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CSS Grid

CSS Grid helps you easily build complex web designs. It works by turning an HTML element into a grid container with rows and columns for you to place children elements where you want within the grid.

• A Complete Guide to Grid

• Grid online CheatSheet

Create Your First CSS Grid

Turn any HTML element into a grid container by setting its display property to grid. This gives you the ability to use all the other properties associated with CSS Grid.

Note: In CSS Grid, the parent element is referred to as the container and its children are called items.

Add Columns with grid-template-columns

Simply creating a grid element doesn’t get you very far. You need to define the structure of the grid as well. To add some columns to the grid, use the grid-template-columns property on a grid container as demonstrated below:

.container {
  display: grid;
  grid-template-columns: 50px 50px;
}

This will give your grid two columns that are each 50px wide. The number of parameters given to the grid-template-columns property indicates the number of columns in the grid, and the value of each parameter indicates the width of each column.

Add Rows with grid-template-rows

The grid in the last example will set the number of rows automatically. To adjust the rows manually, use the grid-template-rows property in the same way you used grid-template-columns.

<style>
  .d1{background:LightSkyBlue;}
  .d2{background:LightSalmon;}
  .d3{background:PaleTurquoise;}
  .d4{background:LightPink;}
  .d5{background:PaleGreen;}

  .container {
    font-size: 40px;
    width: 100%;
    background: LightGray;
    display: grid;
    grid-template-columns: 100px 100px 100px;
    grid-template-rows: 50px 50px;
  }
</style>

<div class="container">
  <div class="d1">1</div>
  <div class="d2">2</div>
  <div class="d3">3</div>
  <div class="d4">4</div>
  <div class="d5">5</div>
</div>

Use CSS Grid units to Change the Size of Columns and Rows

You can use absolute and relative units like px and em in CSS Grid to define the size of rows and columns. You can use these as well:

fr: Sets the column or row to a fraction of the available space.

auto: Sets the column or row to the width or height of its content automatically.

%: Adjusts the column or row to the percent width of its container.

Example:

grid-template-columns: auto 50px 10% 2fr 1fr;

This snippet creates five columns. The first column is as wide as its content, the second column is 50px, the third column is 10% of its container, and for the last two columns; the remaining space is divided into three sections, two are allocated for the fourth column, and one for the fifth.

Create a Column Gap Using grid-column-gap

So far in the grids of the examples, the columns have all been tight up against each other. Sometimes you want a gap in between the columns. To add a gap between the columns, use the grid-column-gap property like this:

grid-column-gap: 10px;

This creates 10px of empty space between all of our columns.

Create a Row Gap using grid-row-gap

You can add a gap in between the rows of a grid using grid-row-gap.

<style>
  .d1{background:LightSkyBlue;}
  .d2{background:LightSalmon;}
  .d3{background:PaleTurquoise;}
  .d4{background:LightPink;}
  .d5{background:PaleGreen;}

  .container {
    font-size: 40px;
    min-height: 300px;
    width: 100%;
    background: LightGray;
    display: grid;
    grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr 1fr;
    grid-template-rows: 1fr 1fr 1fr;
    grid-column-gap: 20px;
    grid-row-gap: 5px;
  }
</style>

<div class="container">
  <div class="d1">1</div>
  <div class="d2">2</div>
  <div class="d3">3</div>
  <div class="d4">4</div>
  <div class="d5">5</div>
</div>

Add Gaps Faster with grid-gap

grid-gap is a shorthand property for grid-row-gap and grid-column-gap that’s more convenient to use. If grid-gap has one value, it will create a gap between all rows and columns. However, if there are two values, it will use the first one to set the gap between the rows and the second value for the columns.

<style>
  .d1{background:LightSkyBlue;}
  .d2{background:LightSalmon;}
  .d3{background:PaleTurquoise;}
  .d4{background:LightPink;}
  .d5{background:PaleGreen;}

  .container {
    font-size: 40px;
    min-height: 300px;
    width: 100%;
    background: LightGray;
    display: grid;
    grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr 1fr;
    grid-template-rows: 1fr 1fr 1fr;
    grid-gap: 10px 20px;
  }
</style>
<div class="container">
  <div class="d1">1</div>
  <div class="d2">2</div>
  <div class="d3">3</div>
  <div class="d4">4</div>
  <div class="d5">5</div>
</div>

Use grid-column to Control Spacing

Up to this point, all the properties that have been discussed are for grid containers. The grid-column property is the first one for use on the grid items themselves.

The hypothetical horizontal and vertical lines that create the grid are referred to as lines. These lines are numbered starting with 1 at the top left corner of the grid and move right for columns and down for rows, counting upward.

To control the amount of columns an item will consume, you can use the grid-column property in conjunction with the line numbers you want the item to start and stop at.

