65 Resources for Grid-Based Design
Published in DesignIf you’re looking to learn more about design websites, please see our post Learn Web Design for plenty of resources to help your educational pursuit.
Grid-based design is obviously a popular approach in modern web design. For designers that use grids, this post includes links to useful tools that can improve your efficiency and effectiveness, as well as some articles for advanced techniques. For those of you who are not as familiar with the details of grid-based design, there are plenty of articles and learning resources here.
Articles:
Grids Are Good – Presentation in a PDF document
Grid (page layout) – Wikipedia
Why Use a Grid – Mark Boulton
5 Simple Steps to Designing Grid Systems: Preface – Mark Boulton
5 Simple Steps to Designing Grid Systems: Part 1 – Mark Boulton
5 Simple Steps to Designing Grid Systems: Part 2 – Mark Boulton
5 Simple Steps to Designing Grid Systems: Part 3 – Mark Boulton
5 Simple Steps to Designing Grid Systems: Part 4 – Mark Boulton
5 Simple Steps to Designing Grid Systems: Part 5 – Mark Boulton
Feeling Your Way Around Grids – Mark Boulton
Oh Yeeaahh! – Subtraction
The Funniest Grid You Ever Saw – Subtraction
Grid Computing… And Design – Subtraction
Grid-Based Design 101 – Most Inspired
Grid-Based Design: Six Creative Column Techniques – Smashing Magazine
Using a Background Image Grid to Layout Your Website – Smiley Cat Web Design Blog
Thinking Outside the Grid – A List Apart
Setting Type on the Web to a Baseline Grid – A List Apart
Columns and Grids – Mezzoblue
Grid Design, A Classic Beauty for Whitespace Freaks – Wisdump.
Design Grids for Web Pages – Web Style Guide
Grid Tips for Photoshop Users – Made by Elephant
Grids: an Invisible Foundation – Ideabook.com
Using Spreadsheets to Brainstorm Grid Layouts – The Design Canopy
Grids Make Eyes Happy: How to Use Grids – CROWDCTRL
Grids: Show ‘Em if You Got ‘Em – Apples to Oranges
Designing Grid Systems for Flash – AisleOne
Gridding the 960 – Cameron Moll
Vertical Grids – Position is Everything
Grid-Based Design – Welie
Introduction to Layout Grids – Adobe
Cutting and Sewing Grid-Based Design: Working with Other People’s Comps – urlgreyhot
Grid-Based Design: Designing Blog Theme Templates – urlgreyhot
The Grid: Structure of Design – Poynter Online
Developing the Grid that Supports Your Design – Emmanuel Blogonic
Grids: Order Out of Choas – About.com
Gridlasticness – SimpleBits
Ruler from Airbag – Creating a background image to help with your grid design
Galleries:
Design By Grid – CSS gallery for grid-based design
Gird and Column Designs – Web Designer Wall
30 Blogs with Grid Based Design – CSS Juice
Tools:
Grid Designer 2 – A popular online tool for setting up a grid
Grid Maker – A simple web application to design a grid
GridMaker 2 – A downloadable tool to assist with creating mockups
960 Grid System – Set up a grid for the common 960 width.
Grid Calculator – Another online tool for creating grids
TypoGridder – Helps with the baseline grid
CSS Grid Calculator – A simple online calculator for setting up a grid
Web Page Layout Grid – A large image to use in the background when designing with a grid
Browser Grid – Shows the maximum safe sizes for different resolutions
Layout Grid Bookmarklet – A design tool from Andy Budd
Grid Overlay Bookmarklet – A variation of Andy Budd’s tool
Phiculator – A simple tool which, given any number, will calculate the corresponding number according to the golden ratio.
Blueprint CSS:
Blueprint CSS – CSS framework which aims to cut down on your CSS development time
Links to Blueprint Resources – A number of resources are linked here, so are mentioned below
Photoshop Template for Blueprint CSS Comps – Helps you to create grids with Photoshop.
Yahoo Developer Network:
Page Grids – An article about designing with grids.
YUI Grids CSS – Foundational CSS with 4 preset widths.
CSS Grid Builder – Grid-building tool from YUI.
How to Play with Yahoo Grids CSS – Article from Black Mountain.
WordPress Themes:
Particles – A free grid-based WordPress theme.
unGrid – A free grid-based WordPress theme.
Bedrock – Premium grid WordPress theme for charity.
For more resources please see:
61 Responses
This is one comprehensive guide list thathelps me understand what this is, something new to me and it’s gonna take me along since every step is pathed for me.
This is the best guide I have seen on the net.
useful indeed…
Thanks for featuring my theme, Steven. This is a great resource you’ve put together.
A great baseline grid tool for Firefox/Safari users:
http://robgoodlatte.com/2007/07/31/syncotype-your-baselines/
Kevin
Hi everyone,
Thanks for your comments. I’m glad this collection will be helpful.
Kevin,
Thanks for the additional resource.
WOW, amazing resource. There are some really great tutorials listed, thank you very much…
Bookmarked!
Thanks for the great resource! bookmarked
WOW, ultimate resource. There are some really great tutorials listed here with, thank you very much…
I’ve put together a simple photoshop template which gives a great starting point for designing web sites in Photoshop. It’s available for download here.
http://www.designinginteractive.com/design/sharing-the-grid/
Here we have designed plethora of websites & having a huge customized web designed portfolio. But right now we are lagging behind from client list.
Why & how my competitors are fetching my clients.
Thanks so much. It useful for me !
Hi,
Great list of grid resources! Designing to some kind of grid has greatly sped up my designs and made them better and cleaner too. I use several different grid layouts to help in the early stages of a design.
I recently made available a Photoshop Template that I use to design on a grid, which combines all of the different grid options.
The Web Design Starter Grid has 10×10, 60×60 grids fitting into a 960px layout and 50×50 grids for a 1000px layout. It also has browser overlays to keep in mind what the site will look like on smaller screens.
It is available for free download here.
Great List i love it thanks for the topic !
This is a great list you’ve put together. An invaluable tool for anyone looking to enhance their skills, or simply learn a little bit more about the subject. Thanks for doing the research.
Great article. Thanks for posting these tips. Our Orlando web design team is always looking for new ideas and ways to improve the efficiency of your work load.
Ronnie Affee
Orlando advertising agency, Yuppify.com
Great list but a little overwhelming at moment!!
Thanks so much for this tutorial. I’ve got an exam coming up and this is gonna help loads.