CSS Grid

Grid Container

Basic Setup

.container {
  display: grid;
}

grid-template-columns

Define column structure:

.container {
  /* Fixed columns */
  grid-template-columns: 200px 1fr 200px;
  
  /* Repeat syntax */
  grid-template-columns: repeat(3, 1fr);
  
  /* Auto-fill */
  grid-template-columns: repeat(auto-fill, minmax(200px, 1fr));
  
  /* Auto-fit */
  grid-template-columns: repeat(auto-fit, minmax(200px, 1fr));
}

grid-template-rows

Define row structure:

.container {
  grid-template-rows: 100px auto 100px;
  grid-template-rows: repeat(3, minmax(100px, auto));
}

gap

Space between items:

.container {
  gap: 20px;           /* Both row and column */
  row-gap: 20px;       /* Row gap only */
  column-gap: 10px;    /* Column gap only */
}

grid-template

Shorthand for columns and rows:

.container {
  grid-template: 100px 1fr 100px / 200px 1fr 200px;
}

Grid Lines

.container {
  grid-template-columns: [col-start] 200px [col-end] 1fr [col-end];
  grid-template-rows: [row-start] 100px [row-end] auto [row-end];
}

Grid Items

Placing Items

.item1 {
  grid-column: 1 / 3;    /* Span columns 1 to 3 */
  grid-row: 1 / 2;       /* Span rows 1 to 2 */
}

.item2 {
  grid-column: span 2;   /* Span 2 columns */
  grid-row: span 3;      /* Span 3 rows */
}

grid-area

Name or place items:

.item1 {
  grid-area: header;
}

.item2 {
  grid-area: 1 / 1 / 2 / 3; /* row-start / col-start / row-end / col-end */
}

Alignment

Self Alignment

.item {
  justify-self: start;   /* Align to start */
  justify-self: end;     /* Align to end */
  justify-self: center;  /* Center */
  justify-self: stretch; /* Stretch to fill */
  
  align-self: center;    /* Vertical alignment */
}

All Items

.container {
  justify-items: center;  /* All items */
  align-items: center;
}

grid-auto-rows / grid-auto-columns

Size for implicit tracks:

.container {
  grid-auto-rows: minmax(100px, auto);
  grid-auto-columns: 1fr;
}

Template Areas

Named Grid Areas

.layout {
  display: grid;
  grid-template-columns: 200px 1fr 200px;
  grid-template-rows: auto 1fr auto;
  grid-template-areas:
    "header header header"
    "sidebar content aside"
    "footer footer footer";
}

.header { grid-area: header; }
.sidebar { grid-area: sidebar; }
.content { grid-area: content; }
.aside { grid-area: aside; }
.footer { grid-area: footer; }

Responsive Template Areas

.layout {
  grid-template-areas:
    "header"
    "content"
    "footer";
}

@media (min-width: 768px) {
  .layout {
    grid-template-columns: 200px 1fr;
    grid-template-areas:
      "header header"
      "sidebar content"
      "footer footer";
  }
}

@media (min-width: 1024px) {
  .layout {
    grid-template-columns: 200px 1fr 200px;
    grid-template-areas:
      "header header header"
      "sidebar content aside"
      "footer footer footer";
  }
}

Visual Grid

+-------------------------------------+
|              header                  |
+--------+----------------+-----------+
| sidebar|     content    |   aside   |
+--------+----------------+-----------+
|              footer                 |
+-------------------------------------+

Common Grid Patterns

Responsive Card Grid

.card-grid {
  display: grid;
  grid-template-columns: repeat(auto-fit, minmax(300px, 1fr));
  gap: 20px;
}

Dashboard Layout

.dashboard {
  display: grid;
  grid-template-columns: 250px 1fr;
  grid-template-rows: 60px 1fr;
  grid-template-areas:
    "sidebar header"
    "sidebar main";
  height: 100vh;
}

Photo Gallery

.gallery {
  display: grid;
  grid-template-columns: repeat(auto-fill, minmax(150px, 1fr));
  gap: 5px;
}

.gallery img {
  width: 100%;
  height: 100%;
  object-fit: cover;
}

Centered Content

.page {
  display: grid;
  grid-template-columns: 1fr min(65ch, 100%) 1fr;
}

.page > * {
  grid-column: 2;
}

Holy Grail with Grid

.layout {
  display: grid;
  grid-template:
    "header header header" 60px
    "nav main aside" 1fr
    "footer footer footer" 60px
    / 200px 1fr 200px;
  min-height: 100vh;
}

Auto-Fit vs Auto-Fill

/* auto-fit: items stretch to fill space */
.grid { grid-template-columns: repeat(auto-fit, minmax(200px, 1fr)); }

/* auto-fill: items keep their size */
.grid { grid-template-columns: repeat(auto-fill, minmax(200px, 1fr)); }

Grid vs Flexbox

Feature	Grid	Flexbox
Dimension	2D	1D
Layout	Page-level	Component-level
Alignment	Both axes	Main axis only
Overlap	Yes (grid-area)	No
Naming	Yes (template areas)	No