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Jennifer's Web Design / HTML Blog

By Jennifer Kyrnin, About.com Guide to Web Design / HTML since 1997

My favorite CSS frameworks

Wednesday September 24, 2008

Be warned - CSS frameworks can be addictive. I've tried most of the frameworks I could find on the Web and while it can be challenging to use someone else's code it can be addictive to determine how they set up their framework to make it easier for me. I first encountered frameworks several years ago when one of the designers on my team spent some time building us an incredible one. It was specific to the site we were maintaining, but he did an excellent job of incorporating the designs that the graphic artists had come up with with valid XHTML and CSS to give us a baseline to create new pages quickly and easily. When he showed me that, I was hooked (thanks, Fred!). Since then, I've tried a number of different CSS frameworks, and while I'm still inclined to use the one I built for myself, there are some definite advantages to lots of them. Here are a few of my favorites, in no particular order:

Yahoo! UIYahoo UI
I like Yahoo! UI because it's so comprehensive. It's got tons of different things I can use to build websites. But the comprehensiveness makes it a bit hard to use - because it's complicated.

BlueprintBlueprint
Blueprint is a lot easier to use than Yahoo! but it's less comprehensive as well. I like it because it uses up to 24 columns in the grid and covers all the typography I tend to use.

Hartija
Hartija is not a full framework in itself, but it's great for print CSS.

960 Grid System960 Grid System
The 960 Grid System is well thought out and is easy to use in standard Web editing tools like Fireworks and Dreamweaver.

ElementsElements
I like Elements because it thinks about the project flow as well as the styles. So you can use it to manage your freelance projects from start to finish - and keep them styled nicely.

And lots more...

What CSS Frameworks have you tried? Why do you like them or dislike them? Is there one missing from my full list? Have you built one of your own?

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