Element CSS

Saner defaults for HTML elements.

Element is a CSS design / framework that only requires simple HTML elements for building a site. In contrast to most design frameworks that use a lot of nested <div> elements and inline classes, Element does away with that, making it quicker and easier to create decent-looking static web sites from scratch that are easy to edit and manage with just a text editor.

Think of it as a "Markdown for HTML", or "saner defaults for HTML elements".

Improvements to this project are welcome. If you have any ideas or code changes, please feel free to chime in. Pull requests welcome!

Examples

Grid Column 1

Inspired by ungrid, Element CSS wires up custom element <g-row> to be a row and <g-col> to be a column. It's an easy, auto-sized, responsive grid that Just Works, and supports the upcoming HTML5 custom elements spec.

Grid Column 2

I've had twelve years to think about it. And if I had it to do over again, I would have grabbed the phaser and pointed it at you instead of them.

<g-row> <g-col> <h3>Column</h3> <p>I'm the first column!</p> </g-col> <g-col> <h3>Another Column</h3> <p>I'm the second column!</p> </g-col> <g-col style="width: 20%"> <h3>Smaller</h3> <p>I'm grid 3, but a lot smaller than the others.</p> </g-col> </g-row>

Headers

H1 Header

H2 Header

H3 Header

H4 Header

H5 Header
H6 Header
<h3>Headers</h3> <h1>H1 Header</h1> <h2>H2 Header</h2> <h3>H3 Header</h3> <h4>H4 Header</h4> <h5>H5 Header</h5> <h6>H6 Header</h6>

Images

Oversized images are auto-resized to fit the column:

<h3>Images</h3> <p>Oversized images are auto-resized to fit the column:</p> <img src="harbor.jpg">

Ordered List

  1. Blue
  2. Green
  3. Red
<ol> <li>Blue</li> <li>Green</li> <li>Red</li> </ol>

Unordered List

<ul> <li>Blue</li> <li>Green</li> <li>Red</li> </ul>

Table

Name Instrument
Data Violin
Riker Trombone
<center><h3>Table</h3></center> <table> <tr> <th>Name</th> <th>Instrument</th> </tr> <tr> <td>Data</td> <td>Violin</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Riker</td> <td>Trombone</td> </tr> </table>

Code

<code> elements used in a <p> will be inline-block: echo('hello world!'). Code tags outside of a <p> will be blocks, with code indenting automatically fixed (no <pre> indenting gymnastics needed).

<code> const user = { name: 'Commander Riker', username: 'hotjazzhotternights1337' } console.log(user.name) </code>

If you need to embed HTML code examples, you can use the <xmp> tag, which makes it so you don't need to encode escapes. Sadly, the HTML5 spec is trying to obsolete the <xmp> tag even though it's the only way to make this work, but all browsers seem to be supporting it anyways. Use at your own risk.

<!doctype html> <html> <head> <title>Hello!</title> </head> <body> <h1>I didn't have to escape any of this (inspect the source code).</h1> </body> </html>

If you want syntax highlighting, just embed highlight.js and the highlighting style you want and it's automatically configured.

Forms

Favorite Color?

<h3>Forms</h3> <form> <label>Email</label> <input name="email" type="text" placeholder="Email"> <label>What do you think?</label> <textarea name="comments" rows="5" cols="30"></textarea> <label>State</label> <select name="state"> <option>OR</option> <option>MN</option> <option>CA</option> </select> <label> <input name="remember" type="checkbox" value="1"> Remember me </label> <p>Favorite Color?</p> <label> <input name="color" type="radio" value="red" checked> Red </label> <label> <input name="color" type="radio" value="blue"> Blue </label> <button>Submit</button> </form>

How to Use

Use this template to get started:

<!doctype html> <html> <head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://elementcss.neocities.org/dist/element-0.2.0.min.css"> <script src="https://elementcss.neocities.org/dist/element-0.2.0.min.js"></script> <title>Hello!</title> </head> <body> <header> <nav> <a href="one.html">Link One</a> <a href="two.html">Link Two</a> </nav> <h1>Site Name</h1> <strong>Subtitle for site</strong> </header> <p>Okay, you're all set!</p> </body> </html>

If you want to use code syntax highlighting, use this:

<!doctype html> <html> <head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://elementcss.neocities.org/dist/element-0.2.0.min.css"> <script src="https://elementcss.neocities.org/dist/element-0.2.0.min.js"></script> <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/highlight.js/9.11.0/styles/sunburst.min.css"> <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/highlight.js/9.11.0/highlight.min.js"></script> <title>Hello!</title> </head> <body> <header> <nav> <a href="one.html">Link One</a> <a href="two.html">Link Two</a> </nav> <h1>Site Name</h1> <strong>Subtitle for site</strong> </header> <p>Okay, you're all set!</p> </body> </html>

Special Thanks

The CSS for this project is heavily based on the excellent github-markdown-css.