are the total space surrounded by four grid lines, and they can be composed of any number of grid cells. This concept is crucial to understanding how grid layouts work.

The grid area can be defined by specifying the row and column lines where the grid item starts and ends. For example, the grid area between row grid lines 1 and 3, and column grid lines 1 and 3 is a common scenario.

Grid areas can be given a name using the grid-template-areas property, which is useful for referencing them in your CSS. This property allows you to create a template for your grid layout and assign names to specific areas.

Alternatively, the grid-area property can be used to assign a name to a grid item, or as a shorthand for specifying the grid-row-start, grid-column-start, grid-row-end, and grid-column-end properties. This shorthand property can save you time and code, but it requires a bit more effort to remember the order of the property values.

Here are the properties you can use to define a grid area:

Note that some properties, such as float, display: inline-block, display: table-cell, vertical-align, and column-*, have no effect on a grid item.

Grid properties are the building blocks of CSS Grid, and understanding them is crucial for creating complex layouts.

The grid container properties include display, grid-template-columns, grid-template-rows, grid-template-areas, grid-template, grid-column-gap, grid-row-gap, grid-gap, justify-items, align-items, place-items, justify-content, align-content, place-content, grid-auto-columns, grid-auto-rows, and grid-auto-flow.

Here's a list of grid container properties:

Grid item properties, on the other hand, include grid-column-start, grid-column-end, grid-row-start, grid-row-end, grid-column, grid-row, grid-area, justify-self, align-self, and place-self.

Grid template columns are a fundamental aspect of CSS Grid, allowing you to define the number and size of columns in a grid container.

The grid-template-columns property defines the columns of the grid with a space-separated list of values. Each value represents the track size, and the space between them represents the grid line. You can use a length, a percentage, or a fraction of the free space in the grid using the fr unit.

For example, you can use the repeat() function to define multiple columns with the same size, like this: repeat(7, 1fr).

Grid lines are automatically assigned positive numbers, but you can choose to explicitly name the lines using the bracket syntax. A line can have more than one name.

Here are the possible values for the grid-template-columns property:

You can use the repeat() function to repeat a track list, like this: repeat(7, 1fr). This is equivalent to repeating the track list 7 times.

Here's an example of how to use the repeat() function:

repeat(7, 1fr) is equivalent to:

1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr

You can also use the repeat() function with a positive integer, like this: repeat(7, 1fr). This is equivalent to repeating the track list 7 times.

Here's a summary of the possible values for the grid-template-columns property:

Note that the repeat() function is a shorthand way to define multiple columns with the same size.

Grid sizing is a crucial aspect of CSS Grid, and understanding the different methods will help you create more efficient and flexible layouts.

You can use keywords like min-content, max-content, and auto to size rows and columns, which are especially useful for dynamic content.

Min-content is the minimum size of the content, while max-content is the maximum size of the content. This can be useful for images, text, and other elements that have varying sizes.

The fit-content() function uses the available space, but never less than min-content and never more than max-content, which helps maintain a balance between content and layout.

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The minmax() function sets a minimum and maximum value for the length, allowing you to control how much a column or row can shrink or grow.

Here are some key CSS Grid functions to keep in mind:

Grid Layout Options offer a lot of flexibility in how we structure our content.

One popular option is fluid columns, which can adjust their width based on the available space.

Fluid width columns can break into more or less columns as space is available, with no media queries!

This means we can create a responsive layout without having to worry about specific screen sizes.

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Grid shorthand properties can save you time and make your code look cleaner.

You can use the grid-column and grid-row properties to define the start and end points of a grid item in a single line. To do this, make the first number the column line where the grid item starts and the second number represents the column line where the grid item ends, separated by a slash.

The grid-area property can save you even more time by requiring less code, but it's a bit more difficult to remember the order of property values.

To use the grid-area property, define it with four values: the row line where the grid item starts, the column line where the grid item starts, the row line where the grid item ends, and the column line where the grid item ends, in that order.

