Web/CSS/Layout cookbook/Grid wrapper

The grid wrapper pattern is useful for aligning grid content within a central wrapper, while also allowing items to break out and align to the edge of the containing element or page when desired.

Requirements

Items placed on the grid should be able to align to a horizontally-centered max-width wrapper and/or the outer edges of the grid.

Recipe

Download this example

Choices made

This recipe uses the CSS Grid minmax() function to define the grid track sizes in the grid-template-columns property. For the central columns with a maximum width we can set a minimum value of 0 or greater and a maximum value that specifies the maximum size the column tracks will grow to. Using a numeric unit (pixels, ems, rems) will create a fixed maximum size for the central wrapper, whereas using percentage values or viewport units will mean this wrapper grows or shrinks in response to its context.

The outer two columns have a maximum size of 1fr, meaning that they will each expand to fill the remaining available space in the grid container.

Useful fallbacks or alternative methods

When using this recipe at page level it can be useful to set a max-width along with left and right auto margins to center the content horizontally:

.grid {
  max-width: 1200px;
  margin: 0 auto; // horizontally centers the container
}

/* Remove the max-width and margins if the browser supports Grid */
@supports (display: grid) {
  .grid {
    display: grid;
    /* Other grid code goes here */
    max-width: none;
    margin: 0;
  }
}

To “break out” a full-width item to the edge of the viewport you can then use this trick (courtesy of Una Kravets):

.item {
  width: 100vw;
  margin-left: 50%;
  transform: translate3d(-50%, 0, 0);
}

This gives a good approximation of the layout, only without the benefit of being able to align items easily on an exact grid.

Accessibility concerns

Although Grid enables us to position items anwhere (within reason), it is important when placing items using CSS Grid that your underlying markup follows a logical order (see CSS Grid layout and accessibility for more details).

Browser compatibility

The various layout methods have different browser support. See the charts below for details on basic support for the properties used.

