CSS Grid

How it works

With Bootstrap 5, we've added the option to enable a separate grid system that's built on CSS Grid, but with a Bootstrap twist. You still get classes you can apply on a whim to build responsive layouts, but with a different approach under the hood.

• CSS Grid is opt-in. Disable the default grid system by setting $enable-grid-classes: false and enable the CSS Grid by setting $enable-cssgrid: true. Then, recompile your Sass.
• Replace instances of row with grid. The grid attributes sets display: grid and creates a grid-template that you build on with your HTML.
• Replace col="*" classes with GridCol components. This is because our CSS Grid columns use the GridCol component instead of width.
• Columns and gutter sizes are set via CSS variables. Set these on the parent grid and customize however you want, inline or in a stylesheet, with --bs-columns and --bs-gap.

In the future, Bootstrap will likely shift to a hybrid solution as the gap property has achieved nearly full browser support for flexbox.

Examples

Three columns

Three equal-width columns across all viewports and devices can be created by using the size="4" atttibutes. Add responsive classes to change the layout by viewport size.

<template>
  <Grid>
    <GridCol :size="4">
      .g-col-4
    </GridCol>
    <GridCol :size="4">
      .g-col-4
    </GridCol>
    <GridCol :size="4">
      .g-col-4
    </GridCol>
  </Grid>
</template>

Responsive

Use responsive classes to adjust your layout across viewports. Here we start with two columns on the narrowest viewports, and then grow to three columns on medium viewports and above.

<template>
  <Grid>
    <GridCol size="6 md-4">
      .g-col-6 .g-col-md-4
    </GridCol>
    <GridCol size="6 md-4">
      .g-col-6 .g-col-md-4
    </GridCol>
    <GridCol size="6 md-4">
      .g-col-6 .g-col-md-4
    </GridCol>
  </Grid>
</template>

Compare that to this two column layout at all viewports.

<template>
  <Grid>
    <GridCol size="6">
      .g-col-6
    </GridCol>
    <GridCol size="6">
      .g-col-6
    </GridCol>
  </Grid>
</template>

Wrapping

Grid items automatically wrap to the next line when there's no more room horizontally. Note that the gap applies to horizontal and vertical gaps between grid items.

<template>
  <Grid>
    <GridCol :size="6">
      .g-col-6
    </GridCol>
    <GridCol :size="6">
      .g-col-6
    </GridCol>

    <GridCol :size="6">
      .g-col-6
    </GridCol>
    <GridCol :size="6">
      .g-col-6
    </GridCol>
  </Grid>
</template>

Starts

Start classes aim to replace our default grid's offset classes, but they're not entirely the same. CSS Grid creates a grid template through styles that tell browsers to "start at this column" and "end at this column." Those properties are column-start and column-end. Start classes are shorthand for the former. Pair them with the column classes to size and align your columns however you need. Start classes begin at 1 as 0 is an invalid value for these properties.

<template>
  <Grid>
    <GridCol
      :size="3"
      :colmun-start="2"
    >
      .g-col-3 .g-start-2
    </GridCol>
    <GridCol
      :size="4"
      :colmun-start="6"
    >
      >.g-col-4 .g-start-6
    </GridCol>
  </Grid>
</template>

Auto columns

When there are no classes on the grid items (the immediate children of a Grid), each grid item will automatically be sized to one column.

<template>
  <Grid>
    <b-div>1</b-div>
    <b-div>1</b-div>
    <b-div>1</b-div>
    <b-div>1</b-div>
    <b-div>1</b-div>
    <b-div>1</b-div>
    <b-div>1</b-div>
    <b-div>1</b-div>
    <b-div>1</b-div>
    <b-div>1</b-div>
    <b-div>1</b-div>
    <b-div>1</b-div>
  </Grid>
</template>

This behavior can be mixed with grid column classes.

