Adding padding to the container but outside of the grid - css

I'm trying to add padding to the .container without it effecting the grid. The best example I can think of is I don't want the content to hit the sides of the .container because if the design has say a blue background and the .container is white I want there to be a padding on the left and right. I quick made an example page here to show the problem.
I'm basically trying to make a container of 1000px with gutters of 20px and each will then take up 65px. Outside of the grid though but inside the .container I want the padding left and right to also be 20px. Not sure if this helps or makes things worse but this is my Calca workout sheet for the grids

Neat has a mixin called pad which applies padding to the current element.
Where you've declared your outer-container just add a pad mixin and specify the left and right values, e.g.:
#container {
#include outer-container;
#include pad(default 50px default 50px);
}
In the above example the parameters are in the order top, right, bottom, left. Handily, the mixin accepts default so you don't need to know the existing values for the top and bottom if you don't care about them.
That said, if your use case is to prevent the background from hitting the side (rather than the content) then padding won't help you, and you'll need to fix margins instead.

Typically grid systems use box-sizing: border-box; to overcome issues with box model calculations concerning margins and padding.
Here's a good article by Paul Irish on this very issue: http://www.paulirish.com/2012/box-sizing-border-box-ftw/
Chris Coyier from CSS Tricks has a good article too: http://css-tricks.com/box-sizing/

Related

Css fixed width + 100% padding. is it possible with one container?

I need to make ui controls panel, that has 100% width and gradient background. UI elements on this control panel should have width 1000px and should be centered.
For a moment i have two elements:
panel (width 100%, gradient background), global wrapper
panel-wrapper (width 1000px, transparent background), is placed inside "panel" element, contains UI elements.
It works brilliant in all browsers i need, but i really don't like to use two HTML elements, when logically it should be just one. Perhaps it is possible to have one element "panel" with fixed width (1000px) and auto-padding, that will cover all free space to the left and to the right? (i've made an image to show it if my explanation is crazy :))
It is possible?
You could potentially use the calc() function, though it isn't highly browser compliant.
Here is a quick example and more information on compatibility and usage can be found here.
*I made the example in Firefox, didn't test it elsewhere.
Just for a quick code example, the following shows one solution:
div {
width: 100px;
background-color: blue;
height: 100px;
padding-left: calc(50% - 50px);
padding-right: calc(50% - 50px);
}
The challenge is you can't really combine percentages and fixed widths with padding in the traditional sense, since the padding is added to the total width.
If the total width is 100%, and you want the content in the center to be 500px, you can't calculate the padding.
With CC3, though, you can use the box-sizing to change 'where' the padding is placed in the box model.
http://www.css3.info/preview/box-sizing/
Alas, I still don't think that will give you want you want simply due to there still being an unknown variable in play (the width of the container that the 100% width object is in).
In the end, we can sometimes over think these solutions in the name of over-optimization. IN this case, an extra div seems perfectly acceptable and, likely, the proper solution.
Why padding ?
You could set left and right margins to auto and that would make the div centered..
So just set
.panel{
width:1000px;
margin:0 auto;
}

CSS Responsive grid 1px gap issue

I am working on a responsive grid system for a project. The grid is made up of blocks which are floated left and have a width of 25%.
Inside these block are are images which are set to either 100% *height/width* or 50% *height/width*.
All the images within the blocks a butted up next to each other, and all the blocks are butted up next to each other so it looks like a seamless grid of images.
The issue I'm getting is at certain browser sizes or when you resize the browser you get a little 1px gap between certain blocks.
An example can be seen here:
http://dahliacreative.com/responsivegrid/
I think it may be down to the blocks floating as if you take the float off all seems fine.
I tried using display: inline-block etc, but couldn't get anything working!
Does anyone have an idea to fix this ?
This is due to using full round percentages such as 50%, when you get to certain widths and heights (e.g 561px * 393px) then those won't divide into 50% evenly hence this remaining 1px gap.
Have a look at twitter bootstrap CSS to see the percentages done to 6 decimal points to avoid this issue.
I fix it by adding css class to last column, css for this class
.your_class_for_last_column { float: left !important;}
/* TO FIX 1px Foundation 5 bug fix*/
You can use the new css3 with colum gap and column count.
column-count:
column-gap:
Chris made a really good example with images, which is related to yours.
You can do almost the same thing with li or table or so on elements
Make sure to use prefix and doesn't work in IE less than 10
http://css-tricks.com/seamless-responsive-photo-grid/

Three Variable-Width, Equally-Spaced DIVs? What About Four?