Here’s an example:

grid-column: 1 / 3;

This will make the item start at the first vertical line of the grid on the left and span to the 3rd line of the grid, consuming two columns.

<style>
  .item1{background:LightSkyBlue;}
  .item2{background:LightSalmon;}
  .item3{background:PaleTurquoise;}
  .item4{background:LightPink;}

  .item5 {
    background: PaleGreen;
    grid-column: 2 / 4;
  }

  .container {
    font-size: 40px;
    min-height: 300px;
    width: 100%;
    background: LightGray;
    display: grid;
    grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr 1fr;
    grid-template-rows: 1fr 1fr 1fr;
    grid-gap: 10px;
  }
</style>

<div class="container">
  <div class="item1">1</div>
  <div class="item2">2</div>
  <div class="item3">3</div>
  <div class="item4">4</div>
  <div class="item5">5</div>
</div>

Use grid-row to Control Spacing

Of course, you can make items consume multiple rows just like you can with columns. You define the horizontal lines you want an item to start and stop at using the grid-row property on a grid item.

<style>
  .item1{background:LightSkyBlue;}
  .item2{background:LightSalmon;}
  .item3{background:PaleTurquoise;}
  .item4{background:LightPink;}

  .item5 {
    background: PaleGreen;
    grid-column: 2 / 4;
    grid-row: 2 / 4;
  }

  .container {
    font-size: 40px;
    min-height: 300px;
    width: 100%;
    background: LightGray;
    display: grid;
    grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr 1fr;
    grid-template-rows: 1fr 1fr 1fr;
    grid-gap: 10px;
  }
</style>

<div class="container">
  <div class="item1">1</div>
  <div class="item2">2</div>
  <div class="item3">3</div>
  <div class="item4">4</div>
  <div class="item5">5</div>
</div>

Align an Item Horizontally using justify-self

In CSS Grid, the content of each item is located in a box which is referred to as a cell. You can align the content’s position within its cell horizontally using the justify-self property on a grid item. By default, this property has a value of stretch, which will make the content fill the whole width of the cell. This CSS Grid property accepts other values as well:

start: Aligns the content at the left of the cell.

center: Aligns the content in the center of the cell.

end: Aligns the content at the right of the cell.

<style>
  .item1{background: LightSkyBlue;}

  .item2 {
    background: LightSalmon;
    justify-self: center;
  }

  .item3{background:PaleTurquoise;}
  .item4{background:LightPink;}
  .item5{background:PaleGreen;}

  .container {
    font-size: 40px;
    min-height: 300px;
    width: 100%;
    background: LightGray;
    display: grid;
    grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr 1fr;
    grid-template-rows: 1fr 1fr 1fr;
    grid-gap: 10px;
  }
</style>

<div class="container">
  <div class="item1">1</div>
  <div class="item2">2</div>
  <div class="item3">3</div>
  <div class="item4">4</div>
  <div class="item5">5</div>
</div>

Align an Item Vertically using align-self

Just as you can align an item horizontally, there’s a way to align an item vertically as well. To do this, you use the align-self property on an item. This property accepts all of the same values as justify-self.

<style>
  .item1{background:LightSkyBlue;}
  .item2{background:LightSalmon;}

  .item3 {
    background: PaleTurquoise;
    align-self: end;
  }

  .item4{background:LightPink;}
  .item5{background:PaleGreen;}

  .container {
    font-size: 40px;
    min-height: 300px;
    width: 100%;
    background: LightGray;
    display: grid;
    grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr 1fr;
    grid-template-rows: 1fr 1fr 1fr;
    grid-gap: 10px;
  }
</style>

<div class="container">
  <div class="item1">1</div>
  <div class="item2">2</div>
  <div class="item3">3</div>
  <div class="item4">4</div>
  <div class="item5">5</div>
</div>

Align All Items Horizontally using justify-items

Sometimes you want all the items in your CSS Grid to share the same alignment. You can use the previously learned properties and align them individually, or you can align them all at once horizontally by using justify-items on your grid container. This property can accept all the same values you learned about in the previous two challenges, the difference being that it will move all the items in our grid to the desired alignment.

<style>
  .item1{background:LightSkyBlue;}
  .item2{background:LightSalmon;}
  .item3{background:PaleTurquoise;}
  .item4{background:LightPink;}
  .item5{background:PaleGreen;}

  .container {
    font-size: 40px;
    min-height: 300px;
    width: 100%;
    background: LightGray;
    display: grid;
    grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr 1fr;
    grid-template-rows: 1fr 1fr 1fr;
    grid-gap: 10px;
    justify-items: center;
  }
</style>

<div class="container">
  <div class="item1">1</div>
  <div class="item2">2</div>
  <div class="item3">3</div>
  <div class="item4">4</div>
  <div class="item5">5</div>
</div>

Align All Items Vertically using align-items

Using the align-items property on a grid container will set the vertical alignment for all the items in our grid.