CSS Grid also offers a handful of other shorthand properties that provide a shorter and more forward way to set the values of multiple CSS Grid properties simultaneously.

The grid property is a shorthand property that lets you set a value for each of the explicit grid container properties, such as grid-template-rows and grid-template-columns, and for each implicit grid container properties, such as grid-auto-rows and grid-auto-columns, in a single declaration.

CSS Grid layouts can be used to create a responsive and flexible card layout with a dynamic number of items. This can be achieved by combining the powers of repeat(), auto-fit, and minmax().

With repeat(), you can pack in as many columns into a grid row before it wraps to a new line. Auto-fit ensures the columns fill all available space, while minmax() prevents them from shrinking narrower than 250px. Each column takes up an equal fraction of space.

Rachel Andrew has shared some excellent examples of basic CSS grid layouts.

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Let's look at some basic CSS grid layout examples. Rachel Andrew, a web designer, has provided some examples that we can learn from.

We can create a grid with rows and columns using the CSS grid properties.

Rachel Andrew's examples show how to use the grid-template-rows and grid-template-columns properties to define the grid structure.

A simple grid layout can be created with two rows and two columns.

The grid-template-columns property can be used to define the width of each column.

The Holy Grail Layout is a classic web page structure that's easy to achieve with CSS grid. This layout typically consists of a header at the top, footer at the bottom, and a content area in between, divided into two columns.

The content area is the main focus of the page, and it's situated between the two columns. With CSS grid, it's now easy to achieve this layout, whereas before it was quite difficult.

The HTML for this layout defines the header, navigation sidebar, main content, right sidebar, and the footer. You can replace the navigation sidebar with another right sidebar if you prefer.

The CSS defines the grid and grid items, using the fr unit to define each column. This allows the grid tracks to grow and shrink according to the available space. Every grid item is also made into a flex item with center alignment and justified content.

To style the content, you can change the background color and padding of the header, navigation sidebar, main content, right sidebar, and footer elements. Then, set the grid-column-start and -end properties to 1 and 4 so they span the length of the grid. Finally, set a minimum width for the main content element so that it takes up most of the page.

This layout is a great starting point for many web pages, and with CSS grid, it's now easy to create and customize.

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The Calendly Blog is a great example of a website using CSS Grids. It's a real-world application that shows how grids can be used to create a visually appealing and functional layout.

CSS Grids can be used to create implicit grids, which are dynamic and will add or remove rows as needed based on the number of children. This is because the grid parent is still using Flow layout, where block elements grow vertically to contain their content.

Giving a grid a fixed height changes its behavior, dividing the total surface area into equally-sized rows. This is a key concept to understand when working with CSS Grids.

Grid areas are a more ergonomic way to define a grid structure, allowing us to give semantic meaning to our grid assignments. By using areas, we can create a grid that's easy to understand and maintain.

Implicit grids can be useful when the number of rows and columns is unknown, but explicit grids with areas are better suited for layouts with a fixed number of rows and columns.

The Calendly Blog is a great example of a website using CSS Grids to create a visually appealing and functional layout.

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Forms Elements are a breeze to align with CSS Grid. With it, you can tell the left column to display at max-content, and the right column will take up the rest of the space. No extra elements or wrappers needed!

This makes it easy to create neatly stacked forms, where the input label is on the left and the input is on the right. You can forget about uneven labels and staggered starting points.

By spending time to grasp the grid, you're laying the groundwork for producing well-designed websites.

Perfecting the CSS grid is a worthwhile investment, especially considering it's a more efficient alternative to the deprecated table tag.

For responsive layouts, the grid is a game-changer, allowing you to create complex designs with ease.

With the grid, you can create a strong foundation for your website, making it more likely to pass Google's tests.

The grid's flexibility makes it an ideal choice for responsive design, enabling you to create websites that adapt to different screen sizes.

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Grid items can be tricky to align properly, especially when using the `grid-template-columns` property. If your grid items are not aligning as expected, try using the `grid-template-columns` shorthand property to define the column layout.

