It’s time to stop spreading this out-dated practice
Setting the box-sizing model to border-box is one of the few remaining CSS ‘resets’ used across most projects. But there are two common approaches, and the more popular choice will cause more problems than it solves.
How to use it, and is it ready to use?
A workshop on resilient CSS layouts
Start using author-defined functions
There’s been a lot of progress in the CSS Working Group lately, but I want to draw your attention to a prototype that landed in Chromium ‘Canary’ (v136+) browsers with the experimental platform features flag enabled. Author-defined Functions are coming to CSS, and you can start to experiment with them…
With special guest Richard Rutter
Miriam’s been asking questions about fluid typography, and how a website design should plan for (and respond to) user preferences. And we’re not the only ones thinking about it! This month we continue the conversation with Richard Rutter from Clearleft, the experts behind excellent resources like Utopia.fyi and WebTypography.net.
In July we talked with Stephanie Eckles about how (and why) you can get started working grids into your CSS toolkit. As requested, this is part two of our dive into CSS grids. We address your questions about strategy – demoing how we plan and apply grid layouts, starting with…
CSS Working Group updates from July
Over the last month, the CSS Working Group has determined we can loosen containment restrictions for query containers, and agreed on a syntax for special-case support queries (like support for the gap property in a flex context, or support for align-content in a block flow context).
With special guest Stephanie Eckles
We talk with Stephanie Eckles – the brain behind ModernCSS.dev and SmolCSS.dev – about CSS grids. We look at a few of the most common grid patterns, to show you how (and why) you can get started working grids into your CSS toolkit!
The three types of browser (and CSS!) magnification
I’m working on an article about fluid typography, and relative units. But instead, I fell down this rabbit hole – or a cleverly-disguised trap? – trying to understand ‘zoom’ in the browser (not Zoom™️ the software). Since I couldn’t find any up-to-date articles on the subject, I thought I should…
Take your time with new CSS, but don’t sleep on the essentials
Several people have asked recently why container queries aren’t being used more broadly in production. But I think we underestimate the level of legacy browser support that most companies require to re-write a code-base.
with grids & custom properties
It’s time to move past grid systems like Susy
Inspired by Robin Rendle, I demonstrate some of my early experiments combining CSS Grids and custom properties to create dynamic layouts and data-visualizations.
Viewport units have been around for several years now, with near-perfect support in the major browsers, but I keep finding new and exciting ways to use them. I thought it would be fun to review the basics, and then round-up some of my favorite use-cases.
CSS Grid Layout is shaping up to be the layout tool we’ve always wanted on the web. How can we use it to start creating interesting layouts?
an introduction to the Susy layout toolkit
Susy Next alpha 5 is out, and loaded with changes. We now require Sass 3.3, we no longer require Compass, and there have been major syntax improvements. We’re getting real close to launch, and we’d love to know what you think. Play around, and let us know!
Susy Next alpha 4 is now available.
Go download & play with it!
We haven’t written full docs yet, and this blog post will be vastly incomplete, but I’ll give you a quick rundown of where we’re going. This is all open to change, of course. There’s a reason we’re still in alpha.
A few new features have landed in Susy 1.0.7, even as we work on more integrated syntaxes for 2.0. The isolate() and isolate-grid() mixins help you manage the worst effects of sub-pixel rounding, while bleed() helps you break items out of the box.
Last night we released the very first alpha build of Susy Next. This release is extremely sparse. What we have built is a background ‘engine’ for calculating grid math. There are some rough first steps towards api and syntax, but they are more “proof of concept” experimentation than usable interface.
The web is littered with grid systems and ‘frameworks’ that force your code & design into narrowly defined patterns. Even the most semantic of us have had to push specialized techniques in order to create a usable syntax.
But Sass has come a long way, and I’m convinced that it’s time for something new.
What if you had a layout system that bends completely to the needs of your site? What if you could use one unified syntax for handling responsive layouts of any kind? What if you had a modular system that let you mix-and-match to customize for every site, and change your output with simple extensions?
The off-canvas layout pattern for responsive web design has been getting all the attention lately, and I’ve had several people ask how Susy One might play along. I’ll show you how easy it is, and how much flexibility Susy can add along the way.