# CSS Grid Tutorial
> Learn CSS Grid, the two-dimensional layout system for rows and columns, using grid-template-columns and rows, the fr unit, repeat() and grid-template-areas.
Author: [Flavio Copes](https://flaviocopes.com/about/) | Published: 2018-02-06 | Updated: 2024-10-26 | Topics: [CSS](https://flaviocopes.com/tags/css/) | Canonical: https://flaviocopes.com/css-grid/
- [Introduction to CSS Grid](#introduction-to-css-grid)
- [The basics](#the-basics)
- [grid-template-columns and grid-template-rows](#grid-template-columns-and-grid-template-rows)
- [Automatic dimensions](#automatic-dimensions)
- [Different columns and rows dimensions](#different-columns-and-rows-dimensions)
- [Adding space between the cells](#adding-space-between-the-cells)
- [Span items on multiple columns and/or rows](#span-items-on-multiple-columns-andor-rows)
- [Shorthand syntax](#shorthand-syntax)
- [Using `grid-area` as a shorthand](#using-grid-area-as-a-shorthand)
- [Using `span`](#using-span)
- [More grid configuration](#more-grid-configuration)
- [Using fractions](#using-fractions)
- [Using percentages and rem](#using-percentages-and-rem)
- [Using `repeat()`](#using-repeat)
- [Specify a minimum width for a row](#specify-a-minimum-width-for-a-row)
- [Positioning elements using `grid-template-areas`](#positioning-elements-using-grid-template-areas)
- [Adding empty cells in template areas](#adding-empty-cells-in-template-areas)
- [Fill a page with a grid](#fill-a-page-with-a-grid)
- [An example: header, sidebar, content and footer](#an-example-header-sidebar-content-and-footer)
- [Wrapping up](#wrapping-up)
## Introduction to CSS Grid
CSS Grid is a fundamentally new approach to building layouts using CSS.
CSS Grid is not a competitor to [Flexbox](https://flaviocopes.com/flexbox). They interoperate and collaborate on complex layouts, because CSS Grid works on 2 dimensions (rows AND columns) while Flexbox works on a single dimension (rows OR columns).
Building layouts for the web has traditionally been a complicated topic.
I won't dig into the reasons for this complexity, which is a complex topic on its own, but you can think yourself as a very lucky human because nowadays **you have 2 very powerful and well supported tools at your disposal**:
- **CSS Flexbox**
- **CSS Grid**
These 2 are the tools to build the Web layouts of the future.
Unless you need to support old browsers like IE8 and IE9, there is no reason to be messing with things like:
- Table layouts
- Floats
- clearfix hacks
- `display: table` hacks
In this guide there's all you need to know about going from a zero knowledge of CSS Grid to being a proficient user.
## The basics
The CSS Grid layout is activated on a container element (which can be a `div` or any other tag) by setting `display: grid`.
As with flexbox, you can define some properties on the container, and some properties on each individual item in the grid.
These properties combined will determine the final look of the grid.
The most basic container properties are `grid-template-columns` and `grid-template-rows`.
### grid-template-columns and grid-template-rows
Those properties define the number of columns and rows in the grid, and they also set the width of each column/row.
The following snippet defines a grid with 4 columns each 200px wide, and 2 rows with a 300px height each.
```css
.container {
display: grid;
grid-template-columns: 200px 200px 200px 200px;
grid-template-rows: 300px 300px;
}
```
Here's another example of a grid with 2 columns and 2 rows:
```css
.container {
display: grid;
grid-template-columns: 200px 200px;
grid-template-rows: 100px 100px;
}
```
### Automatic dimensions
Many times you might have a fixed header size, a fixed footer size, and the main content that is flexible in height, depending on its length. In this case you can use the `auto` keyword:
```css
.container {
display: grid;
grid-template-rows: 100px auto 100px;
}
```
### Different columns and rows dimensions
In the above examples we made pretty, regular grids by using the same values for rows and the same values for columns.
You can specify any value for each row/column, to create a lot of different designs:
```css
.container {
display: grid;
grid-template-columns: 100px 200px;
grid-template-rows: 100px 50px;
}
```
Another example:
```css
.container {
display: grid;
grid-template-columns: 10px 100px;
grid-template-rows: 100px 10px;
}
```
### Adding space between the cells
Unless specified, there is no space between the cells.
You can add spacing by using those properties:
- `grid-column-gap`
- `grid-row-gap`
or the shorthand syntax `grid-gap`.
Example:
```css
.container {
display: grid;
grid-template-columns: 100px 200px;
grid-template-rows: 100px 50px;
grid-column-gap: 25px;
grid-row-gap: 25px;
}
```
The same layout using the shorthand:
```css
.container {
display: grid;
grid-template-columns: 100px 200px;
grid-template-rows: 100px 50px;
grid-gap: 25px;
}
```
### Span items on multiple columns and/or rows
Every cell item has the option to occupy more than just one box in the row, and expand horizontally or vertically to get more space, while respecting the grid proportions set in the container.
Those are the properties we'll use for that:
- `grid-column-start`
- `grid-column-end`
- `grid-row-start`
- `grid-row-end`
Example:
```css
.container {
display: grid;
grid-template-columns: 200px 200px 200px 200px;
grid-template-rows: 300px 300px;
}
.item1 {
grid-column-start: 2;
grid-column-end: 4;
}
.item6 {
grid-column-start: 3;
grid-column-end: 5;
}
```
The numbers correspond to the vertical line that separates each column, starting from 1:
The same principle applies to `grid-row-start` and `grid-row-end`, except this time instead of taking more columns, a cell takes more rows.