<style>
  .item1{background:LightSkyBlue;}
  .item2{background:LightSalmon;}
  .item3{background:PaleTurquoise;}
  .item4{background:LightPink;}
  .item5{background:PaleGreen;}

  .container {
    font-size: 40px;
    min-height: 300px;
    width: 100%;
    background: LightGray;
    display: grid;
    grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr 1fr;
    grid-template-rows: 1fr 1fr 1fr;
    grid-gap: 10px;
    align-items: end;
  }
</style>

<div class="container">
  <div class="item1">1</div>
  <div class="item2">2</div>
  <div class="item3">3</div>
  <div class="item4">4</div>
  <div class="item5">5</div>
</div>

Divide the Grid Into an Area Template

You can group cells of your grid together into an area and give the area a custom name. Do this by using grid-template-areas on the container like this:

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

The code above merges the top three cells together into an area named header, the bottom three cells into a footer area, and it makes two areas in the middle row; advert and content.

Note: Every word in the code represents a cell and every pair of quotation marks represent a row. In addition to custom labels, you can use a period (.) to designate an empty cell in the grid.

Place Items in Grid Areas Using the grid-area Property

After creating an area’s template for your grid container, as shown in the previous example, you can place an item in your custom area by referencing the name you gave it. To do this, you use the grid-area property on an item like this:

.item1 {
  grid-area: header;
}

This lets the grid know that you want the item1 class to go in the area named header. In this case, the item will use the entire top row because that whole row is named as the header area.

Use grid-area Without Creating an Areas Template

The grid-area property you learned in the last example can be used in another way. If your grid doesn’t have an areas template to reference, you can create an area on the fly for an item to be placed like this:

.item1 { grid-area: 1/1/2/4; }

This is using the line numbers you learned about earlier to define where the area for this item will be. The numbers in the example above represent these values:

grid-area: horizontal line to start at / vertical line to start at / horizontal line to end at / vertical line to end at;

So the item in the example will consume the rows between lines 1 and 2, and the columns between lines 1 and 4.

Reduce Repetition Using the repeat Function

When you used grid-template-columns and grid-template-rows to define the structure of a grid, you entered a value for each row or column you created.

Let’s say you want a grid with 100 rows of the same height. It isn’t very practical to insert 100 values individually. Fortunately, there’s a better way - by using the repeat function to specify the number of times you want your column or row to be repeated, followed by a comma and the value you want to repeat.

Here’s an example that would create the 100 row grid, each row at 50px tall.

grid-template-rows: repeat(100, 50px);

You can also repeat multiple values with the repeat function and insert the function amongst other values when defining a grid structure. Here’s what that looks like:

grid-template-columns: repeat(2, 1fr 50px) 20px;

This translates to:

grid-template-columns: 1fr 50px 1fr 50px 20px;

Note: The 1fr 50px is repeated twice followed by 20px.

Limit Item Size Using the minmax Function

There’s another built-in function to use with grid-template-columns and grid-template-rows called minmax. It’s used to limit the size of items when the grid container changes size. To do this you need to specify the acceptable size range for your item. Here is an example:

grid-template-columns: 100px minmax(50px, 200px);

In the code above, grid-template-columns is set to create two columns; the first is 100px wide, and the second has the minimum width of 50px and the maximum width of 200px.

Create Flexible Layouts Using auto-fill

The repeat function comes with an option called auto-fill. This allows you to automatically insert as many rows or columns of your desired size as possible depending on the size of the container. You can create flexible layouts when combining auto-fill with minmax, like this:

repeat(auto-fill, minmax(60px, 1fr));

When the container changes size, this setup keeps inserting 60px columns and stretching them until it can insert another one.

Note: If your container can’t fit all your items on one row, it will move them down to a new one.

<style>
  .item1{background:LightSkyBlue;}
  .item2{background:LightSalmon;}
  .item3{background:PaleTurquoise;}
  .item4{background:LightPink;}
  .item5{background:PaleGreen;}

  .container {
    font-size: 40px;
    min-height: 100px;
    width: 100%;
    background: LightGray;
    display: grid;
    grid-template-columns: repeat(auto-fill, minmax(60px, 1fr));
    grid-template-rows: 1fr 1fr 1fr;
    grid-gap: 10px;
  }

  .container2 {
    font-size: 40px;
    min-height: 100px;
    width: 100%;
    background: Silver;
    display: grid;
    grid-template-columns: repeat(3, minmax(60px, 1fr));
    grid-template-rows: 1fr 1fr 1fr;
    grid-gap: 10px;
  }
</style>
<div class="container">
  <div class="item1">1</div>
  <div class="item2">2</div>
  <div class="item3">3</div>
  <div class="item4">4</div>
  <div class="item5">5</div>
</div>
<div class="container2">
  <div class="item1">1</div>
  <div class="item2">2</div>
  <div class="item3">3</div>
  <div class="item4">4</div>
  <div class="item5">5</div>
</div>

Create Flexible Layouts Using auto-fit

auto-fit works almost identically to auto-fill. The only difference is that when the container’s size exceeds the size of all the items combined, auto-fill keeps inserting empty rows or columns and pushes your items to the side, while auto-fit collapses those empty rows or columns and stretches your items to fit the size of the container.

