This is the full version of my main presentation for 2013, providing an overview of the most interesting new layout features available in CSS3, along with advice on supporting older browsers, and some context around why they are important.

1. Future
Layouts
Thursday, 14 March 13

2. Find me...
✴ cmills@opera.com/cmills@w3.org
✴ @chrisdavidmills
✴ slideshare.net/chrisdavidmills
Thursday, 14 March 13

3. In the early days
✴ We thought the Web was print
✴ Limited device landscape meant
limited outlook
✴ Limited toolset
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4. Print means
✴ Designer has full control
✴ Technologies will be supported
✴ Canvases are fixed
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5. Web means
✴ Designer has less control
✴ Technologies won’t necessarily be
supported
✴ Canvases are variable
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6. Limited devices...
✴ We had desktops and laptops
✴ Of around 480 x 320, 640 x 480...
✴ ...or 800 x 600 if you were really
posh
✴ (We’ve come a long way since
then)
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7. ...means limited outlook
✴ Designing for the page
✴ Fixed, inflexible designs
✴ Mobile needed a separate site?
✴ WAP was a good idea?
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8. Limited toolset
✴ We didn’t have a good toolset for
layout
✴ CSS came along soon after ...
✴ ..but CSS support didn’t
✴ So we got into HTML tables and
spacer GIFs
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9. Consistent CSS support
✴ Was very welcome...
✴ Still didn’t give us much in the way
of layout
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10. CSS2 gave us
✴ floats: limiting, and kind of abused.
✴ positioning: feh.
✴ margins, padding: pfffff.
✴ borders.
✴ meh.
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11. We still have problems
At this point, there was still a raft of
design problems that were absurdly
difficult to solve on the web.
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12. What about
✴ Centering stuff?
✴ Same height columns?
✴ Flexible multiple columns?
✴ Complex floats?
✴ Shrinkwrapping contents?
✴ etc.
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13. Centering stuff™
<figure>
<div>
<img src="../base-styles/grim-
north.jpg" alt="A map of the North of
England">
<figcaption>Figure 1.1: It's grim up
North.</figcaption>
</div>
</figure>
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14. Centering stuff™
figure {
text-align: center;
}
figure div {
display: inline-block;
...
}
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15. Same height columns
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16. Same height columns
✴ We can fix this with faux columns
✴ Or JavaScript
✴ But really? Should we need to?
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17. Fortunately we have
A New Hope
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18. New tools on the horizon
✴ CSS WG + browser vendors
✴ Hard at work
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19. Media queries
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20. Media queries
✴ Same content, different layouts
✴ Polyfills/fixed layouts for old IE
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21. Media queries
media="screen and (max-width: 480px)"
@media screen and (max-width: 480px) {
/* do amazing stuff for
narrow screens */
}
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22. Media queries
/* Mobile first - make your mobile layout
the default... */
@media screen and (min-width: 481px) {
/* ...then do amazing stuff for
wider screens */
}
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23. Media queries
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24. matchMedia
✴ matchMedia = media queries inside
script
✴ For IE<10 and Opera Presto, polyfill
github.com/paulirish/matchMedia.js/
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25. matchMedia example
if (window.matchMedia("(min-width:
480px)").matches) {
/* Do stuff for wider screens */
} else {
/* Do stuff for narrow screens */
}
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26. More on Media queries
http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/
love-your -devices-adaptive-web-
design-with-media-queries-viewport-
and-more/
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27. viewport/CSS
device
adaptation
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28. Mobile browsers lie
✴ About viewport width
✴ Some also lie about the resolution
✴ So media queries alone don’t cut it
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29. Mobile misbehavior
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30. Viewport
<meta name="viewport"
content="width=device-width">
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31. Better
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32. @viewport
✴ Because viewport is more of a
style thing
✴ Specify viewport inside the
@viewport rule
✴ Opera Presto, IE10, WebKit
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33. Viewport
@viewport {
width: device-width;
}
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34. More on viewport
and @ viewport
http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/an-
introduction-to-meta-viewport-and-
viewport/
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35. Flexbox
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36. Flexbox rocks
✴ Allows easy flexible layouts
✴ Content reordering
✴ Same height columns
✴ Cure for cancer?
✴ Chrome, Opera Presto, FF IE (old
,
syntax)
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37. An example
<section>
<nav> ... </nav>
<article> ... </article>
<article> ... </article>
</section>
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38. An example
section {
display: flex;
}
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39. Gives you
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40. Rows and columns
section {
display: flex;
flex-direction: row;
flex-wrap: nowrap;
}
/* flex-flow is shorthand for flex-direction/
wrap */
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41. Main and cross axis
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42. align items on main axis
section {
justify-content: center;
}
/* can take other values such as flex-start,
flex-end, space-between and space-around */
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43. Thursday, 14 March 13

