The Pros and Cons to CSS Frameworks

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There are many pros and cons to using a CSS framework. However there is no short answer as to why you should be uing them, and thus I will go into depth and give you the most objective view possible. I'm going to start of with the pros, what I think realistically you will get out of using a CSS framework.

The Pros

• Provide ready made code – Similar to CSS resets so that you don't have to continuously write the same code over and over again.


• Help you learn CSS – If you starting out, it's impossible to figure out all the tricks and hacks you need to pull off in getting a that multi-column layout perfect. A framework, may be an excellent way to get things going.


• Cross browser compatibility – The bane of every web designer out other. The amount of time you can spend fixing a cross browser disaster thanks to Microsoft can often lead to more time dealt in this department then the actual design and development of the website. Frameworks help with this tremendously!


• Grid based design – Although most frameworks force you to working in a grid, this isn't a bad thing. Working towards a grid helps with readability, visual balance, scanability, and just gives your website that little bit of extra polish!


• Creates good habits – I always aim at adding a print style sheet to all my projects, but because of the rush, I usually never do. Frameworks come with pretty solid print style sheets so you can almost forget about having to add these.


• Documentation – Any framework worth its salt comes with good documentation. Today's designers have it much easier than those of the last decade. When you having some problems with a layout, just thank your lucky stars there's plenty of documentation to help you out, and you didn't have to deal with Internet Explorer 4 & 5!


• Lay the foundation – Frameworks lay a very nice foundation to build and expand your website on. They are very modular, and because of the points mentioned above, it's not a train smash to edit, update and completely change certain aspects of your website.

The Cons

• In order to save time, you need to use the same framework over and over – All frameworks obviously tell you they save you time, otherwise what would be the point of using them. However this is only really true once you start using the framework in more than one project, and come to grips with the intricacies of the framework.


• Changes the way you write your HTML – I've always used wrapper as the main div which wraps everything in my website, however with most frameworks, it's called container according to logical CSS. Yes, it may be petty, but I like the way I write my markup, and don't want to have to do it based on predetermined class and id names in the framework.


• Cause for a lot of bloat – Frameworks are designed to help with many different layouts, and with most websites you are going to stick to predominately one. There is going to be a lot of unused code, and less you very byte conscious and strip it all out!


• Not always semantic – Frameworks can often require you to make use of non-semantic class and id names. To me this is going backwards, and I yes I know even if your website is 100% semantic it doesn't mean it's easy to do a complete redesign. Going this route however makes it much harder, and will require a lot of markup to be changed.