#### Shorthand syntax
Those properties have a shorthand syntax provided by:
- `grid-column`
- `grid-row`
The usage is simple, here's how to replicate the above layout:
```css
.container {
display: grid;
grid-template-columns: 200px 200px 200px 200px;
grid-template-rows: 300px 300px;
}
.item1 {
grid-column: 2 / 4;
}
.item6 {
grid-column: 3 / 5;
}
```
## Using `grid-area` as a shorthand
The `grid-area` property can be used as a shorthand for the `grid-column` and `grid-row` shorthands, when you need to apply both to a single element. Instead of having:
```css
.item1 {
grid-row: 1 / 4;
grid-column: 3 / 5;
}
```
You can use
```css
.item1 {
grid-area: 1 / 3 / 4 / 5;
}
```
(grid-row-start / grid-column-start / grid-row-end / grid-column-end)
## Using `span`
Another approach is to set the starting column/row, and set how many it should occupy using `span`:
```css
.container {
display: grid;
grid-template-columns: 200px 200px 200px 200px;
grid-template-rows: 300px 300px;
}
.item1 {
grid-column: 2 / span 2;
}
.item6 {
grid-column: 3 / span 2;
}
```
`span` works also with the non-shorthand syntax:
```css
.item1 {
grid-column-start: 2;
grid-column-end: span 2;
}
```
and you can also use on the start property. In this case, the end position will be used as a reference, and `span` will count "back":
```css
.item1 {
grid-column-start: span 2;
grid-column-end: 3;
}
```
## More grid configuration
### Using fractions
Specifying the exact width of each column or row is not ideal in every case.
A fraction is a unit of space.
The following example divides a grid into 3 columns with the same width, 1/3 of the available space each.
```css
.container {
grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr 1fr;
}
```
### Using percentages and rem
You can also use percentages, and mix and match fractions, pixels, rem and percentages:
```css
.container {
grid-template-columns: 3rem 15% 1fr 2fr
}
```
### Using `repeat()`
`repeat()` is a special function that takes a number that indicates the number of times a row/column will be repeated, and the length of each one.
If every column has the same width you can specify the layout using this syntax:
```css
.container {
grid-template-columns: repeat(4, 100px);
}
```
This creates 4 columns with the same width.
Or using fractions:
```css
.container {
grid-template-columns: repeat(4, 1fr);
}
```
### Specify a minimum width for a row
Common use case: Have a sidebar that never collapses more than a certain amount of pixels when you resize the window.
Here's an example where the sidebar takes 1/4 of the screen and never takes less than 200px:
```css
.container {
grid-template-columns: minmax(200px, 3fr) 9fr;
}
```
You can also set just a maximum value using the `auto` keyword:
```css
.container {
grid-template-columns: minmax(auto, 50%) 9fr;
}
```
or just a minimum value:
```css
.container {
grid-template-columns: minmax(100px, auto) 9fr;
}
```
### Positioning elements using `grid-template-areas`
By default elements are positioned in the grid using their order in the HTML structure.
Using `grid-template-areas` You can define template areas to move them around in the grid, and also to span an item on multiple rows / columns instead of using `grid-column`.
Here's an example:
```html
```
```css
.container {
display: grid;
grid-template-columns: 200px 200px 200px 200px;
grid-template-rows: 300px 300px;
grid-template-areas:
"header header header header"
"sidebar main main main"
"footer footer footer footer";
}
main {
grid-area: main;
}
aside {
grid-area: sidebar;
}
header {
grid-area: header;
}
footer {
grid-area: footer;
}
```
Despite their original order, items are placed where `grid-template-areas` define, depending on the `grid-area` property associated to them.
Writing template areas by hand can get tedious: try my free [grid generator](https://flaviocopes.com/tools/grid-generator/) to paint named areas visually and copy the resulting CSS.
#### Adding empty cells in template areas
You can set an empty cell using the dot `.` instead of an area name in `grid-template-areas`:
```css
.container {
display: grid;
grid-template-columns: 200px 200px 200px 200px;
grid-template-rows: 300px 300px;
grid-template-areas:
". header header ."
"sidebar . main main"
". footer footer .";
}
```
## Fill a page with a grid
You can make a grid extend to fill the page using `fr`:
```css
.container {
display: grid;
height: 100vh;
grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr;
grid-template-rows: 1fr 1fr;
}
```
## An example: header, sidebar, content and footer
Here is a simple example of using CSS Grid to create a site layout that provides a header op top, a main part with sidebar on the left and content on the right, and a footer afterwards.
Here's the markup:
```html
```
and here's the CSS:
```css
header {
grid-area: header;
background-color: #fed330;
padding: 20px;
}
article {
grid-area: content;
background-color: #20bf6b;
padding: 20px;
}
aside {
grid-area: sidebar;
background-color: #45aaf2;
}
footer {
padding: 20px;
grid-area: footer;
background-color: #fd9644;
}
.wrapper {
display: grid;
grid-gap: 20px;
grid-template-columns: 1fr 3fr;
grid-template-areas:
"header header"
"sidebar content"
"footer footer";
}
```
I added some colors to make it prettier, but basically it assigns to every different tag a `grid-area` name, which is used in the `grid-template-areas` property in `.wrapper`.
When the layout is smaller we can put the sidebar below the content using a media query:
```css
@media (max-width: 500px) {
.wrapper {
grid-template-columns: 4fr;
grid-template-areas:
"header"
"content"
"sidebar"
"footer";
}
}
```
[See on CodePen](https://codepen.io/flaviocopes/pen/JZWOEK)
## Wrapping up
These are the basics of CSS Grid. There are many things I didn't include in this introduction but I wanted to make it very simple, to start using this new layout system without making it feel overwhelming.