Making that perfect lightweight CSS framework

Bootstrap is great. Its effectively now the 960 grid of 2012+. There’s no other way to really slice it, but its overkill for a lot of project and locks you into a lot of styling that you may not want or need.  There’s a lot of lightweight CSS frameworks. I’ve come increasingly to the conclusion that you should get into the habit of rolling your own.  

While I’ve seen some extreme criticism of frameworks such as “CSS frameworks, the killers of design trends”, my rationing is a little more practical and a little more selfish: I want control and I want to know the thought process of why each design decision was made. 

 

Here’s a quick compiled list of links for building your own CSS framework:

CSS Frameworks + CSS Reset: Design From Scratch - An intro to CSS frameworks by Smashing Magazine

Reset CSS - No need to reinvent the wheel, zero out your browser defaults.

Don’t Overthink - CSS grids - Make CSS grids smart

Defining breakpoints - A nice philosophy on defining breakpoints.

TypeChart - Easy to nab typography defaults if your project requires web safe fonts.