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Spread

Initial Setup

Spread is dependent on Ruby and Compass. Installation instructions here.

  1. Install ruby
    • ruby-install ruby
  2. Install compass
    • gem update --system
    • gem install compass
  3. Install our compass dependencies: import-once gem install compass-import-once
  4. Run compass compile on the command line to convert from SASS to CSS
  5. Run compass watch to compile automatically on save.
  6. Open up index.html for further details and usage!

Golden Gridlet

This is an excellent tool developed by the amazing Joni Korpi, inventor of the Golden Grid System. You can click the little hamburger icon in the upper-right of the screen to get an accurate display of the current column layout with gutters and baselines. The default settings can be manipulated in the GGS.js file.

Layout Functionality

Column Layout

DIV Hierarchy

There's a pre-established structure for layout, from highest to lowest level. Any kind of modifications would simply be nested SASS classes pertaining to these structural elements. The structure is fairly simple, and goes in this order:

  1. wrapper
  2. columns-# (Column Layout)
  3. column
  4. gutter-pad

####Wrapper Offers a 5.5555% padding on either side, also offers space for a full background color or image. A containing DIV is sometimes used for organization.

####Column Layout (columns-x) You can utilize the columns by generating layouts. There's a Sass mixin built in that does all the calculations for you, including offset-x and wide-x classes! Just call the mixin by using: @include column-calculator(x) Where X is the number of columns you want. Each column layout e.g. columns-2, columns-4, etc., exists solely to give style context to a column div.

Pro-tip: The column-calc mixin currently only supports column layouts divisible by 2.

####Columns

A column's width is the resulting percentage 100 divided by the number of columns inputted. For example, the width of a column in a columns-4 layout evaluates to width: 25%. A nested gutter-pad class offers a horizontal padding of 0.75 ems for typography, totalling 1.5 ems of gutter between columns.

####Wides

This same calculation is applied to wides, but then multiplied by however many columns wide you'd like the div to be. For example, the width of a column wide-3 div in a columns-4 layout evaluates to width: 75%.

####Offsets

Lastly, an offset is the displacement of a div by a specified number of columns using a simple margin. For example, the margin-left of a column offset-2 in a columns-4 layout is margin-left: 50%.

###Column Behavior

The +column-calc mixin includes media queries for different viewport sizes, as well as behavioral degradation for column-widths, wides, and offsets. For example, a 16-column layout will become 8-column at a tablet screen size, then 4-column on a mobile screen size. The threshold for these screen sizes is set in the _variables.sass file.

There are 4 tiers:

  1. width-mobile : 320px
  2. width-tablet : 640px
  3. width-desktop-small : 1280px
  4. width-desktop-large : 2560px

These variables can be redefined according to taste and necessity, but the behavior can be altered as well in the _column-calc.sass file. If you've got a decent understanding of functions in SASS, you'll find that it's fairly straightforward. Each set of behavioral rules are nested inside of media queries with screen sizes determined by the variables mentioned above.

###Vertical Rhythm

In order to properly align to the baseline grid as shown in the Golden Gridlet, font-size and line-height must be specified in proportionate ems. An "em" in the world of typography is the size of a capital M in reference to a specified font size. One em in a body with a specified font-size: 16px is, in fact, 16px. This allows for a proportionally relative typography system throughout an entire project.

There are a pair of beautiful Compass mixins that accomplish this concept wonderfully.

####@include adjust-font-size-to (16px,1)

  • The first argument can be either a pixel value or a previously defined variable.
  • The second argument is the line height expressed in baselines. You can visualize these baslines using the Golden Gridlet.
  • These two arguments are used to calculate the font-size and line-height into ems.

####@include rhythm (0,1,1,0,16px) This mixin specifies vertical margin and padding in the following order:

  1. margin-top
  2. padding-top
  3. padding-bottom
  4. margin-bottom
  5. Current font size (if specified)

These arguments should be specified as whole numbers, as they're the same baseline units used to specify line-height in the font mixin.

Pro-tip: It's a good idea to give all elements a reset of +rhythm(0,0,0,0) to keep things adhered to the baseline grid, even if they don't have any vertical padding or margin.

###That's All, Folks!

This system is just a starting point. If you need to tailor it to your application or content, please do so. A grid system is only valuable if it helps to display your content and how it behaves on different devices. It's a response to the question of "how will this look on mobile?", but it's up to you how to make it the answer.