Blueprint: 54548, 6118, 1558, 1217
Posted on August 06, 2007. 21 comments.
I’m tempted to ask you all if you can explain to me what just happened? I had no idea that this inconsequential experiment of a project could generate the following:
- Visitors to the Blueprint site: 54 548
- Downloads so far: 6 118
- Del.icio.us bookmarks: 1 558
- Number of diggs: 1 217
- Average Digg comment opinion: Furiously offended
- Support requests curve: Exponential
- Giddiness level: Crimson red
So what does this tell us?
Blueprint is an unknown, untested and unused framework from an unknown guy launched from a highly irregular blog. This should make it quite clear that the craving for a proper designers framework almost couldn’t be greater.
As Blueprint is just a light breeze of a project, this gap in the market is a vacuum waiting to be filled. This sucks, as most vacuums do, so if anyone reading this is considering releasing their own framework or toolbox, please do so.
Just imagine what a project like BP on a greater scale can accomplish, if an experiment like this, with absolutely no merits or pre-launch hype, can gain this kind of traction.
Our new home
As a result of this unexpected surge in traffic, I’ve moved the entire project to Google Code.
This is not just because they’ll host the BP download for free (my available gigabytes from MediaTemple were quickly disappearing though), but also because Google Code is a great place for almost any project.
With a wiki, issue tracking and SVN hosting, this new arrangement should make future development of BP a great experience for all of us.
(It’ll also be interesting to see if I can actually get someone to contribute their ideas and patches to this project. Does anyone want to create a logo? ;)
Feature requests
I’ve jotted down some of the most popular feature requests, which, with time, will hopefully make their way into BP:
- Relative font sizing everywhere
- Multiple versions with different grid customizations
- Liquid layout version
- Compressed versions of the files to reduce load times
About the credits
It’s important to me that people remember that this framework was not written from scratch. The whole idea and code structure, for the entire project, including the entire way of setting up the grid, is based on something I consider to be great, nay, amazing work by the following people:
Also, the entire reset.css file was created by Eric Meyer, so make sure your praises are directed at the right people. :)
Please check out the rest of the credits at the new BP site.
Stay tuned
I have close to no control over what this project is spiraling into, so please excuse me if your mail or comments go unheard.
What I can promise you, is that blog posts and updates about BP will be frequent, in an effort to stagger the avalanche of support mails currently consuming my spare time.
(Also, the award for the coolest language to write about BP in goes to Dimox, with this entry)
21 comments
Allan Sun says:
It’s not supprised to see that your ’ unknown, untested and unused’ CSS framework attracked so much attention in such a short time. It’s been Del.icio.used and Digged and referenced by couple of famouse bloggers. Web 2.0 again prooved the power of network.
To be honest I think the most successful part of BluePrint is that you actually called it a ‘CSS Framework’. Nobody else did such thing before, and actually it’s what people expects to have.
I had a try today with the framework. Biggest problem I had is to change the properties. It’s not that easy to change the container/ column width. It’s understandable that CSS is not a programming language, however such with CSS Framework, some more detailed ‘in-code-description’ or ‘pre-defined-for-customization-code’ would be very handy.
Olav says:
@Allan: Yeah, I suppose you should never underestimate the power of buzzwords. And, again, yeah, the documentation is lacking.
Blaze says:
Actually, the Del.ico.us bookmark-count is higher.
http://del.icio.us/url/849626bf7eebdee705113943593b67c7
Olav says:
Thanks, I hadn’t seen that one.
Andrew Klein says:
I just downloaded blueprint, from a non-code heavy graphic designer’s standpoint, this is a great idea!
The biggest problem I have when using css is i feel like there are a number of ways to do the same thing, and not having a background in web development ( I have a degree in art) I end up making mostly arbitrary choices which sometimes end up bad.
A thourougly commented all-purpose framework, that might someday be tested and fully compliant…I can’t wait!!!
-Andrew Klein
p.s. what do you need a logo for?
Darren says:
So far the project is doing quite well. I like it and I can understand the problems with such a project but I think it’s already at a nice usable standard. From now on it can only improve right?
Oliver says:
@Olav: I’d be happy to design a logo for the project, I mean I’m no Jon Hicks…
If you send me an e-mail with any ideas you’ve had I’ll start working on a design.
Jared Christensen says:
I was one of the 6,118 downloads. It looks great. The grid reminds me a lot of table days but it is about all you can do until CSS3 is supported.
Great work!
g-man says:
Nice concept!
I’m just learning CSS now, but I’ve been doing Ruby/Rails for about a year and a half now, so this is helping me quite a bit.
My questions:
What does ‘baseline.png’ do?
Shouldn’t we control ‘body’ as the master container?
Thanks
Travis Fleck says:
Nice work Olav. Sounds like there is a lot of support and there definitely will be a lot of testing/use. Take a look at this for an IE 5&6 png transparency fix. It may be something to fold into the framework.
http://dean.edwards.name/IE7/
Alan Burke says:
I’ve had the notion of building something like this for a while, as use it as the basis for a Drupal theme.
Integrating http://dean.edwards.name/IE7/ is a fantastic idea, as it would allow for consistent used of advanced CSS.
Well done, great work
Nick Cowie says:
Thanks for this. Like a few people, I have also being developing my own personal CSS framework for my projects. It is good to see you take that concept and put it out there for everybody to see and if the want use.
Gordon Brander says:
This is really cool Olav! I released a similar project about a month ago (gordonbrander.com/taffy-framework)- basically a simple framework I’ve been honing and adding to for my own use. However, I’d love to be a part of this project and lend a hand wherever needed.
I really like your take on the grid BTW.
Mozeltov!
Joseph Hsu says:
Hey, great job with it.
I am using now in my wordpress theme.
Deamer says:
Hello,
Love the framework!
I just tought of something that could be a nice addition, why not make a .php file and link to it with some params like so:
And the phpfile would create the grid classes accordingly.
And of course you could also minimize (remove comments & whitespace), merge the different files, chache it and gzip it all for performance.
Just a tought :-)
Deamer says:
Uhm, what i meant was that you’d link to the .php file and in the querystring supply the desired width of your layout, and how many columns there should be and if it should be centered.
Jeff Croft says:
Re: PHP suggestion….
PLEASE NO! Many of us don’t have PHP installed on our servers and don’t want it. A CSS framework should definitely not have a requirement for any backend technology.
Also, the idea of querystrings for something like that bugs me a lot, too. I really don’t like the idea that a user could change the layout of my site that easily (by changing the values in the query strings). And besides, query strings are ugly. :)
Internet Marketing Consulting Services says:
The biggest problem I have when using css is i feel like there are a number of ways to do the same thing, and not having a background in web development ( I have a degree in art) I end up making mostly arbitrary choices which sometimes end up bad.
hekimboard says:
Yeah, I suppose you should never underestimate the power of buzzwords.
ipod accessories says:
i love the updates!
oto kiralama says:
@Mary-Ann: No, you should just use other CSS files as you usually apply CSS. It’s easier to upgrade if you never change anything in the Blueprint directory.
@Anthony: You mean by specifying/hacking in how the files gets applied in a blueprint.css file? I think the HTML method is more correct, but having one file would be very nice indeed.
@Lim: The top-level files are compressed - the print.css and ie.css in the src folder are uncompressed. I fear a lot of people will find this confusing - any ideas? :)