Month: April 2019

What CSS Frameworks do you use? A framework like Bootstrap can be customize to suit your needs. Sometimes you have override the standard styles to get the design to work. You may want to use a framework that is flexible and doesn’t make design decisions for you. Here are 5 frameworks that you can use in your next project.

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Pure CSS

Pure.css is small, responsive CSS framework. It allows you to easily create your own styles while providing responsive layout and common UI components. Pure.css is flexible that you can use it with other frameworks like Bootstrap without any issues. Monty Shokeen explains how you can start using [this framework] (https://www.sitepoint.com/introducing-pure-css-lightweight-responsive-framework/) in your next project.

Mini CSS

Mini.css is a minimal and responsive framework. You can quickly change the CSS file to make a custom design. It relies on CSS for the styling, so it won’t conflict with any JavaScript library that you need to use.

Bulma

Bulma is a CSS framework that is based on Flexbox. It is responsive, modular and free. Bulma is easy to learn and customize. You don’t need JavaScript to get started using this framework.

Tailwind CSS

Tailwind CSS is a different from other CSS frameworks. It provides utility classes that make it easy to rapidly build custom user interfaces. Tailwind doesn’t make design decisions for you. You can create a completely custom design without having to overriding a bunch of pre-built classes.

Materialize CSS

Materialize is a modern, responsive framework based on Material Design. You can choose to use the standard version with CSS and JavaScript or the SCSS version. With the Standard version, you can get started right away. The SCSS requires a Sass compiler.

When choosing a framework for your next project, you may want a small and minimal one or something that works with your existing styles. These 5 provide you with different options to help create a custom user experience.

How do you write and organize your CSS? Do you prefer to use a structured method or not? With CSS, you can choose to use an existing method or develop your own. Some CMSes like WordPress have their own styles. When you use them, you need to follow their rules and guidelines.

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Your styles can get big, messy and convoluted over time. It can be hard to maintain. You don’t know what you can delete or change because you aren’t sure what problems it will cause. Without a method for organizing, it may get harder and harder to keep things straight. You can choose to use BEM, OOCSS, SMACSS, Atomic CSS or build your own.

BEM

BEM is a way of writing CSS created by Yandex. It is a very structured style of writing CSS. BEM has a component-based approach. This approach divides the user interface into separate components. BEM uses the structure of Block, Element and Modifier. It makes development easy and fast to update.

OOCSS

OOCSS (object-oriented CSS) applies principles of object-oriented languages to help you write CSS. It encourages code reuse and makes it easier to maintain. OOCSS uses the object-oriented principle of abstraction to make the code reusable. It helps you to separate visual elements like color, fonts and borders from the content. This separation makes your code easier to update. Especially when you need to change colors, fonts or other branding-related items.

SMACSS

SMACSS is more of a style guide than a CSS architecture. Scalable and Modular Architecture for CSS provides guidelines for writing CSS. This style guide helps you build CSS that is flexible and maintainable. With SMACSS, you create your own rules for writing CSS.

Atomic CSS

Atomic CSS focuses on small, single-purposed classes. You build well-structured HTML templates, so that your changes doesn’t break your design.

Your Own Style

When you build a website on your own or part of a small team, you can choose how you write your CSS. You may combine methods to help solve certain design problems.

How do you choose a method?

It depends. When you are working on your own project, you can choose which one you want to use. When you are working on a project that uses a CSS framework, it may be easier to use the method that the framework uses.

The best way to learn which one you like is to read the documentation and build a project with it. Then, you’ll know when to use these methods.