One common mistake is not including the `grid` property in the parent element's CSS. Make sure to include `display: grid` to establish the grid container.

The `grid-template-columns` property can be defined using a repeat function, which is useful for creating repeating patterns. For example, `grid-template-columns: repeat(3, 1fr)` creates three equal-width columns.

If you're having trouble understanding the grid layout, try visualizing the grid using the `grid-template-areas` property. This property allows you to define named areas within the grid, making it easier to understand the layout.

The `grid-auto-columns` property can be used to define the implicit grid columns, which is useful when the grid items are not explicitly defined. For example, `grid-auto-columns: 1fr` defines one implicit column that takes up the full width of the grid container.

Grid Advanced Techniques can be a game-changer for complex layouts.

To use grid-template-areas effectively, identify the repeating patterns in your layout and assign them a unique name.

Grid auto-placement is a powerful feature that can automatically place items in the grid based on their size and the available space.

To use grid-auto-flow, specify the direction of the auto-placement, such as row or column, and set the density of the placement, such as dense or sparse.

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The fit-content() function is a game-changer for grid layouts. It operates similarly to the minmax() function, but with a twist.

The minimum value of fit-content() is the size of the content within the grid item, while the maximum value is the value we pass to it. This lets you clamp your content to the smallest value and scale it up to a certain value as needed.

By applying fit-content() to a grid track, you can set its size to its intrinsic minimum width, which is the size of the smallest piece of content or text in its grid items. The caveat is that this size can't be larger than the value specified in the function.

The code above creates three columns with widths of 200px, 300px, and 400px, respectively, using the fit-content() function. This means the size of each column will be equal to the size of the smallest piece of content or text in its grid items.

If the intrinsic minimum width of the content or text exceeds the value supplied to the function, the size of the grid track is set to the value passed to the fit-content() function, and the content of the grid items will begin to wrap.

The two-line centering trick is a game-changer for anyone working with CSS Grid. It allows you to center a child within a container, both horizontally and vertically, using just two CSS properties.

The key to this trick is the place-content property, which is a shorthand for justify-content and align-content. This property is perfect for implicit grids with a single child, like our example here.

By setting place-content to center, we're pushing both the row and column to the center, resulting in a perfectly centered child. This is a much simpler solution than trying to use align-items and justify-items separately.

One of the best things about this trick is that it's responsive from the start, just like the grid itself. This means you can create amazing displays that look great on both desktop and mobile devices.

Grid shorthands can save you time and make your code look cleaner. You can use the shorthand grid-column and grid-row properties to define the grid layout.

These shorthand properties can be combined into one line, where the first number represents the column line where the grid item starts and the second number represents the column line where the grid item ends, separated by a slash.

The HTML stays the same, and the grid looks the same on the front end, even when using the shorthand properties.

Using the shorthand grid-area property can save you even more time by requiring less code, but it's a bit more difficult to remember the order of property values.

The order of the values is: row line where grid item starts / column line where grid item starts / row line where grid item ends / column line where grid item ends.

CSS Grid offers a few handy functions to combine with CSS Grid, such as the syntax for defining shorthand properties.

These shorthand properties, like grid-column and grid-row, can be used to write more concise and readable style sheets, saving time and energy.

CSS Grid shorthands provide a shorter and more forward way to set the values of multiple CSS Grid properties simultaneously.

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Grid layout variations are a great way to create complex and visually appealing designs. Some of the most common variations include the use of grid templates, which allow you to create a repeating pattern of grid cells.

Rachel Andrew's examples show how grid templates can be used to create a layout with a repeating pattern of 2x2 grid cells. This can be especially useful for creating a grid-based layout that needs to accommodate multiple items of varying sizes.

Grid areas are another key feature of CSS grid layout, allowing you to define a named area of the grid and reference it in other parts of your code. This can be used to create a layout with multiple named areas, such as a header, main content area, and footer.

By using grid areas, you can create a layout that is both flexible and responsive, adapting to different screen sizes and devices.