44. align items on cross axis
section {
align-items: stretch;
}
/* can take other values such as flex-start,
flex-end, and center; */
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45. Thursday, 14 March 13

46. Ordering elements
✴ Reorder child elements easily and
quickly
✴ Without screwing with the DOM
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47. Ordinal groups
nav {
order: 1;
}
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48. Gives you
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49. Flexing our muscle
✴ The flex property
✴ Set what proportion of available
space child elements occupy
✴ Unit-less proportion values
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50. Flex property
nav {
flex: 1;
}
article {
flex: 3;
}
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51. Gives you
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52. But there’s more
article {
flex: 3 2 400px;
}
/* flex-grow shares out positive space
flex-shrink shares out overflow reduction
flex-basis initially applied
= CAN GET BLOODY COMPLICATED */
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53. A case study
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54. Placing the nav
section {
display: flex;
flex-flow: row wrap;
}
nav {
flex: 1 100%;
}
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55. Flexible awesome nav!
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56. Making awesome
nav {
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
}
nav ul {
display: flex;
flex-flow: row wrap;
justify-content: center;
width: 80%;
}
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57. Making awesome
nav ul li {
flex: auto;
min-width: 5rem;
}
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58. More on Flexbox
http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/
flexbox-basics/
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59. Multi-column
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60. Multi-col layouts
✴ Break content into multi-col
✴ Cut down on markup cruft
✴ Specify column breaks, column
rules and heading span
✴ Most modern browsers have this
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61. Great at some things
<article>...</article>
article {
column-count: 2;
column-gap: 1rem;
column-rule: 2px solid rgba(0,0,255,0.25);
}
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62. Gives you
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63. Controlling column
breaks
article h2 {
break-before: column;
break-after: avoid-column;
}
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64. Gives you
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65. Column-spanning
headings
article h2 {
break-after: avoid-column;
column-span: all;
}
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66. Gives you
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67. Can also specify
column width
article {
column-width: 20rem;
column-gap: 2rem;
}
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68. Gives you
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69. Not so great at other
things
✴ No proper multi-column layouts
✴ break properties are fiddly
✴ Only works for simple layouts
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70. More on Multi-col
http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/
css3-multi-column-layout/
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71. Grids
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72. CSS grid layout
✴ A proper grid system for the web
✴ Completely remove content from
any layout concern
✴ IE10 only at the moment
✴ Spec in flux
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73. Define your grid
body {
display: grid;
grid-columns: 4% 20% 20% 12% 20% 20% 4%;
grid-rows: 300px 450px 450px 450px 300px;
}
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74. Define your grid
contents
header {
grid-column-position: 1;
grid-row-position: 1;
grid-column-span: 7;
}
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75. Thursday, 14 March 13

