CSS

A handy use of subgrid to enhance a simple layout

subgrid in CSS is really handy for getting a nice level of design detail in place, especially in terms of maintaining a nice reading line, as Andy shows in this article.

A revisit of the Every Layout sidebar with :has() and selector performance

Heydon Pickering takes a fresh look the Every Layout Sidebar layout, 6 years on, to see if modern CSS selectors can improve it.

Sticky revealing footer

A quick video showing you how to apply very little CSS to get that nice, revealing from the bottom effect on your footer.

Printing the web: making webpages look good on paper

Declan Chidlow takes us on a really interesting tour of the often, under-reported world of print stylesheets, how to use them and also how to debug them.

You can style alt text like any other text

A fun little side quest to show you how applying styles to alt text can really elevate your user interface.

CSS nesting: use with caution

Is CSS nesting an exciting new feature or a potential disaster waiting to happen? I note down my worries and prior experience with one of it predecessors: Sass nesting, along with some gotchas native CSS brings with it.

A simple masonry-like composable layout

It’s going to be a long time until CSS masonry is ready for us to use in our projects so I’ve got a nice stop-gap here for you that uses composable layouts.

Making content-aware components using CSS :has(), grid, and quantity queries

Eric Bailey teaches us how to make a hyper-resilient component that responds not only to the container, but other languages too.

How I build a button component

A button is arguably the most likely component to find itself in your codebase so I’m going to show you how I approach building one.

Introducing: Complete CSS

Our first course is nearly ready so we’re opening up pre-orders.

Building a breakout element with container units

Learn how to use container units and container queries to enhance an already flexible sidebar layout with some extra design control and full width breakout elements.

Riffing on the latest CSS fit text approach

I took Roman Komarov’s handy new @property powered CSS fit text solution for a spin and tweaked it to work with our context, replacing a JS powered system.

Styling Tables the Modern CSS Way

Modern CSS makes styling HTML tables in a considered, responsive nature a breeze. Michelle Barker breaks it all down for you in this deep dive.

Mask image is pretty handy

Often overlooked, the mask-image property can be a simple way to inject some character into your web design work.

Let’s make a floating button sign up form pattern

I tackle an age-old design pattern and build it with nice, simple CSS.

I’m worried about the tabbing behaviour, rather than the syntax and name of CSS masonry

There’s a lot of chatter about CSS masonry at the moment. Should it be called “masonry” and should it be grid? Let’s worry about the basics first.

Applying P3 colours on an existing project

The set.studio site is powered by design tokens, which for colours, are hex codes. I managed to automatically convert those to P3 colours with a custom PostCSS plugin.

CSS inheritance

Inheritance truly is a superpower and it’s what makes developing on the web a joy if you embrace it. In this quick post, I’m going to convert you into a super fan.

A primer on the cascade and specificity

Often feared by developers, the cascade and specificity is actually really simple if you utilise the right mental model when authoring CSS.

How we’re approaching theming with modern CSS

We’ve started a new project which requires heavy, creative theming, so I made a prototype to test some ideas out.

The box model and box sizing

To open up this CSS Fundamentals series, we’re looking at one of those most important aspects of CSS to understand: how the box model is affected by box sizing.

Some little ways I’m using CSS :has() in the real world

I’ve created some low fidelity demos of :has() snippets that I’ve been using in real-world client projects.

A CSS project boilerplate

For the many folks who ask how I write CSS since removing Sass, this is how I and the Set Studio team do it in 2024.

Interop 2024

After the success of previous years, it’s great to see Interop is back in 2024. In this post, I note down what I’m looking forward to.

Happy international box sizing awareness day

My all-time favourite CSS technique — courtesy of Paul Irish — celebrates another birthday.

A highly configurable switch component using modern CSS techniques

Learn how build a highly configurable switch component using modern CSS, such as :has(), container queries, Logical Properties and Custom Properties.

Reality Check #3: Building out a layered hero grid layout from Dribbble

In this edition of Reality Check, I tackle an interesting grid layout that also features some pretty unique background image treatment.