I have some very simple sub-navigation that I'm trying to build across the top of the content area within my web site, but CSS doesn't seem to have any simple solutions for such a common problem: I want either 3 or 4 equally spaced DIVs across the top of the page.
1) e.g. 3 Variable-Width, Equally-Spaced DIVs
[[LEFT] [CENTER] [RIGHT]]
2) e.g. 4 Variable-Width, Equally-Spaced DIVs
[[LEFT] [LEFT CENTER] [RIGHT CENTER] [RIGHT]]
My solution for the first problem with only 3 DIVs was to float the left and right DIVs, and then assign an arbitrary size to the middle DIV and give it "margin: 0 auto". That's not really a solution, but assuming there are no changes to the navigation, it gives a rough approximation of what I want the results to be.
The solution I have for the second problem with 4 DIVs is to simply center a DIV in the same way as before, but then float two DIVs within that, e.g.
[[LEFT] [[LEFT CENTER] [RIGHT CENTER]] [RIGHT]]
But again, this requires applying an arbitrary size to the middle DIV for alignment, and if any language or image changes are made to the site, alignment values will have to be recalculated. As well, it's simply an over-complicated solution that requires merging structure with presentation.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
EDIT 07/20/2012 5:00PM
Alright, I put the "table-cell" solution into place using percents, but I encountered another issue within my slightly more complex implementation: the issue at hand is that each DIV I was referring to is actually a container for two more DIVs which are icon-label pairs, inlined either by float or by display:inline-block.
e.g. http://jsfiddle.net/c3yrm/1/
As you can see, the final element in the list is displayed improperly.
Any help is again greatly appreciated!
EDIT 07/20/2012 7:16PM
Final solution with arttronics' help: http://jsfiddle.net/CuQ7r/4/
Reference: jsFiddle Pure CSS Demo
The solution was to float the individual breadcrumbs while using a simple formula to determine the percentage of breadcrumb width based on the number total breadcrumbs.
You could use percentages, then it just comes down to simple math:
[[LEFT=22%]2% margin><2% margin[LEFT CENTER=22%]2% margin><2% margin[RIGHT CENTER=22%]2% margin><2% marginRIGHT=22%]]=100%/??px
You could then specify a width for its container and use
display:inline;
to keep them inline.
Note: If you use borders to see what the divs are doing that will add space unnaccounted for so you would need to reduce your elements width by 1% or so OR just change their background colors.
ol {
width: 400px;
/*width: 800px;*/
display: table;
table-layout: fixed; /* the magic dust that ensure equal width */
background: #ccc
}
ol > li {
display: table-cell;
border: 1px dashed red;
text-align: center
}
like here: http://jsfiddle.net/QzYAr/
One way I've found to do it is using flex boxes (or inline-flex).
Here is a great explanation and example of how it can be done.
I think in the future, flex boxes will be the superior way of handling this sort of thing, but until other browsers catch up with Mozilla's way of thinking for how to use the flex-basis attribute (with min-content, max-content, fit-content, etc. as values), these flex boxes will continue to be problematic for responsive designs. For example, occasionally the inner content (a_really_really_long_word) can't fit in the allotted space when the window is squished down, and so sometimes some things might not be visible off to the right of the screen if you're not careful.
I think perhaps if you make use of the flex-wrap property, you might be able to ensure everything fits. Here is another example of how this might be done (in Mozilla browsers anyway).
I tend to use flex boxes for letterheads or tables where the width is fairly fixed (not too small) because they usually space themselves nicely; I tend to use nested float and inline-block objects for websites where the content must squish down very small (as suggested in some of the other answers here).

