CSS Grid Row Layout and Features Explained

CSS Grid Row Layout is a powerful tool for designing and building responsive web pages. It allows you to create complex layouts with ease, thanks to its grid-based system.

With CSS Grid, you can define rows and columns using the grid-template-rows and grid-template-columns properties. This is demonstrated in the example where grid-template-rows is used to define three rows with different heights.

A key feature of CSS Grid Row Layout is the ability to repeat rows using the repeat() function. For instance, repeating a row three times can be achieved with grid-template-rows: repeat(3, 1fr).

CSS Grid Row Layout also supports auto-placement, which means you can place items in the grid without specifying their exact position. This is useful for creating dynamic layouts that adapt to different screen sizes and content.

As of March 2017, most browsers shipped native, unprefixed support for CSS Grid. This means you can start building with grid now!

You define a container element as a grid with display: grid. Set the column and row sizes with grid-template-columns and grid-template-rows. Place its child elements into the grid with grid-column and grid-row. The source order of the grid items doesn’t matter, so you can rearrange them with media queries.

Grid-template-columns and grid-template-rows can be defined with the fr unit, which represents a fraction of any space left over in a grid container. The space divided up is based on available space, calculated after other layout factors take priority. Try it in a demo to see how it works!

Grid row alignment is a crucial aspect of CSS Grid Layout. You can use the `justify-items` property to align all grid items along the row axis, making them flush with the start edge, end edge, centered, or filling the whole width of their cells.

The `justify-items` property applies to all grid items inside the container, and you can set it to one of the following values: start, end, center, or stretch. This property is useful when you want all grid items to have the same alignment along the row axis.

To align a grid item inside a cell along the row axis, you can use the `justify-self` property. This property applies to a single grid item and allows you to set its alignment to start, end, center, or stretch.

Justify Items are used to align grid items along the inline (row) axis. This means you can control how items are spaced within their individual grid cells.

The justify-items property is applied to the grid container and defines justification of grid items along the row axis. It can be set to start, end, center, or stretch. The default value is stretch, which fills the whole width of the cell.

You can also set alignment for individual grid items using the justify-self property. This property has the same values as justify-items: start, end, center, or stretch. The default value is stretch, which fills the whole width of the cell.

Here's a quick rundown of the justify-items and justify-self properties:

By using these properties, you can control the alignment of your grid items and create a more visually appealing layout.

Row-end alignment is all about how items line up at the end of a grid row. The default row-end alignment is start, which means items will be aligned to the start of the row.

Items can be aligned to the end of the row by setting the row-end property to the desired alignment value, such as center, space-between, or space-around.

In the example, we see that the last item in the row has a row-end alignment of space-between, which creates a gap between the item and the end of the row.

Grid rows are created using the grid-template-rows property, which is applied to the grid container. This property defines the size and number of rows in the grid.

You can use the fr unit to define the size of grid rows as a fraction of the available space. For example, grid-template-rows: 1fr 2fr creates a grid with two rows, where the first row takes up one fraction of the available space and the second row takes up two fractions.

To define the size of grid rows, you can also use decimal values with the fr unit. For instance, grid-template-rows: 0.5fr 1.5fr creates a grid with two rows, where the first row takes up half a fraction of the available space and the second row takes up one and a half fractions.

Here are some common grid-template-rows values:

The row is a fundamental aspect of Grid Row Layout, and understanding how to work with it is crucial for creating effective grid-based designs. The space between two adjacent grid lines is called the grid track.

You can think of grid tracks as the columns or rows of the grid, and they play a vital role in determining the layout of your grid items. By specifying the size and number of grid tracks, you can create a grid that meets your design requirements.

Grid-auto-flow is a property that controls how grid items are placed in a grid. It can be set to row or column, and it determines the direction in which the auto-placement algorithm will fill in the grid. By default, grid-auto-flow is set to row, which means that the algorithm will fill in each row in turn, adding new rows as necessary.

Here are the possible values for grid-auto-flow:

Grid-auto-flow is a powerful property that allows you to control the layout of your grid items, even when you don't explicitly specify their positions. By using it in conjunction with other Grid Row Layout properties, you can create complex and dynamic grid-based designs.

The grid-row property is a shorthand for setting properties related to the grid item placement in a row. It can be used to specify the starting and ending grid lines for a grid item, as well as its span.

Here's an example of how to use the grid-row property:

grid-row: 2 / 4;

This would place the grid item in the second row and span four rows.

The grid-row property is a convenient way to specify the layout of your grid items, and it can be used in combination with other Grid Row Layout properties to create complex and dynamic grid-based designs.

The grid-template-rows property is used to specify the size of the grid tracks. You can use the fr unit to create flexible grid tracks that adapt to the available space.

For example, you can use the following code to create a grid with two rows and four columns:

grid-template-rows: 1fr 2fr;

This would create a grid with a flexible row that takes up one fraction of the available space, and a second row that takes up two fractions of the available space.

By using the grid-template-rows property, you can create grids that adapt to different screen sizes and devices, and that provide a flexible and responsive layout for your grid items.