grid-template-columns

Update compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet
`grid-template-columns`	Chrome Full support 57 Full support 57 Full support 29 Disabled' Disabled' From version 29: this feature is behind the `Enable experimental Web Platform features` preference. To change preferences in Chrome, visit chrome://flags.	Edge Full support 16 Full support 16 No support 12 — 79 Alternate Name' Alternate Name' Uses the non-standard name: `-ms-grid-rows`	Firefox Full support 52 Full support 52 No support 40 — 59 Disabled' Disabled' From version 40 until version 59 (exclusive): this feature is behind the `layout.css.grid.enabled` preference (needs to be set to `true`). To change preferences in Firefox, visit about:config.	IE Full support 10 Alternate Name' Full support 10 Alternate Name' Alternate Name' Uses the non-standard name: `-ms-grid-columns`	Opera Full support 44 Full support 44 Full support 28 Disabled' Disabled' From version 28: this feature is behind the `Enable experimental Web Platform features` preference.	Safari Full support 10.1	WebView Android Full support 57	Chrome Android Full support 57 Full support 57 Full support 29 Disabled' Disabled' From version 29: this feature is behind the `Enable experimental Web Platform features` preference. To change preferences in Chrome, visit chrome://flags.	Firefox Android Full support 52 Full support 52 No support 40 — 59 Disabled' Disabled' From version 40 until version 59 (exclusive): this feature is behind the `layout.css.grid.enabled` preference (needs to be set to `true`). To change preferences in Firefox, visit about:config.	Opera Android Full support 43 Full support 43 Full support 28 Disabled' Disabled' From version 28: this feature is behind the `Enable experimental Web Platform features` preference.	Safari iOS Full support 10.3	Samsung Internet Android Full support 6.0
Animation of tracks	Chrome No support No	Edge No support No	Firefox Full support 66	IE No support No	Opera No support No	Safari No support No	WebView Android No support No	Chrome Android No support No	Firefox Android Full support 66	Opera Android No support No	Safari iOS No support No	Samsung Internet Android No support No
`fit-content()`	Chrome Full support 29	Edge Full support 16	Firefox Full support 51	IE No support No	Opera Full support 44	Safari Full support 10.1	WebView Android Full support 57	Chrome Android Full support 57	Firefox Android Full support 51	Opera Android Full support 43	Safari iOS Full support 10.3	Samsung Internet Android Full support 6.0
`minmax()`	Chrome Full support 57 Full support 57 Full support 29 Disabled' Disabled' From version 29: this feature is behind the `Enable experimental Web Platform features` preference. To change preferences in Chrome, visit chrome://flags.	Edge Full support 16	Firefox Full support 52 Full support 52 No support 40 — 59 Disabled' Disabled' From version 40 until version 59 (exclusive): this feature is behind the `layout.css.grid.enabled` preference (needs to be set to `true`). To change preferences in Firefox, visit about:config.	IE No support No	Opera Full support 44 Full support 44 Full support 28 Disabled' Disabled' From version 28: this feature is behind the `Enable experimental Web Platform features` preference.	Safari Full support 10.1	WebView Android Full support 57	Chrome Android Full support 57 Full support 57 Full support 29 Disabled' Disabled' From version 29: this feature is behind the `Enable experimental Web Platform features` preference. To change preferences in Chrome, visit chrome://flags.	Firefox Android Full support 52 Full support 52 No support 40 — 59 Disabled' Disabled' From version 40 until version 59 (exclusive): this feature is behind the `layout.css.grid.enabled` preference (needs to be set to `true`). To change preferences in Firefox, visit about:config.	Opera Android Full support 43 Full support 43 Full support 28 Disabled' Disabled' From version 28: this feature is behind the `Enable experimental Web Platform features` preference.	Safari iOS Full support 10.3	Samsung Internet Android Full support 6.0
`repeat()`	Chrome Full support 57 Full support 57 Full support 38 Disabled' Disabled' From version 38: this feature is behind the `Enable experimental Web Platform features` preference. To change preferences in Chrome, visit chrome://flags.	Edge Full support 16	Firefox Partial support 57 Notes' Partial support 57 Notes' Notes' `repeat(auto-fill, ...)` and `repeat(auto-fit, ...)` only support one repeated column (see bug 1341507). No support 52 — 57 Notes' Notes' `calc()` doesn't work in `repeat()` (see bug 1350069). No support 40 — 59 Disabled' Disabled' From version 40 until version 59 (exclusive): this feature is behind the `layout.css.grid.enabled` preference (needs to be set to `true`). To change preferences in Firefox, visit about:config.	IE No support No	Opera Full support 44 Full support 44 Full support 28 Disabled' Disabled' From version 28: this feature is behind the `Enable experimental Web Platform features` preference.	Safari Full support 10.1	WebView Android Full support 57	Chrome Android Full support 57 Full support 57 Full support 38 Disabled' Disabled' From version 38: this feature is behind the `Enable experimental Web Platform features` preference. To change preferences in Chrome, visit chrome://flags.	Firefox Android Full support 52 Full support 52 No support 40 — 59 Disabled' Disabled' From version 40 until version 59 (exclusive): this feature is behind the `layout.css.grid.enabled` preference (needs to be set to `true`). To change preferences in Firefox, visit about:config.	Opera Android Full support 43 Full support 43 Full support 28 Disabled' Disabled' From version 28: this feature is behind the `Enable experimental Web Platform features` preference.	Safari iOS Full support 10.3	Samsung Internet Android Full support 6.0
`subgrid`	Chrome No support No	Edge No support No	Firefox Full support 71 Full support 71 Full support 69 Notes' Disabled' Notes' Enabled by default in Firefox Nightly. Disabled' From version 69: this feature is behind the `layout.css.grid-template-subgrid-value.enabled` preference (needs to be set to `true`). To change preferences in Firefox, visit about:config.	IE No support No	Opera No support No	Safari No support No	WebView Android No support No	Chrome Android No support No	Firefox Android No support No	Opera Android No support No	Safari iOS No support No	Samsung Internet Android No support No

Legend

Full support: Full support
Partial support: Partial support
No support: No support
See implementation notes.': See implementation notes.
User must explicitly enable this feature.': User must explicitly enable this feature.
Uses a non-standard name.': Uses a non-standard name.