Floated elements with %-based width and px-based borders: What is the best way to avoid the line break?

I have an issue that terrorizes me in my sleep, unrelentingly . If you have an attainable solution and care to share it, please do; I'd like to have a normal night of sleep again.
On my latest project, there are multiple times when I will need to have 4 or 5 elements floated next to one another. Each element must be sized using percentages (%) but must also have border-right: 1px solid #000.
Once upon a time, I would normally size each element with percentages, then create a child element that would have all of the styling properties that the parent probably should have had, including the border-right. This solution isn't ideal, however, because it involves a lot of unnecessary markup.
A co-worker then directed me to another solution. When an element has a width that is sized using %s, and also needs to have border-right: 1px solid #000, apply margin-right: -1px as an offset. And while it works, it created another issue for me (which is why we're here, together, in union).
When zooming out in any of the major browsers (ctrl mousescroll, ctrl -), the floated elements that have been the focus-of-discussion tend to dance around a bit; the last element toggles between breaking to the next line and then snapping back. Please refer to the image below:
The reason this should be addressed is because the scope of the project has the potential of serving people from many different demographics (especially those who may need to scroll in, or out for that matter, to make the text larger or smaller). A very broad project, indeed.
How can I reach my goal highlighted in the example above?
How can I have 4 or 5 or more (or less) bordered elements floated next to one another, sized proportionally using %s, WITHOUT them breaking form?
You can use the experimental box model CSS3 declaration to have the borders detract from the elements width instead of adding on to it. This should prevent the problem. Quirksmode has a nice write up on it. It is supported by IE8/9 and current versions of webkit, opera and ff.
li {
-webkit-box-sizing: border-box;
-moz-box-sizing: border-box;
box-sizing: border-box;
}
The basic issue here, I think, is that you're 'misusing' the width property - width is supposed to control inner boxes, not the size of outer boxes. That is, your borders are supposed to be added on to your boxes, not included in the calculated width.
The result is that you don't have many choices beyond either:
Using Javascript to do some fancy recalculation,
Seeing if you can trigger quirks mode and use the IE5 box model (NOT a good idea),
Replacing borders several background images in lots of stacked divs (not nice), or,
Floating 20% width containers, then putting width:auto divs (not width:100%) with borders in the parent floats.
I know solution 4 sounds horrible, and means non-semantic markup, but it's a common kludge and one that other developers will probably understand (too) well.
This may sound horrible, but why not use a background image to create the border?
.box_20_percent {
width:20%;
float:left;
padding:0;
background-image:url([one_pixel_colored_image]);
background-repeat:repeat-y;
background-position:right
}
This should leave the "border" out of the resize calculation altogether.
If you declare the border-width and negative margin in ems instead of pixels, there is no wrapping/jumping. I realize this may be cold comfort since it would compromise your design somewhat, but it works!

How to fix this common problem of position:fixed elements not expanding to its parent width?

Have a look at this fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/h4VS7/
How do I make the yellow element align (horz) with the grey background no matter how the window is resized? I refuse to believe it can't be done with css. Yes, js hacks and Scroll Follow plugin works but lags.
Please, anyone?
Edit:
Found a solution. If the container margins are expressed as percentages the content part can be expressed as the remainder percentage. See here: http://jsfiddle.net/h4VS7/1/
Though not sure why it doesn't align perfectly. It should I think. Could be jsfiddle margin/padding related.
It's not particularly difficult if you don't mind adding an extra element to wrap .top:
http://jsfiddle.net/Ud3ZQ/
And also, a properly aligning (well, almost) version of your solution:
http://jsfiddle.net/h4VS7/3/
The problem was that jsFiddle loads http://fiddle.jshell.net/css/result-light.css:
body {background: white; padding: 10px; }
Anything is more specific than * (including body), so the padding was being applied, regardless of * {padding:0; margin:0}

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