Last updated on: August 14, 2014

A Complete Guide to Grid

The grid property in CSS is the foundation of Grid Layout. It aims at fixing issues with older layout techniques like float and inline-block, which both have issues and weren't really designed for page layout.

You start by establishing a grid context on an element:

.area {
  display: -ms-grid; /* prefix for IE 10 */
  display: grid; /* or inline-grid */
}

Then you define what that grid layout will be like. Think columns and rows like a spreadsheet (or table). Then, you can define for each child a column and a row (resulting in a cell). No markup changing is involved; everything is done through CSS.

Along with the fact this method fixes the issues we encounter with older layout techniques, its main benefit is you can display a page in a way which can differ from the flow order.

Properties

Since CSS Grid Layout is a whole module and not a single property, it gathers a bunch of properties meant to be used together. Some are meant to be set on the parent (grid) element, others on the children.

• grid-row / grid-column
• grid-row-align / grid-column-align
• grid-row-span / grid-column-span
• grid-rows / grid-columns

The `fr` Unit

The fr unit can be used for grid-rows and grid-columns values. It stands for "fraction of available space". Think of it as percentages for available space when you've taken off fixed-sized and content-based columns/rows. As the spec says:

The distribution of fractional space occurs after all 'length' or content-based row and column sizes have reached their maximum.

Coming Soon

The properties listed so far are the very basics to use the grid layout; they are also the first (and currently only) properties to be supported in this module.

According to the official specifications, there are a lot more involved including:

• grid-template: allows grid definition through a template of identifiers
• grid-column-position: current grid-column since grid-column is supposed to be a shorthand for grid-column-position and grid-column-span
• grid-row-position: same as above
• grid-position: shorthand for grid-column-position and grid-row-position
• grid-span: shorthand for grid-column-span and grid-row-span
• grid-area: shorthand for grid-column-position, grid-row-position, grid-column-span and grid-row-span
• grid-auto-columns: change default size for columns
• grid-auto-rows: change default size for rows
• grid-auto-flow: allows grid-items to automatically flow in available cells

Unfortunately, these properties are currently unsupported. We'll update this article over time to document and include examples.

Example

Consider a structure like the following:

<div class="main">My awesome content here</div>
<footer class="footer">Some informations here</footer>
<header class="header">My site title goes here</header>
<aside class="sidebar">Here is my side content</aside>

Note how the markup order has absolutely no impact on the final rendering.

body {
 /* First, we define body as a grid element */
 display: grid;
   
 /* Then, we define the number of columns we want by setting their dimensions */
 /* Beware, gaps between columns will be actual columns too */
 /* 1. This means there are 3 columns: 
  * the first one is 200px wide
  * the second one will be a margin (1%) 
  * the third one will occupy the remaining space 
  */
 grid-columns: 200px 1% 1fr; /* 1 */
   
 /* Now we define the number of rows and their dimensions */
 /* 2. this means there are 5 rows: 
  * the first one will be sized according to its content
  * the second one will be a margin
  * the third one will be sized according to its content
  * the fourth one will be a margin as well
  * the last one will be sized according to its content 
  */
 grid-rows: auto 15px auto 15px auto; /* 2 */
   
 /* The body element is now a 3*5 grid. */
}
 
/* Both the header and the footer will be full width, so we have to make them occupy the 3 columns */
.header, 
.footer {
  grid-column-span: 3;
}

/* Let's define in which row the header will be: the first one */
.header {
  grid-row: 1;
}
 
/* Same for the footer: the last one so the fifth (remember margins count as cols/rows */
.footer {
  grid-row: 5;
}
 
.sidebar {
  /* The sidebar will occupy the first column which is 200px wide */
  grid-column: 1;
  /* And the 3rd row (there are the header and a margin before) */
  grid-row: 3;
}
 
.main {
  /* The main content will be on the 3rd column and the 3rd row */
 grid-column: 3;
 grid-row: 3;
}

With a few other lines of CSS to handle styling issues, we have a decent layout with absolutely no floats, no inline-blocks, no defined widths, no defined heights and no margins and completely independant of the flow order. Pretty neat, right?

Check out this Pen!

Now let's add a 2nd sidebar to, for instance, display ads. It will be on the right side of the main content. There are a few tweaks to do in order to make everything works.

/* We first change the grid-columns definition on the grid element to add 2 new columns: one margin and one sidebar */
body {
  display: grid;
  grid-columns: 200px 1% 1fr 1% 100px;
  grid-rows: auto 15px auto 15px auto;
  /* We could have writen grid-rows: auto (15px auto)[2] */
}

/* Both the header and the footer will expand to 5 columns instead of 3 */
.header, .footer {
  grid-column-span: 5;
}

.ads {
  grid-column: 5;
  grid-row: 3;
}

Done! We now have a layout with full-width header and footer, 3-columns on the main part including 2 fixed-width columns with about 13 lines of CSS.

Check out this Pen!

What about responsive design? Easy as a pie. Let's slightly tweak our design when under 600px device width.

@media all and (max-width: 600px) {
  body {
    /* First, we make the body 1-column and 5 rows spaced by 4 margin rows */
    grid-columns: 1fr;
    grid-rows: auto (1% auto)[4];
    /* This is the same as:
     * grid-rows: auto 1% auto 1% auto 1% auto 1% auto;
     */
  }
  
  /* Then we say to all elements they belong in the only existing column */
  .header, .ads, .sidebar, .main, .footer {
    grid-column: 1;
  }
  
  /* Now we define their row; don't forget spacing rows! */
  .header  { grid-row: 1; }
  .ads     { grid-row: 3; }
  .main    { grid-row: 5; }
  .sidebar { grid-row: 7; }
  .footer  { grid-row: 9; }
  
  /* We even can create grids inside grids */
  .ads {
    display: grid;
    grid-columns: 1% (32% 1%)[3]; /* 1% 32% 1% 32% 1% 32% 1% */
    grid-rows: 2; /* One for the title, one for the images */
  }
  
  .ads h2  { grid-row: 1; grid-column-span: 3; }
  .ads img { grid-row: 2; }
  .ads img:nth-of-type(1) { grid-column: 2; }
  .ads img:nth-of-type(2) { grid-column: 4; }
  .ads img:nth-of-type(3) { grid-column: 6; }
}

Have a look at this Pen and resize your browser to see the magic!

Here is a grid system made with CSS Grid Layout and Sass:

Check out this Pen!

If you feel uncomfortable with the idea of having columns and rows as margins, I guess you can still use actual margins on element but that defeats the purpose a bit. Or you could use a CSS preprocessor to ease you the calculations; here is a demo.

Related

• Flexbox

Other Resources

• CSS Grid Layout in the CSS specifications
• CSS Grid Layout by Microsoft
• Microsoft's CSS Grid layout playground
• CSS Grid Layout by 24Ways
• Future of CSS Layout: Grids

Browser Support

Support coming in WebKit/Blink and Gecko (currently in some nightly builds).