CSS framework
Library allowing for more standards-compliant web design
title: "CSS framework" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["responsive-web-design", "web-design", "usability", "human–computer-interaction", "user-interfaces", "mobile-web", "css-frameworks", "adaptive-web-design"] description: "Library allowing for more standards-compliant web design" topic_path: "technology/web" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSS_framework" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Library allowing for more standards-compliant web design ::
A CSS framework is a library allowing for easier, more standards-compliant web design using the Cascading Style Sheets language. Most of these frameworks contain at least a grid. More functional frameworks also come with more features and additional JavaScript based functions, but are mostly design oriented and focused around interactive UI patterns. This detail differentiates CSS frameworks from other JavaScript frameworks.
Two notable and widely used examples are Bootstrap and Foundation.
CSS frameworks offer different modules and tools:
- reset style sheet
- grid especially for responsive web design
- web typography
- set of icons in sprites or icon fonts
- styling for tooltips, buttons, elements of forms
- parts of graphical user interfaces like accordion, tabs, slideshow or modal windows (Lightbox)
- equalizer to create equal height content
- often used CSS helper classes (left, hide)
Bigger frameworks use a CSS interpreter like Less or Sass.
List of notable CSS frameworks
::data[format=table]
| Name | Latest release | License | Grid | Units | Features | No. of columns | version | date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blueprint | 1.0.1 | May 14, 2011 | Typography, forms, print, plugins for buttons, tabs, and sprites. | |||||
| Bootstrap | 5.3.3 | February 20, 2024 | fixed, fluid, responsive | px, % | Layout, typography, forms, buttons, navigation, media queries, .sass files, JavaScript libraries, RTL layout. | , | ||
| default 12 | ||||||||
| Foundation | 6.7.5 | July 13, 2022 | fluid | px, % | Responsive layout, source ordering, typography, forms, buttons, navigation, media queries, and JavaScript libraries. | , | ||
| default 12 | ||||||||
| YAML | 4.1.2 | July 28, 2013 | fixed, elastic, fluid | px, em, % | Layout, grids, columns, forms, buttons, progressive linearization for responsive layouts, float handling, navigation, typography, accessibility, and add-ons. (accessible tabs, RTL-support, and microformats) | |||
| YUI CSS grids | 3.18.1 | October 22, 2014 | -3 | fixed and fluid | ||||
| Tailwind | 3.4.3 | March 27, 2024 | fixed, fluid, responsive | |||||
| :: |
References
References
- "Releases · joshuaclayton/blueprint-css · GitHub".
- "Releases · twbs/bootstrap · GitHub".
- Déramond, Julien. (2024-02-20). "Bootstrap 5.3.3".
- (2024-02-20). "bootstrap".
- [https://getbootstrap.com/docs/4.0/layout/grid/#customizing-the-grid Bootstrap documentation - Customizing the grid]
- "Releases · foundation/foundation-sites · GitHub".
- [https://foundation.zurb.com/sites/docs/grid.html Foundation documentation - The Grid]
- "Releases · yamlcss/yaml · GitHub".
- "Releases · yui/yui3 · GitHub".
- "Releases · tailwindlabs/tailwindcss".
- (2024-03-27). "tailwindcss".
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::