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65 Resources for Grid-Based Design

Resources for Grid-Based Design

Grid-based design is obviously a popular approach in modern web design. Ford 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

Blueprint Layout Tool -

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.

Originally Published March 31st, 2008

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