This page is a demonstration of the elements that can be formatted using Simple.css. Each section includes a code block on how to include it in your site’s design.

This may be a little basic for some people, but I wanted the barrier for entry to be as low as possible for this project.

Basic Typography

All the typography of Simple.css uses rem for sizing. This means that accessibility is maintained for those who change their browser font size. The body element has a size of 1.15rem which makes all the standard font sizes slightly larger. This equates to 18.4px for paragraph text, instead of the standard 16px.

The heading elements also have an increased top margin in order to break blocks of text up better.

Heading 1 `3rem`

Heading 2 `2.6rem`

Heading 3 `2rem`

Heading 4 `1.44rem`

Heading 5 `1.15rem`

Heading 6 `0.96rem`

<h2>This is a H2 header<h2>

<p>This is some paragraph text.</p>

Links & Buttons

Links are formatted very simply on Simple.css (shock horror). They use the accent CSS variable and are underlined. There is a :hover effect that removes the underline.

Buttons use the same accent CSS variable for their colour. When hovering, there is an opacity effect.

I’m a hyperlink

I’m a button

I’m a button with a link

<a href="https://example.com">I'm a hyperlink</a>

<button>I'm a button</button>

<a href="https://example.com"><button>I'm a button with a link</button></a>

Other typography elements

There are a number of other typography elements that you can use with Simple.css. Some of the common ones are:

All the standard stuff, like bold, italic and underlined text.
Highlighting text using the mark element.
Adding inline code using the code element.
Displaying keyboard commands like ALT+F4 using the kbd element.

Bold text Italic text Underlined text Highlighted text Inline code Alt+F4

Lists

We all love a good list, right? I know my wife does!

Item 1
Item 2
Item 3

Do this thing
Do that thing
Do the other thing

Bulleted list
- Item 1
- Item 2
- Item 3
Numbered list
1. Do this thing
2. Do that thing
3. Do the other thing

Blockquotes

Sometimes you may want to quote someone else in your HTML. For this we use the blockquote element. Here’s what a quote looks like with Simple.css:

Friends don’t spy; true friendship is about privacy, too.

– Stephen King

<blockquote>
  <p>Friends don’t spy; true friendship is about privacy, too.</p>
  <p><cite>– Stephen King</cite></p>
</blockquote>

Code blocks

Code blocks are different from the inline code element. Code blocks are used when you want to display a block of code, like this:

body {
  color: var(--text);
  background: var(--bg);
  font-size: 1.15rem;
  line-height: 1.5;
  margin: 0;
}


<pre>
<code>
  body {
    color: var(--text);
    background: var(--bg);
    font-size: 1.15rem;
    line-height: 1.5;
    margin: 0;
  }
</code>
</pre>

Other HTML elements

There are other HTML elements that are formatted in Simple.css. If you think there should be more added, please log an issue on Github

Aside

Aside

This is an aside, it floats to the right and stands out slightly.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

<aside>
<p>Your aside content goes here.</p>
</aside>

Article

This is an article

<article>
<h2>This is an article</h2>
<p>Some content will go here, which will be inside your article.</p>
</article>

Section

Sections are good for splitting up a page into multiple…sections. 🙃

This is a section

<section>
<h2>This is a section</h2>
<p>Some content will go here, which will be inside your section.</p>
</section>

The nav menu is deliberately designed to be extremely simple so that you can improve on it as you see fit. Or, just leave it as is to have a good looking, functional navigation menu.

Navigation menus inside the header are automatically formatted like the one on this site. If you decide to put a nav menu elsewhere on your site, for example in a post for a table of contents, no formatting is applied. This is so you can add your own formatting as you see fit.

There’s no JavaScript or checkbox CSS hacks here. It’s just a collection of simple “buttons” that wrap to the given width of the page:

Home About Blog Notes Contact

The nav menu will also adapt to smaller screens automatically so that it doesn’t take up too much space.

To add a nav menu, just add the following to the <header> section of your site:

<nav>
  <a href="/">Home</a>
  <a href="/about">About</a>
  <a href="/blog">Blog</a>
  <a href="/notes">Notes</a>
  <a href="/guestbook">Guestbook</a>
  <a href="/contact">Contact</a>
</nav>

Images

In Simple.css, images within the main element are always full width and have rounded edges to them. The figcaption element is also formatted in Simple.css. Here are examples of images with and without a caption:

A dog at an iPad

This is a black swan

# Standard image
<img alt="A dog on an iPad" src="https://simplecss.org/assets/images/dog-ipad.jpg" />

# Image with a caption
<figure>
  <img alt="This is a black swan" src="https://simplecss.org/assets/images/goose.jpg" />
  <figcaption>This is a black swan</figcaption>
</figure>

Accordions

Accordions are cool to play with. They’re especially useful when it comes to things like FAQ pages. Many people invoke JavaScript, or div for life when they use accordions. I don’t really understand why that is when it’s available in plain old HTML:

Spoiler alert!

You smell. 🙂

<details>
  <summary>Spoiler alert!</summary>
  <p>You smell. 🙂</p>
</details>

Tables

Like lists, sometimes you may need to add a table to your webpage. In Simple.css tables automatically highlight every other row to make reading easier. Table header text is also bold. Here’s what they look like:

Name

Number

Jackie

012345

Lucy

112346

David

493029

Kerry

395499

Steve

002458

<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th>Name</th>
      <th>Number</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>Jackie</td>
      <td>012345</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Lucy</td>
      <td>112346</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>David</td>
      <td>493029</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Kerry</td>
      <td>395499</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Steve</td>
      <td>002458</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

Forms

Forms are useful for all kinds of things on webpages. Contact forms, newsletter sign ups etc. Forms also look pretty good on Simple.css:

This is just a test form. It doesn't do anything.

Title Mr Miss Mrs Other

First name

Surname

Enquiry type: Sales Support Billing

Message

Choose a car: Volvo Saab Opel Audi

I agree to the terms and conditions

Send Reset Disabled

<form>
  <p><strong>This is just a test form. It doesn't do anything.</strong></p>

  <p><select>
    <option selected="selected" value="1">Title</option>
    <option value="2">Mr</option>
    <option value="3">Miss</option>
    <option value="4">Mrs</option>
    <option value="5">Other</option>
  </select></p>

  <p>
  <label>First name</label>
  <input type="text" name="first_name">
  </p>

  <p>
  <label>Surname</label>
  <input type="text" name="surname">
  </p>

  <p>
  <label>Email</label>
  <input type="email" name="email" required="">
  </p>

  <p>
  <label>Enquiry type:</label>
  <label><input checked="checked" name="type" type="radio" value="sales" /> Sales</label> 
  <label><input name="type" type="radio" value="support" /> Support</label> 
  <label><input name="type" type="radio" value="billing" /> Billing</label>
  </p>

  <p>
  <label>Message</label>
  <textarea rows="6"></textarea>
  </p>

  <p>
  <label>
  <input type="checkbox" id="checkbox" value="terms">
  I agree to the <a href="#">terms and conditions</a>
  </label>
  </p>

  <button>Send</button>
  <button type="reset">Reset</button>
  <button disabled="disabled">Disabled</button>
</form>