LH units are cool

Reality Check #2: Building out a fancy 404 page from Layers

Reality Check #1: Building out a furniture site from Dribbble

A (more) Modern CSS Reset

I wrote “A Modern CSS Reset” almost 4 years ago and, yeh, it’s not aged overly well. I spotted it being linked up again a few days ago and thought it’s probably a good idea to publish an updated version.

My favourite 3 lines of CSS

Line heights in CSS work better with ratios

Define delay for each property in the transition shorthand

You can set a different delay for each transitioned property, using the transition shorthand, which creates some pretty cool state changes.

Prevent squishy elements with flex none

You can prevent that annoying squished look that elements like icons get when space runs out in a flex context with flex: none.

Build a fancy hover animation

Learn how to use the power of CSS to take any collection of images and make them blend well together with a fancy interactive state.

Container Queries are actually coming

After years of asking and memes, we’re finally getting container queries and they will transform UI design, just like media queries did.

Use transparent borders and outlines to assist with high contrast mode

It’s tempting to use a sharp box shadow for focus styles to both remove the default focus ring and to get around sharp outline corners. With this method, you can create problems for Windows High Contrast users, so this quick tip will help you get the best of both worlds.

Fluid typography with CSS clamp

Learn to create a simple, accessibility friendly and configurable fluid type system that uses modern CSS sizing functions.

Add inline SVG directly in your CSS

CSS Frameworks, hype and dogmatism

Some notes on the dogmatism and gatekeeping themes of Tech Twitter and how they can generate often incorrect and naive statements—specifically about frameworks and methodologies.

Add scroll margin to all elements which can be targeted

We can add an extra bit of space to targeted elements, thanks to modern CSS!

Control changing numbers with font variant numeric

Get the benefits of monospaced fonts with your favourite (supported) non-monospaced fonts.

Use CSS Clamp to create a more flexible wrapper utility

A handy way to use modern CSS functions to give yourself fine-grained, yet flexible, design control.

Build a fully-responsive, progressively enhanced burger menu

In this premium tutorial, we’re going to build a burger menu from the ground up, using progressive enhancement, ResizeObserver, Proxy state and of course, super-solid HTML and CSS that pull from the CUBE CSS principles.

What are design tokens?

Design tokens are just spicy variables, right? Wrong! They are an extremely versatile way of sharing design properties and in this tutorial, you’ll learn how they work.

Flow CSS Utility

Build a responsive media browser with CSS

Using the power of modern CSS layout, we create a flexible media browser and video player layout that maintains its aspect ratio at all viewports.

Use grayscale filter to see where you are relying too much on colour

Create a line break while maintaining inline status

Visually hide an element with CSS

Build a dashboard with CUBE CSS

An in-depth guide to going from HTML all the way to a full styled banking dashboard, using the CUBE CSS methodology

Squishy button active state

Aligning description lists with CSS Grid

Contains CSS attribute selector

Easy horizontal and vertical centering in CSS

A safer way to vertically fill the viewport

Make a button element look like a link

Limit line lengths to increase readability

Responsive borders with CSS outline

CUBE CSS

A CSS methodology oriented towards simplicity and consistency with a heavy dosage of pragmatism.

CSS Logical Properties

Create spacing that works regardless of the direction of your content or the environment of your users.

Create a responsive grid layout

Even with no media-queries, we can create a flexible and powerful responsive layout.

Creating a full bleed CSS utility

Break out of the mould of your fixed-width container to create visual interest.

Create a semantic breakout button to make an entire element clickable

Create a user controlled dark or light mode

Automatic dark and light themes, based on system user-preferences, are handy but in this tutorial, we take that one step further and give our users control.

Create a split, faux-container layout with CSS Grid and Flexbox

Two simple methods to vertically and horizontally center content with CSS

Relative sizing with EM units

Responsive units, like EM units, are super powerful and in this tutorial, you’ll learn how to use that power to give your front-ends resilience

Creating an aspect ratio CSS utility

Get a CSS Custom Property value with JavaScript

A progressive disclosure component