Ask HN: What CSS template do you use to start quickly?

13 points·mise··6 comments

I'm starting to help on the interface of an open source project but I'm not an interface ninja.

Is there an (openly licensed) collection of CSS templates online?

There are loads of "free web template" sites online that offer HTML/CSS templates that could get you started.

Personally, I think Theme Forest (http://themeforest.net/) has the best templates available, for a small fee (~$10).

Start with a template, hack it up to meet your needs, and go from there. So much faster and easier than doing it all yourself on an app where good UI is important, but isn't the point of the site.

I'd definitely start with the Eric Meyer reset before writing custom css just to get rid of any defaults you might be unaware of...

http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/css/reset/

I'm also a fan of the 960.gs grid, really quick to learn and good for the majority of structured layouts.

If you are looking for just CSS frameworks try:

http://blueprintcss.org

http://bluetrip.org

http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/grids/

It's not exactly a template, but I just used the 1140px css grid system this past weekend to get a side project up and going. I had no css experience before this, but the website turned out (i think) beautifully.

http://cssgrid.net/

Pros: - Took a non-html person about 40 minutes to figure out - Can look really nice without much effort - Simple - Free! Cons: - I'm not sure it falls under the definition of a true template

I don't consider Blueprint or other CSS frameworks templates, but in general I think templates cause more work than they prevent.

Things look nice to start with, but you quickly find yourself trying to figure out how to remove or change CSS styles instead of just building on top of.

960.gs has been very friendly with me so far!

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