Susy - Compass Plugin

Susy is a semantic CSS grid system for designers.

Use Susy anywhere. Static sites, Rails sites, Django sites, PHP sites, etc. You name it. Susy just helps you with the grid - whether you want it fixed, fluid, elastic or Susy’s specialty: fluid on the inside and elastic on the outside. And Susy will do it all without ever touching your markup.

Built entirely native to [Compass](compass-style.org/), Susy is based on the philosophy and techniques of [Natalie Downe](natbat.net/)‘s “[CSS Systems](natbat.net/2008/Sep/28/css-systems/)” - which introduces difficult math in return for beautiful structure. Now Susy will do that math for you and let you focus on your designs.

Install

sudo gem install compass-susy-plugin

Create a Susy-based Compass Project

compass create <project name> -r susy -u susy

Philosophy and Goals

The method comes from [Natalie Downe](natbat.net/)‘s “[CSS Systems](natbat.net/2008/Sep/28/css-systems/)”, but I’ll cover it here.

It is important for accessibility and usability that we are:

• Able to control our designs and line-lengths with some amount of precision.

• Responsive to text sizing: In order for our site to be accessible we need to allow different font-sizes to be set by the client. In order to maintain design integrity of proportions and line-lengths, the grid needs to respond to those sizes.

• Responsive to window sizing: In order to maintain usability across platforms/monitors, our grid needs to respond to the size of the viewport. This is mainly an issue as the viewport shrinks and we are given a side-scroll bar. No one likes that. On the large end our design integrity and line lengths are more important than taking up all the possible space.

In order to achieve both goals we need to combine the best of the elastic (em-based) and fluid (%-based) models. The solution is simple: First we build a fluid grid, then place it inside an elastic shell, and apply a maximum width to that shell so that it never exceeds the size of the viewport. It’s simple in theory, but daunting in practice, as you constantly have to adjust your math based on the context.

But Susy harnesses the power of Compass and Sass to do all the math for you.

Grid Basics

• Set up your default grid values (total columns, column width, gutter width, side gutter width) and important mixins in ‘_base.scss`.

  Example:
  
      $total-cols: 12;                    /* a 12-column grid */
      $col-width: 4em;                    /* each column is 4em wide */
      $gutter-width: 1em;                 /* 1em gutters between columns */
      $side-gutter-width: $gutter-width;  /* 1em padding at the edges of the page as well */
  

• Create your grid in ‘screen.scss`: apply the `container` mixin to the element(s) that contains the page grid. This will set up your font sizes and grid container.

  Example:
  
      #page {
        @include container;
      }
  
  CSS Output:
  
      #page {
        *zoom: 1;
        margin: auto;
        width: 61em;
        max-width: 100%;
      }
      #page:after {
        content: "\0020";
        display: block;
        height: 0;
        clear: both;
        overflow: hidden;
        visibility: hidden;
      }
  

• Use the ‘columns` mixin to declare the width in columns of an element, or `full` for any element spanning the full width of its context.

  There is an important distinction between “root” and “nested” contexts in Susy. There is also a distinction between “grid elements” and “non-grid elements”. Grid elements are any elements that you assign a span to, either with the ‘columns` or `full` mixin. Non-Grid elements include everything else. Just as CSS absolute positioning happens in relation to the nearest positioned ancestor, Susy grid “context” depends on the nearest grid-element ancestor. Any element with the `container` as it’s nearest grid ancestor is considered to be in the “root” context. Any element within other grid elements (with a nearest grid ancestor other than the ‘container`) is considered to be in a “nested” context.

  This is important because side-gutters are handled at the root level, as margins on root grid elements. Margins that we don’t want at nested levels. It is also important because Susy grid elements are %-based, and so the context is important to Susy’s math. ‘Full` is simply a shortcut to replace `columns` when the span should be the full width.

  The `columns` mixin:
  
      @include columns($span, [$context]);
  
  The `full` mixin:
  
      @include full([$context]);
  

  Note: Context _must not_ be passed at the root level, and must be passed at nested levels.

• Use ‘alpha` and `omega` to declare elements which include the first or last column within their parent element.

  Note: ‘alpha` is only needed in the root level, and does nothing in nested contexts. Neither is needed with an `full` element.

  The `alpha` and `omega` mixins:
  
      @include alpha;
      @include omega([$context]);
  
  Example Scss:
  
      #page {
        @include container;
        header {
          @include full;
          h1 {
            @include full(12);
          }
        }
        nav {
          @include columns(3);
          @include alpha;
        }
        #content {
          @include columns(9);
          @include omega;
          #main {
            @include columns(6,9);
          }
          aside {
            @include columns(3,9);
            @include omega(9);
          }
        }
      }
  

  Susy’s CSS output uses floats to arrange the columns, widths to set the spans, right-margins to set the getter, and both side margins to set the side-gutters on root ‘alpha` and `omega` elements.

• Use ‘prefix` or `suffix` to pad (in columns) the width of an element using left and right padding, or `pad` to give both `prefix` and `@suffix` at once.

  The `prefix`, `suffix` and `pad` mixins:
  
      @include prefix($prefix-span [, $context])
      @include prefix($suffix-span [, $context])
      @include pad($prefix-span, $suffix-span [, $context])
  
  Used with `full` these are subtractive, so the full width remains:
  
      header {
        @include full;
        @prefix(2);
      }
  
  Will result in a full-width element, with 2 columns of padding to the left.
  
  Used with `columns` these are addative, so the content width remains:
  
      aside {
        @include columns(3,9);
        @prefix(3,9)
      }
  
  Will result in a 6-column element, with 3 of those columns used as padding
  on the left.
  

That’s it for the basics! Here’s a sample Susy grid layout:

#page {
  @include container;
}

header {
  @include full;
  @include pad(1,1);

  h1 {
    @include full(10);
  }
}

nav {
  @include columns(3);
  @include alpha;
}

#content {
  @include columns(9);
  @include omega;
  #main {
    @include columns(6,9);
  }
  aside {
    @include columns(3,9);
    @include omega(9);
  }
}

Tutorial

Check out the tutorial at [susy.oddbird.net/tutorial/](susy.oddbird.net/tutorial/) for more details.

Show your grids

• ‘@include susy-grid-background` - For testing it can be helpful to see your

grid. Using CSS3 gradients, Susy will show you that grid - and it will flex right along with your site.

Advanced Options

Susy is built for flexibility, so that you always write the code you want to write. While everything should ‘just work’ out of the box, there are plenty of advanced options hidden inside. Here are a few:

• ‘gutter($context)` is a function that you can call at any time to return the size of a gutter in your given context as a percentage.

  Example:
  
      #nav {
        padding-right: gutter(5);
      }
  

• ‘columns($number, $context)` returns the span of `$number` columns in `$context` as a percentage. This span includes any gutters between the columns spanned. `column($context)` is also available as a single-column shortcut.

  Example:
  
      #nav {
        padding-left: columns(3,5);
      }
  

• ‘side_gutter()` returns the percentage width of a side-gutter and takes no arguments since it can always used at the top nesting level.

Susy now also supports right-to-left and bi-directional documents. For a simple toggle, set the default ‘$from-direction` (defaults to `left`). For more specific control, you can pass an additional, localized `$from-direction` argument to any of the Susy mixins that need to know:

• ‘columns`, `reset-column`

• ‘alpha`, `omega`

• ‘prefix`, `suffix`, `pad`