elementcss

Rich Sass library to work with CSS4 and generate complex GUI in the SEM-way

elementcss is a three part framework. One is a rich Sass library to manipulate Sass lists, strings & maps. Second is utils to convert CSS4 colors & units back and forth, generate grid layout, define vertical rhythm and easily reset the whole HTML document to style from "scratch". Third is the utils implementing SEM-methodology. Idea is simple: put one property per class and apply them in WYSIWYG-way. Full list of available functions & mixins you can found here.

Download v2.9.0

Demo

The CSS styles for following pages were generated with elementcss:

Personal webpage (repository | source styles > resulting css)
Birthday gift card (repository | resulting css)

Features

grid system. Powerful grid() mixin generates flexbox or float-based layout with unlimited number of breakpoints. Customize number of columns, width and gap per each @media rule. Implements all widely used grid features: column's width, push, pull, offset, center, etc.
metrics. snap-len() "snaps" input values into fixed baseline height (eg. your document's line-height). Useful for stepping height, margin, padding, etc. and defining horizontal/vertical rhythm.
SEM. elementcss implements SEM methodology. Minimalistic syntax of set() mixin provides full control over generating dozens of mixes and elements. Learn more..
style reset. elementcss is backed by init.css project. init.css is a best from both worlds normalize.css and Reset CSS 2.0. Both makes an appearance of HTML tags unstyled/unified to start styling from a blank sheet. But, init.css merge best practices into one solution. Learn more..
color utils. Useful functions to work with colors: convert-color() to convert different models back and forth; color() to adjust, set and scale internal color parameters using different models; brightness() to extract the brightness; tint(), shade() and contrast-color() to tint, shade and get contrast b/w two colors accordingly. Supporting models: hex, rgb(a), hsb/v(a), hsl(a).
unit utils. Functions to work with CSS units. trim-unit(), append-unit(), convert-unit() to remove, append and convert different CSS units into one another; round-unit() makes sure you get an integer pixel at the end of browser rendering. Supported all valid CSS units: rem, px, pt, %, pc, etc.
helper utils. Popular helper classes gathered from best practice. Clearfix, image replacement, hiding, visually hiding, text hiding and more.
string utils. Functions to work with strings. str-exists(), has-prefix()/-postfix(), str-replace(), trim-left()/-right() to check occurrence, replace and trim specified substring(s) accordingly.
list/map utils. Functions to work with Sass build-in lists and maps. slice(), union(), nth-replace(), replace-value(), nth-remove(), remove-value() to slice, merge, replace and remove items by index/value accordingly; map-append-val(), map-union() to append key-value pair and union maps.
math utils. Basic math functions. pow(), root(), gcd() to power, root and find great common divider of a number.

Quick Start

Install Sass
Create project dir and go inside:

mkdir myproject
cd myproject

Clone repository, or download archive and extract it into the project root:

git clone https://github.com/timfayz/elementcss

Copy content of elementcss/templates/app-minimal into your project root:

ls
index.html  main.scss  elementcss/

Open main.scss and check if its import path is correct:

// main.scss
...
@import "elementcss/import"; // correct import path
...

Open command line in the project root and compile main.scss:

sass --watch main.scss:main.css # compile resulting .css file & watch for new changes

main.css is already generated, now open index.html in your browser and see the results.
You've done!

File structure

docs/         documentation
templates/    project boilerplates
src/*.scss    logically separated core files
_import.scss  entry point (unites all src/* files)
LICENSE       license information
README.md     this is what you are currently reading

Documentation

Documentation is under heavy development.

API is always relevant and generated automatically by little script docs/API.py. It creates list of links pointing right to source definitions. Such an approach is taken since all the code has a well-written embedded documentation with several examples per each function and mixin definition. So please refer last changes to the source itself!

API
Guide

The guide might be outdated since it was written years ago based on previous versions. Logically it should be correct, but there might be inconsistences.

Contributing

If you want to help or contribute to this project feel free to make a pull request or create a new issue. I'm very welcome to any kind of ideas and support.