Note: If your container can’t fit all your items on one row, it will move them down to a new one.

<style>
  .item1{background:LightSkyBlue;}
  .item2{background:LightSalmon;}
  .item3{background:PaleTurquoise;}
  .item4{background:LightPink;}
  .item5{background:PaleGreen;}

  .container {
    font-size: 40px;
    min-height: 100px;
    width: 100%;
    background: LightGray;
    display: grid;
    grid-template-columns: repeat(auto-fill, minmax(60px, 1fr));
    grid-template-rows: 1fr 1fr 1fr;
    grid-gap: 10px;
  }

  .container2 {
    font-size: 40px;
    min-height: 100px;
    width: 100%;
    background: Silver;
    display: grid;
    grid-template-columns: repeat(auto-fit, minmax(60px, 1fr));
    grid-template-rows: 1fr 1fr 1fr;
    grid-gap: 10px;
  }
</style>

<div class="container">
  <div class="item1">1</div>
  <div class="item2">2</div>
  <div class="item3">3</div>
  <div class="item4">4</div>
  <div class="item5">5</div>
</div>
<div class="container2">
  <div class="item1">1</div>
  <div class="item2">2</div>
  <div class="item3">3</div>
  <div class="item4">4</div>
  <div class="item5">5</div>
</div>

Use Media Queries to Create Responsive Layouts

CSS Grid can be an easy way to make your site more responsive by using media queries to rearrange grid areas, change dimensions of a grid, and rearrange the placement of items.

In the preview, when the viewport width is 300px or more, the number of columns changes from 1 to 2. The advertisement area then occupies the left column completely.

When the viewport width is 400px or more, make the header area occupy the top row completely and the footer area occupy the bottom row completely.

<style>
  .item1 {
    background: LightSkyBlue;
    grid-area: header;
  }

  .item2 {
    background: LightSalmon;
    grid-area: advert;
  }

  .item3 {
    background: PaleTurquoise;
    grid-area: content;
  }

  .item4 {
    background: lightpink;
    grid-area: footer;
  }

  .container {
    font-size: 1.5em;
    min-height: 300px;
    width: 100%;
    background: LightGray;
    display: grid;
    grid-template-columns: 1fr;
    grid-template-rows: 50px auto 1fr auto;
    grid-gap: 10px;
    grid-template-areas:
      "header"
      "advert"
      "content"
      "footer";
  }

  @media (min-width: 300px){
    .container{
      grid-template-columns: auto 1fr;
      grid-template-rows: auto 1fr auto;
      grid-template-areas:
        "advert header"
        "advert content"
        "advert footer";
    }
  }

  @media (min-width: 400px){
    .container{
      grid-template-areas:
        "header header"
        "advert content"
        "footer footer";
    }
  }
</style>

<div class="container">
  <div class="item1">header</div>
  <div class="item2">advert</div>
  <div class="item3">content</div>
  <div class="item4">footer</div>
</div>

Create Grids within Grids

Turning an element into a grid only affects the behavior of its direct descendants. So by turning a direct descendant into a grid, you have a grid within a grid.

For example, by setting the display and grid-template-columns properties of the element with the item3 class, you create a grid within your grid.

The following example turn the element with the item3 class into a grid with two columns with a width of auto and 1fr using display and grid-template-columns.

<style>
  .container {
    font-size: 1.5em;
    min-height: 300px;
    width: 100%;
    background: LightGray;
    display: grid;
    grid-template-columns: auto 1fr;
    grid-template-rows: auto 1fr auto;
    grid-gap: 10px;
    grid-template-areas:
      "advert header"
      "advert content"
      "advert footer";
  }
  .item1 {
    background: LightSkyBlue;
    grid-area: header;
  }

  .item2 {
    background: LightSalmon;
    grid-area: advert;
  }

  .item3 {
    display: grid;
    background: PaleTurquoise;
    grid-area: content;
    grid-template-columns: auto 1fr;
  }

  .item4 {
    background: lightpink;
    grid-area: footer;
  }

  .itemOne {
    background: PaleGreen;
  }

  .itemTwo {
    background: BlanchedAlmond;
  }

</style>

<div class="container">
  <div class="item1">header</div>
  <div class="item2">advert</div>
  <div class="item3">
    <div class="itemOne">paragraph1</div>
    <div class="itemTwo">paragraph2</div>
  </div>
  <div class="item4">footer</div>
</div>