Column-Gap is a property that allows you to set the size of the grid lines, essentially setting the width of the gutters between the columns.

You can think of it like setting the width of the space between the columns, and it's specified using a length value.

The gutters are only created between the columns, not on the outer edges.

The grid-column-gap property is a shorthand for grid-column-gap and grid-row-gap, which will be removed in the future.

Column-start is a layout property that defines the alignment of content within a grid container. It determines where the content of a grid item starts within the grid row.

By setting column-start, you can control the position of grid items within the grid container. For example, if you set column-start to 2, the content of the grid item will start in the second column of the grid row.

Grid items can have different column-start values, which allows for flexible and dynamic layouts. This property is particularly useful when creating grid layouts with multiple rows and columns.

Grid rows can be defined using the `grid-template-rows` property, which sets the size of the grid tracks and optional line names. You can specify the size of each row using length values, such as pixels or percentages.

A shorthand property for setting properties related to grid item placement in a row is `grid-row`, which is a shorthand for `grid-row-start` and `grid-row-end`. This property can be used to specify the row where the item begins and ends.

You can also use the `grid-auto-rows` property to define grid rows implicitly, which is useful when you don't specify the grid rows explicitly using `grid-template-rows`. This property can be set to a value such as `auto`, `min-content`, or `max-content`, or a function value like `minmax(min, max)`.

Implicitly defined tracks are a powerful feature of CSS Grid. You can define them using the grid-auto-rows and grid-auto-columns properties.

These properties allow you to define the implicit track sizes for rows and columns that aren't explicitly defined using grid-template-rows or grid-template-columns. The minmax() function value can be used to define the minimum and maximum values for the rows and columns.

For example, you can use minmax(75px, 394px) to define all rows as a maximum of 75px and all columns as a maximum of 394px, depending on the available space. This is demonstrated in the provided CodePen demo.

Possible values for grid-auto-rows and grid-auto-columns include auto, min-content, max-content, fit-content(), and flex values using the fr unit. You can also use the minmax(min, max) function value.

Here are some valid values for grid-auto-rows and grid-auto-columns:

You can specify multiple space-separated track sizes using any of the above values. For example, you can use grid-auto-rows: 75px 394px to define two rows with sizes 75px and 394px.

Other Layout Features are worth exploring once you've mastered the basics of Grid Row Features.

The display property can be set to inline-grid to create an inline grid.

Subgrids allow you to define a new grid within a single grid area, giving you more flexibility in your designs.

Masonry Layout is a popular technique used in modern designs, and it's now part of the Grid Layout spec, making it easier to implement.

Repeating rows and columns can be achieved using the repeat() function notation, which can be a game-changer for complex layouts.

The end of a grid row is a crucial aspect of grid layout. Grid-row-end determines the end of a grid item's placement in a row, and it's a shorthand property for grid-row-start/grid-row-end.

If no grid-column-end/grid-row-end is declared, a grid item will span 1 track by default. This means that if you don't specify an end point, the item will automatically occupy one grid track.

Grid-row-end can be used to control the stacking order of overlapping items using z-index.

Here are the details about the grid-row-end property:

In V7.4, you can use the row-gap property to specify the gutter between items in a grid container. This property is a game-changer for layout designers.

The row-gap property accepts various values, including normal, a length, or a percentage. You can also use the grid-row-gap property as a legacy shorthand, but it's recommended to use row-gap in preference.

Here's a summary of the row-gap property values:

The initial value of the row-gap property is normal, which means that if you don't specify a value, the gutter will default to normal.

Grid row syntax can be defined with two values separated by a forward slash (/). The value before the slash sets the grid-row-start property, while the value after the slash sets the grid-row-end property.

You can declare a single value without the slash which applies to the grid-row-start property, and sets the grid-row-end property to auto. This is a convenient shorthand that simplifies the syntax.

Here are the possible ways to define grid-row:

Note that the grid-row shorthand is a shorthand for grid-row-start/grid-row-end.

Grid shorthand properties are a game-changer for simplifying your grid layouts. They let you define your grids with a shorter syntax.

The Grid Layout specification includes a number of shorthand properties, and some of them accept keywords along with the represented longhand properties.

The grid-template shorthand property is one of them, and it defines grid-template-columns, grid-template-rows, and grid-template-areas.

Here are the shorthand properties and their corresponding longhand properties:

These shorthand properties can save you a lot of time and make your code more readable.

The syntax for grid row properties can be a bit tricky to grasp, but don't worry, I've got you covered.

Grid row shorthand properties, like grid-row, can be written in one of two ways. The first way is by separating two values with a forward slash (/), where the value before the slash sets the grid-row-start property, and the value after the slash sets the grid-row-end property.

A single value without the slash applies to the grid-row-start property, and sets the grid-row-end property to auto.

Here's a breakdown of the grid row shorthand properties and their longhand equivalents:

The formal syntax for grid lines, which are used in grid row properties, is a bit complex, but it can be broken down into several parts. It includes auto, custom-ident, integers, and spans.