76. More on grids
http://24ways.org/2012/css3-grid-
layout/ (out of date syntax, but gives
good overview)
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77. Regions
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78. CSS regions
✴ Turn containers into vessels to
flow content into
✴ Flexible complex layouts
✴ IE10 and Chrome Canary only at the
moment
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79. Put your content in a
separate block
<article class="content">
<h2>Introduction</h2>
<p>Hello, dear readers...
</article>
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80. Then create your layout
blocks
<div class="layout">
<div class="text-container"></div>
<div class="text-container"></div>
<div class="image-container">
...
</div>
<div class="text-container"></div>
</div>
<div class="text-overflow"></div>
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81. Specify where to
flow it into
.content {
-webkit-flow-into: article;
}
.text-container, .text-overflow {
-webkit-flow-from: article;
}
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82. A little something I
cooked up
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83. Exclusions and
shapes
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84. CSS exclusions
✴ Create really complex floats
✴ Flow content around (and inside)
complex shapes
✴ Chrome Canary/IE only at the
moment
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85. Thursday, 14 March 13

86. Position your exclusion
<article class="content">
<header>
...
</header>
...
</article>
header {
position: absolute;
etc.
}
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87. Then exclude it!
header {
position: absolute;
etc.
wrap-flow: both;
/* Can also take values of start, end,
minimum, maximum, clear */
}
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88. Different effects
both start end
Text
minimum maximum clear
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89. Shape your exclusion
shape-inside: rectangle(0, 0, 100%, 100%,
25%, 25%);
shape-inside: polygon( ... )
shape-outside: polygon( ... )
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90. shape inside/outside
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91. My examples...
✴ ...didn’t work
✴ Apparently wrap-flow is in IE10
✴ and shape-inside/outside in
Chrome Canary...
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92. A note on
CSS units
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93. rems
✴ rem units used throughout my
examples
✴ size relative to the root (html) font-
size, not the parent font size.
✴ Much easier maths
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94. vh, vw, and vmin
✴ Percentage of viewport size
✴ 1vw = 1% of viewport width
✴ 1vh = 1% of viewport height
✴ 1vmin = 1vw or 1vh, whatever is
smallest
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95. vh, vw, and vmin
✴ Supported in IE10, FF Chrome, iOS,
,
Blackberry?
✴ text-size relative to viewport =
accessibility problem?
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96. New responsive
capabilities
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97. Fallbacks and
alternatives
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98. In truth
✴ A lot of this stuff doesn’t degrade
very gracefully
✴ Not a surprise, as layout is a
pretty big deal
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99. So do we just wait until support is
everywhere and IE6-9 is destroyed?
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100. Hell no!
✴ Intelligent alternatives via feature
detection
✴ @supports: native feature
detection
✴ Modernizr is still an excellent
solution
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101. @supports
/* Provide basic layout, e.g. with floats */
@supports (display:flex) {
/* Provide Flexbox layout for supporting
browsers */
}
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102. Modernizr
<html lang="en-US" class="no-js">
<head>
<script src="modernizr.js"></script>
</head>
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103. Modernizr
<html class=" js flexbox canvas canvastext
webgl no-touch geolocation postmessage no-
websqldatabase indexeddb hashchange history
draganddrop websockets rgba hsla multiplebgs
backgroundsize borderimage borderradius
boxshadow textshadow opacity cssanimations
csscolumns cssgradients no-cssreflections
csstransforms no-csstransforms3d
csstransitions fontface generatedcontent
video audio ... ">
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104. Modernizr CSS
.feature-no-regions .layout, .feature-no-
regions .text-overflow {
display: none;
}
.feature-no-regions .content {
float: left;
width: 48%;
padding: 1%;
}
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105. Fallback basic layout
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106. Modernizr JS
function rotateForm() {
if(Modernizr.cssanimations &&
Modernizr.csstransforms3d) {
form.setAttribute("class","form-rotate");
form.style.left = "0rem";
} else {
back.style.zIndex = "5";
}
}
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107. “Subtle” advertisement
Buy my book
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108. Thanks!
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109. Find me...
✴ cmills@opera.com/cmills@w3.org
✴ @chrisdavidmills
✴ slideshare.net/chrisdavidmills
Thursday, 14 March 13

110. Photo credits
✴ Star wars adidas posters by
Dorothy Tang: http://
www.flickr
.com/photos/adifans/
4265441265/
Thursday, 14 March 13