Responsive web design is an approach to web design that enables a website to fit into any device that accesses it and delivers the appropriate output accordingly. Instead of designing separate websites for devices of various screen sizes, this method allows you to design a single site and optimize it for various devices. Responsive website layouts are gaining popularity these days, owing to the increase in mobile Internet usage.
Some of the most popular responsive web design grid tools are Gridpak, Golden Grid System, SimpleGrid, FluidGrids, Columnal, Gridless and The Semantic Grid System.
Gridpak:There are many problems that arise when one designs a flexible grid-based layout for websites. The Gridpak tool helps in creating a responsive grid, improves work flow and reduces the time spent. With the Gridpak tool, one can create 3 to 4 grids of different sizes and use them as a reference. Previous grids can be re-created with browser extensions. The need to write more stylesheets is eliminated as grid layers can be included by adding JavaScript. Gridpak eases your work by automatically generating PNGs, CSS and JavaScript. Once you add the number of columns, padding and gutter width, all the files you need will be automatically generated.
Golden Grid System (GGS):The GGS grid tool helps one to create a fluid grid layout. It can be the starting point for a responsive web design. Folding columns, elastic gutters, zoomable baseline grid and Golden Gridlet are the 4 main features of GGS. The folding columns give you 16 columns for use in the design. It combines 16 columns into 8 for tablet-sized screens and into 4 for mobile-sized screens. GGS covers screen sizes from 240 to 2560 pixels. The widths of its gutters are proportional to the page’s font-size, thus making it elastic. Golden Gridlet is a little script that makes it easy to visually check that the design elements are aligned. GGS’s zoomable baseline easily fits into the screen proportions of a mobile or a large monitor
SimpleGrid (SG): SimpleGrid is a very useful CSS framework for creating ‘n’ number of grid-based layouts. It provides you with 4 distinct screen sizes from less than 720px, to greater than 1235px. There is no need for scroll bars, as the website layout gets tuned to the size of the browser. Creating a code for the grid of your site is no more a problem. SG makes coding very simple with just a single class. Even nesting grid slots doesn’t require the addition of extra classes.
FluidGrids: FluidGrids is an easy-to-use fluid grid framework. With this tool you can create responsive layouts based on 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12 or 16 columns. It comes very handy when you want to create fluid grids with similar names. FluidGrids is an optimal choice if you want to design a highly sophisticated website with your very own custom grid.
Columnal:Columnal is a responsive CSS grid system for both desktop and mobile browsers. The Columnal grid system has a built-in debugging CSS to display the structure of the pages being built. It allows sub-columns (columns within columns), with which you can add extra space within a column before or after the content. CSS classes can be vertically spaced. The tool provides a PDF of the grid system for sketching the site before building it and has many wireframing templates also. Columnal makes responsive web design a little easier as it responds to the width of most browsers and also fits into the various mobile screen sizes.
Gridless: Gridless is a tool with an optional HTML5 and CSS3 boilerplate (standardized pieces of text for use as clauses as part of a computer program) to make mobile responsive, cross-browser compatible websites. Gridless is packed with everything a designer needs. It consists of CSS normalization, wonderful typography, a well-organized folder structure, IE bugfixes and other nice tricks. Gridless works well with any mobile device’s width, i.e it goes well with old feature phones, newer smartphones, tablets, notebooks and bigger desktops. It is free of pre-defined grid systems or semantic classes. It can be overwritten to suit any project. Gridless is open-source and is compatible with Opera, Mozilla, Chrome, Safari and Internet Explorer.
The Semantic Grid System: The Semantic Grid System allows you to add resources to your HTML page by referencing the LESS CSS stylesheet and LESS.js script. By importing the grid.less file, you can configure the LESS variables. It allows you to set column and gutter widths, choose the number of columns and switch between pixels and percentages. It also runs on SCSS (Sassy CSS) or Stylus. The Semantic Grid System neatly separates markup and presentation and is an ideal tool for powering adaptive layouts using @media queries. This tool facilitates multiple layers of nested columns. It also supports modern browsers as well as Internet Explorer 6 and up.
Responsive web design breathes new life to your website and helps it attract more visitors. These days, there is a great demand for web designers and developers who are proficient in responsive web designing. If you own a website, then a responsive web design is necessary to make your website accessible on all devices like smartphones, tablets, PCs etc.