Apr
28
Written by:
Dylan Barber
4/28/2009 12:44 PM
I like CSS but it seems like it takes so much more time to develop and troubleshoot CSS sites than table based designs. (Okay you CSS people can send all the comments you want but that's my experience.)
Hopefully I can change that for myself with a new framework I found, the 960 Grid System. The website has a more complete overview but basically what the framework aspires to do is codify the layout of sites on a 960 pixel wide grid system with that width split up into 12 or 16 columns of equal width with a gutter between each column. For people like me who tend to think very linearly this is about like drawing on graph paper. The whole framework minified is about 4k or 5k and saves me from writing a lot of the CSS that I would need write to build the same site. I know this framework isn't for everyone or every site but artistically layout impaired developers like me its a blessing and very effective tool.
@Nokkio (on twitter) has developed a DNN skin and system based on this idea which can be seen at http://www.dnngrid960.com/ or the full 960 Grid System can be seen at http://960.gs/. Nettuts.com also has a look at the framework and a screencast showing how to use it to build a simple three column layout at http://nettuts.com/videos/screencasts/a-detailed-look-at-the-960-css-framework/. The screen cast is also embedded below if you want to watch it.