<template>
  <Grid>
    <GridCol :size="6">
      .g-col-6
    </GridCol>
    <b-div>1</b-div>
    <b-div>1</b-div>
    <b-div>1</b-div>
    <b-div>1</b-div>
    <b-div>1</b-div>
    <b-div>1</b-div>
  </Grid>
</template>

Nesting

Similar to our default grid system, our CSS Grid allows for easy nesting of Grids. However, unlike the default, this grid inherits changes in the rows, columns, and gaps. Consider the example below:

• We override the default number of columns with a local CSS variable: --bs-columns: 3.
• In the first auto-column, the column count is inherited and each column is one-third of the available width.
• In the second auto-column, we've reset the column count on the nested Grid to 12 (our default).
• The third auto-column has no nested content.

In practice this allows for more complex and custom layouts when compared to our default grid system.

<template>
  <Grid :columns="3">
    <GridCol>
      First auto-column
      <Grid>
        <GridCol>Auto-column</GridCol>
        <GridCol>Auto-column</GridCol>
      </Grid>
    </GridCol>
    <GridCol>
      Second auto-column
      <Grid :columns="12">
        <GridCol :size="6">
          6 of 12
        </GridCol>
        <GridCol :size="4">
          4 of 12
        </GridCol>
        <GridCol :size="2">
          2 of 12
        </GridCol>
      </Grid>
    </GridCol>
    <GridCol>Third auto-column</GridCol>
  </Grid>
</template>

Customizing

Customize the number of columns, the number of rows, and the width of the gaps with local CSS variables.

These CSS variables have no default value; instead, they apply fallback values that are used _until_ a local instance is provided. For example, we use var(--bs-rows, 1) for our CSS Grid rows, which ignores --bs-rows because that hasn't been set anywhere yet. Once it is, the Grid instance will use that value instead of the fallback value of 1.

No grid classes

Immediate children elements of Grid are grid items, so they'll be sized without explicitly adding a GridCol class.

<template>
  <Grid :columns="3">
    <GridCol>Auto-column</GridCol>
    <GridCol>Auto-column</GridCol>
    <GridCol>Auto-column</GridCol>
  </Grid>
</template>

Columns and gaps

Adjust the number of columns and the gap.

<template>
  <Grid
    :columns="4"
    gap="5rem"
  >
    <GridCol :size="2">
      .g-col-2
    </GridCol>
    <GridCol :size="2">
      .g-col-2
    </GridCol>
  </Grid>
</template>

<template>
  <Grid
    :columns="10"
    gap="1rem"
  >
    <GridCol :size="2">
      .g-col-6
    </GridCol>
    <GridCol :size="2">
      .g-col-4
    </GridCol>
  </Grid>
</template>

Adding rows

Adding more rows and changing the placement of columns:

<template>
  <Grid
    :rows="3"
    :columns="3"
  >
    <GridCol>Auto-column</GridCol>
    <GridCol
      :colmun-start="2"
      :row="2"
    >
      Auto-column
    </GridCol>
    <GridCol
      :colmun-start="3"
      :row="3"
    >
      Auto-column
    </GridCol>
  </Grid>
</template>

Gaps

Change the vertical gaps only by modifying the row-gap. Note that we use gap on .grids, but row-gap and column-gap can be modified as needed.

<template>
  <Grid :row-gap="0">
    <GridCol :size="6">
      .g-col-6
    </GridCol>
    <GridCol :size="6">
      .g-col-6
    </GridCol>

    <GridCol :size="6">
      .g-col-6
    </GridCol>
    <GridCol :size="6">
      .g-col-6
    </GridCol>
  </Grid>
</template>

Because of that, you can have different vertical and horizontal gaps, which can take a single value (all sides) or a pair of values (vertical and horizontal). This can be applied with an inline style for gap, or with our --bs-gap CSS variable.

<template>
  <Grid gap=".25rem 1rem">
    <GridCol :size="6">
      .g-col-6
    </GridCol>
    <GridCol :size="6">
      .g-col-6
    </GridCol>

    <GridCol :size="6">
      .g-col-6
    </GridCol>
    <GridCol :size="6">
      .g-col-6
    </GridCol>
  </Grid>
</template>