Written by: Jason
Tuesday, July 05, 2011 2:37 PM 

There are so many different factors to consider when designing a website. Screen resolution, browser and browser version can all affect how a website is viewed and need to be considered before the design process can begin.

Thankfully an open source project created by Nathan Smith can really aid the website design process. It’s called the 960 Grid System and was created in “an effort to streamline web development workflow by providing commonly used dimensions, based on a width of 960 pixels.”

There are two main variants: 12 and 16 column templates but a 24 column grid is also available if needed.

Personally I find it really useful as I don’t actually develop the websites I work on. I can use this grid to lay out how I’d like a site to look and the developer can work within those dimensions.

The beauty of the 960 grid system is that it’s available for a wide variety of design/development software. There templates available for Photoshop, Flash, Indesign, QuarkXpress, GIMP and many more. All can be downloaded from http://960.gs/

Additionally if you’d like to test the 960 grid system on any website check out the 960 Gridder at: http://gridder.andreehansson.se/
 

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Tags: 960 grid system , 960 , grid , developers , designers , development , web design , graphic design , tools , photoshop , quarkxpress , flash , illustrator , css , columns , grid tools , prototype

Categories: Design & Media

Location: Blogs Jason Stanley